Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because there is a problem with digital copy protection between your DVD drive, decoder, and video card. Try installing an updated driver for your video card.

Anonymous
2009-06-20T14:51:43+00:00

I am having difficulty watching DVD on Windows Media Player Inspiron Dell Laptop.  I get so far into the dvd and then the playback stops and the CD/DVD drive starts making a noise that sounds like the DVD is either stuck or catching, this has happened a couple of times burning CD's to itunes.  I can eject the DVD and when I do I get the following error message

Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because there is a problem with digital copy protection between your DVD drive, decoder, and video card. Try installing an updated driver for your video card.

I.ve used the windows web help, I've downloaded the latest driver from Dell (nVidia) which is also the advice given on one the forum pages but still getting the same problem. I've also downloaded the Windows Automatic Fix application but this has not resolved it either.  I am using Windows Vista.

Can you help!!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2009-06-21T02:01:15+00:00

Hi Dansue,

Thank you for posting on the forum.

Sounds like you’re CD\DVD drive is starting to fail. Check with Dell to see if they have an updated firmware and Driver for your CD\DVD drive.  Uninstall the current driver that windows is using and install the updated one.  If you’re still hearing that catching sound, then it’s more likely that you’re CD\DVD drive needs to be changed.

Hope that helps, please post back and let us know.

JohnD

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-10-18T15:19:26+00:00

    Did you try VLC?  There are some other "techy" answers that might work, too...

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-10-18T15:13:17+00:00

    hey none of these comments product a solution for me as i do not have a Dell, my PC was built for me and has a DVD drive that is samsung and is upto date. the video card is up to date also i have all the nessicary drivers and software but after playing the advertisement this DVD movie and all my dvd movies don't play on my PC. this is very annoying and i have never come across this problem before i started using Windows 7.

    "Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because there is a problem with digital copy protection between your DVD drive, decoder, and video card. Try installing an updated driver for your video card."

    please tell me what i can do as i love watching the movies i paid good money for. this is very wrong and i want a solution right now.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-08-26T03:17:32+00:00

    I just installed the VLC media player and the new DVD now plays just fine on my old desktop.  Be careful!!!  Even though VLC media player is a free download, you'll also get a lot of junk downloaded to your PC as well.  When you download VLC IMMEDIATELY cancel the 6, or so, other downloads.  It took me an hour to remove these apps from my PC.

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-08-26T02:05:23+00:00

    I, too, have the same problem.  I'm using a 5 year old hp desktop that was originally Windows Vista.  Thanks to a virus, one year ago, I had the computer sterilized and installed Windows 7.  I've tried playing 2 different DVDs of  "RV", with Robin Williams, with no luck.  I put the 2nd DVD on my new (Aug 2011) Acer Aspire laptop PC with Windows 7.  Same results.  However, the Acer gave me a choice of "viewing areas".  I was using "free".  I switched to "USA Canada" and viola! the DVD functioned.  I also viewed a notice saying that I could only switch "viewing areas" 5 times.  I pulled the "RV" DVD and put in an old DVD that I had on hand.  It worked just fine.  I put "RV" back in and it works just fine.  If I can figure out how to get my desktop computer to work with the newer DVDs I'll let you know.

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