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Media Players for Windows Without DRM?
jasonmicron asks: "I am curious as to what you Linux/UNIX people use for a media player that supports both license lookup on the internet and DVD Playback support. I am quite sick of Microsoft's media player telling me that my 'license is invalid', even on DVDs that I own. I find that VERY lame. I ask because not only does Microsoft tell me that my license is invalid but Real Network's Real Player tells me the same thing (even though I place my totally VALID and self-owned DVD in my DVD-ROM player in my DVD-ROM, which runs on Windows). What media players does Slashdot recommend to bypass the total ignorance of Microsoft and Real Networks? I am looking for a Windows solution, though any Linux / UNIX solution is completely welcome."
Mplayer is available for a multitude of platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X, and *nix. In fact my girlfriend uses mplayer and mplayer only on her Mac OS X due to Quicktime being unable to play a large amount of movies.
Of course if you want dvd playback you will need libdvdcss, libdvdread, etc.
Get mplayer here.
VLC is a great, cross platform media player. I run it on Windows and it works well - it actually performs better than WinDVD on my laptop. It will play a number of file formats as well. I think it is also open source.
Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein
Good media players: ZoomPlayer (for DVD playback is not free) or MPC (is, but less pretty). use Dscaler5 and ffdshow and you're set. oh, add something like DVD43 for de-CSS and other bullshit removal. I use this on my HTPC and with some careful setup its the bees knees. Certainly nothing complains about piracy here :D. Glad to be of service.
This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.
Get on the Linux bandwagon, man!
Wonder what the public key field is for?
http://videolan.org/
A player and oh so much more.
Also, next time try Google. Really.
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Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
Mplayer - Distibuted as MPF on windows, it's not _that_ user friendly, but it plays everything under the sun.
MediaPlayerClassic - Hosted at sourceforge, this recreates the WMP 6 UI and has pretty solid playback. Friendlier than Mplayer, but a tad less solid video playback.
VLC - yup the one and truly. Not too user friendly.
I use and recommend to everyone the K-Lite Codec Pack for all your Windows Media needs.
Along with everything else, the Mega Codec Pack includes "Windows Media Player Classic" which despite the name isn't anything to do with Microsoft, though it does clone the interface of Media Player version 6.
I carry the Mega Codec pack around with me on a USB Stick, you can install just one thing or you can install everything. Media Player Classic has built in support for a lot of things (I think including DVD Playback) so I'm sure it'll fit your needs exactly. If it doesn't by itself, the Mega Codec Pack includes plugins for just about any codec you'd ever need, including a DVD Decoder.
I really can't recommend the family of K-Lite codec packs enough, especially the Mega becasue you don't need to install Real Player or Quicktime anymore! It'll install cut down versions of them that have just the bare bones dll's, enough for MPC to play Quicktime/Real clips without needing all the bloat those programs bring on their own.
Give the site a look over, I'm sure it's probably what you're looking for. The Mega pack might be overkill for you, but Media Player Classic I think suits the bill perfectly.
Tim
[Sorry for the double post, I accidently posted this without being logged in. Duh]
not sure about that one, but codec packs are a pretty bad idea, they can install so much crap it'll take hours to work out what happened when something goes wrong with filter merits etc leading often to windows reinstalls. also, they're pretty pointless when ffdshow plays almost everything. i agree that MPC is good though, and it includes a lot of its own splitters so you don't need to install much else. :D).
i think no (free) player includes DVD playback as MPEG2 decoding needs a license (or some part of it, but some open source apps seem to get around it
This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.
I use winamp for music, and a lot of the time I just use it for videos, too.
Maybe it's due to region encoding mismatch between the disc and the drive.
Maybe it's due to something having gotten corrupt with the poster's registry or DLL files.
Maybe it's due to a failing DVD-ROM drive.
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
Your time-limited DVD playback software has probably expired.
Media Player by itself will not display 'license is invalid' message for normal DVD playback.
You just need to buy a new DVD decoder.
NVidia PureVideo Decoder or WinDVD are some of the best around.
Weird, it does not include the best codec out there (hmm, well, imho):
Lagarith. Dunno why, it's a free codec.
you mean you can play dvds in other media players than videolan?
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
I don't know about windows reinstalls just for a codec pack?
I'd used some terrible codec packs before K-Lite and some of them did mess up pretty bad and that's why I praise this one so highly, it's never given me any grief. The few times I have uninstalled it, it's removed everything cleanly.
You're right in that installing all those codecs is really overkill, but don't forget that installing this codec pack also allows you to *encode* as well as decode, something neither MPC or ffdshow will do. As I understand it you also get the visual quality benefit of each seperate decoder, as opposed to ffdshow that just decodes them all as mpeg4. Fro Joe average that's probably not a concern either.
You're right that the DVD Decoder in K-Lite isn't legal, something I probably should have pointed out in my original post.
