DVD Player

[dilson]

We have a Vaio PCG-FX105K and recently upgraded to Windows XP and since cannot read DVD's anymore.

We have tried to download patches or drivers from the vaio link website but could not find any mention of a DVD driver.

The hardware operates normally as a CD Rom for data or music.

It shows as a Hitachi DVD player on the set up but that's all.

We also get a message from the DVD playing software which says " Playback failed due to a problem with the video subsystem. Lowering your screeen resolution o color depth may fix the problem."

Ww have tried that but no good either.

Please help.....

Thanks

[TygerTyger]

I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark here and guess that you are testing the drive with a DVD movie rather than a data DVD, and that the DVD can be recognise but not played?

Wild stab part 2 is that this is a codec problem. A video codec if you didn't know, is a small piece of software a bit like a driver that decodes video information so it can be displayed on your screen. My guess would be that you don't have ones new enough for XP.

I'm hoping someone else will help out here, because I don't have any experience with codecs for videos running off of a DVD drive, just the HD. I'm sure I could guess but I'm not going to.

Try testing your drive with a data DVD, and see if it can read that. It would more or less confirm the problem/solution.

[kee-lo_]

Try reinstalling WinDVD

[robpaxton]

Also see http://player.interactual.com/help/support/articles/0111.asp if reinstalling WinDVD doesn't work (It should though )

[dilson]

Thanks for the replies.

I believe our problem is the lack of windvd on our vaio. However I do not have the CD's Sony supplies in the box, as we have recently moved to Brazil and left some stuff back in England.

How can I get WinDVD without having to buy it? Any clues?

[brun]

I have a similar problem with a vaio PCG FR215H and the internal toshiba SD-R6012 DVD writer. check out this discussion on cd-freaks
This is appearantly a common problem. Toshiba and Sony have a firmware update from august 2003 that I haven't tried yet but obviously others updated the firmware before me and failed.