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."

Comments

Mplayer32

[Omniscientist]

The 32 bit binary of mplayer will be all that you need. The 64 bit version of mplayer will lack some important windows/quicktime codecs, but you probably aren't worried about that.

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.

Re:Mplayer32

[Blakey Rat]

FYI, mplayer on OS X has a really, really bad user interface. You can tell it was a port, and a poorly-done port at that... it took me probably a half hour to figure out how to quit. See, instead of the one Dock icon every OS X program gets, mplayer for some reason has two Dock icons... one of which works (has quit, minimize, etc) and one of which appears to do nothing at all. If you click in the movie window, (the nonfunctional Dock icon) you can't quit the program, use any services, or do anything at all because there's no menu.

In short, if you like a smooth user experience, avoid mplayer, at least on OS X. VLC is much, much better and plays DVDs like a champ.

VLC

[Omega1045]

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.

Re:VLC

[wed128]

The best part is it comes with most codecs built in... installing codecs on most players is such a pain in the ass!

Re:VLC

[FidelCatsro]

http://download.videolan.org/pub/libdvdcss/1.2.9/
Don't forget libdvdcss ,vital for playing DVDs on linux . *WARNING* may be illegal in the USA ,

here's what i use

[real_smiff]

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.

VideoLan Client

[mike_lynn]

http://videolan.org/

A player and oh so much more.

Also, next time try Google. Really.

Overkill

[c0d3h4x0r]

Dear Slashdot,

The lightswitch in my bedroom stopped working, so I'm wondering what other types of housing options might work for me. Should I switch to living in a cave, a hut, or a bamboo shack? Or should I just bulldoze my entire home and rebuild a new on in its place? Please help as I am desperate to get my lightswitch working again. Thanks.

- L. Oozer

Re:Overkill

[thegrassyknowl]

It sounds like a CODEC problem to me, since both players are having that problem. I would guess that even if he installs another media player, he'll have the same problem.

It sounds like a Spyware problem to me. Real and Windows Media Player all talk back to their creator every time you play a file. You can turn it off, but tcpdump on my router shows otherwise. They can get fscked for all I care. I don't particularly want M$ or Real knowing my viewing habbits.

This has nothing to do with a broken light switch and living in a cave. Real and windows media player are the worst two players in existance. I think this is more about coming out of a cave and finally finding a program that can play many more media types and can handle partial (still downloading) and corrupted (bit rot on my CDRs) files with style and grace. I know Windows Media Player takes out the OS when you give it a file with some errors and ask it to play full screen. At least mplayer just detects the errors and exits gracefully!

3 key options.

[AkaXakA]

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.

Check Out The K-Lite Codec Pack

[BusDriver]

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]

Winamp

[Creos073]

I use winamp for music, and a lot of the time I just use it for videos, too.

Re:Why is license seen as invalid by WMP?

[c0d3h4x0r]

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.

Most like its not DRM

[Utopia]

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.

Re:Most like its not DRM

[rmjohnso]

I think the parent commentor is on the right track here. Windows Media Player and Real Player CANNOT natively decode DVDs. They require a licensed decoder in the background. WMP and RP just are different looks to the same decoder.

For example, you can install WinDVD and have WMP or RP use the WinDVD decoding to play back DVDs. I'm not sure why anyone would want to do this, but that's just me. Remember, you USUALLY have to pay for a decoder, so the software maker can pay the monolithic MPAA for the CSS keys.

As for Linux programs, see the other comments about MPlayer, VLC, Xine, etc.

videolan

[mnmn]

you mean you can play dvds in other media players than videolan?

Re:Check Out The K-Lite Codec Pack

[BusDriver]

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

This is NOT DRM

[malakai]

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....

Real Player

[NullProg]

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,

get a clue!

[bonezed]

media player classic and klite codec pack or just VLC

not real hard to use Google