Tim
I almost always use Power DVD, which I would never buy (a tad buggy) but which came free with my DVD drive.
Probably because there's little content (at least in the wider public) in that format?
I'd never heard of it until you mentioned it.
I'm not sure what the entry criteria is for a codec to make it in though, because there's quite a few in it already I've not really heard or ever needed.
nt
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
After all, if it was true DRM, switching to another player wouldn't make a damn bit of difference. If the content was locked and encoded with DRM technology.
Nope, instead the parent post is most certainly right. WMP9/10 will not prevent you via any DRM mechanism from watching a DVD. The DRM technology is for downloaded and locked content. Examples of such content? I don't really know of any. It's one of those things they spent a lot of money to build but no market for it yet.
The error message you are getting, and the fact you get the same message via WMP and RealPlayer is likely because they both are using the same CODEC for DVD data. The CODEC has expired. Remeber, by default Windows out of the box (Excluding Plus+ Pack) can't play DVDs. So you had to install something to make it work (unless the OEM pre-installed something) and that something appears to have been a trial only.
But, it is funny how well trained you are to immediately think DRM/MS conspiracy to prevent you from playing your legitimatly own DVDs. Shows the OpenSource FUD is working.
It wont be long now until Microsoft^h^h^h^$oft is groveling at the feet of the supreme GNU council begging for a seat at the table...
Oh how they'll pay....
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
Thats why codec packs that I've used always go in /usr/local/lib/win32
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
Real Network's Real Player tells me the same thing (even though I place my totally VALID and self-owned DVD in my DVD-ROM player in my DVD-ROM, which runs on Windows).
I had this problem with NFL direct. Enable cookies and your content should play. The new Real Player now defaults to secure mode (no cookies) which I appreciate. Works under Linux and Win32.
Enjoy,
It's just the normal noises in here.
media player classic and klite codec pack or just VLC
not real hard to use Google
---- Put Sig here:
Well, checking the grammAr would be a nice thing, yes.
IIRC, VideoLan plays back DVD's out of the box. MPEG2 is only licensed in countries where software patents are valid, VideoLan is developed in France which I believe does not have them, ergo, free and legal.
I am NaN
I have a huge collection of DVDs myself, some are legit and some are not. I also have home movies on DVD. I have never, ever been informed that my license is invalid (except for when I've downloaded pr0n with the spyware "license" embedded. Are you sure this isn't what's happening with you *wink wink*?) for any of them, including the backup DVDs I've made for "archival purposes". WMP is still the best media player around for the money (i.e., free), and it exceeds my expectations in nearly every area of operation. Don't get me wrong, it definitely has it's low points, like confusing library options and DRM options that have always and will always suck, but for the most part, it works great for me.
End of Line.
Nobody checks *anything* on /. The articles are only there to set the topic of the threads. What did you think this site was? A news site or something? :-D
Just checking.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Once he finds the Mandriva Control Centre in the menus (AKA "Configure this computer"), problem solved.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
- VLC plays movies that you're currently downloading, - VLC plays fragmented files (i.e. 30% completed torrent downloads), - Quicktime files, DVDs, SVCDs, VCDs, even music files There have only been 1-2 files that I wasn't able to play with VLC, and even then the audio still played (which wasn't sufficient but shows that the software tried anyway). I never download any other player anymore, this one has all the codecs and capabilities.
your informative spurred me to reply ;)
ffdshow is now an encoder aswell, and handles audio. it's come a long way.
This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.
Well I stand corrected, thanks for pointing that out.
I'll hae to investigate ffdshow a bit more, see if it will replace my current use of K-Lite.
I doubt it, but we'll see!
Tim
I promise you, I have no spyware on my system.
Possible, but it seems to happen mainly with Paramount DVDs. Any Enterprise DVD placed in my drive gives me this error as does any movie made by Paramount. It does happen with other publishers from time to time.
FFDShow can't do Quicktime, RealMedia or WMV, but it can decode pretty much all types of MPEG. If you're looking for another codec pack, steer clear of almost all, including K-Lite. K-Lite is just a bundler - it doesn't change the default settings or anything, so nothing works together. It's also got a lot of stuff you will never need, & more that's redundant.
Personally I like this one: the Combined Community Codec Pack. It's made by a bunch of anime fansubbers, so they know what they're doing, but it's not anime-only. You need to install separate codecs for Quicktime, RealMedia, & WMV, but once they're installed (just install the players) it'll play back anything you throw at it. It's the only codec pack I know of that'll do that; all the others mess with your system & fail sporadically. K-Lite doesn't screw up the system any more, so it's one of the best, but it's still just a bundle of unconfigured pieces rather than an integrated whole.
I wish I could find a cross between K-Lite & the CCCP... basically I want the CCCP to include the Quicktime etc. codecs. That's the only advantage K-Lite has over the CCCP. You could theoretically use K-Lite first to install just those codecs then put the CCCP over the top to get the proper configuration it gives.
Yar.