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.

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.

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]

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.

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!