DVD issue (mediadirect)

Now this isn't really an issue anymore but I'm going to post it anyway so that others can help me explain it. This will help bot only me but anyone who reads this thread.

A couple months ago not long after getting my laptop (an Inspiron E1405) I tried to watch a DVD on Mediadirect and it just hung on a black screen until I stopped it at which point it said "error" in the upper right corner of the screen. This was strange since I had been able to play other DVDs, including one from the same "set" as the one that hadn't worked. After getting the message I booted Windows and tried to play it from there and it said that it couldn't because the DVD codec had malfunctioned or wasn't installed(at the time I didn't know that Windows didn't have a DVD decoder built in). Si I made a weak effort to resolve the issue but since it wasn't that big of a deal I kind of forgot about it for a while.

Just yesterday I tried again using windows to play the DVD and got the same message as before, this time I had the sense to try several different discs which all yeilded the same result. I went on microsoft's website and finally figured out that Windows couldn't play DVDs without a decoder and that I didn't have one installed. I went to download a decoder using the M$ provided but all of the links led to software that I had to purchase. Luckily today I was able to obtain the Cyberlink PowerDVD CD(the one that comes from Dell and is installed on most systems out of the box) so now I should be able to play DVDs through Windows. When I get home I'll test it and Mediadirect to see if it works and post back with mt results.

My question is:
How come the DVD didn't work in mediadirect? even though I'd been able to play DVDs before without incident.

Even though I think I've resolved the issue I want to be able to understand what was wrong in the first place since it doesn't all add up.

(I congragulate you if you actually managed to read all of that)

 

Could many reasons it didn't work. Perhaps the disc was dirty is all.

Sometimes disc read errors happen even with clean discs, and usually all you need to do is eject, check, reinsert and try again.

Outside of that if all other discs work, perhaps the disc was defective. As you mentioned, you really needto try the disc elsewhere, ncluding in Windows and a standalone DVD player.

 

Did you reformat at all? Some dvd's have their own decoder - such as DVDs that include intervideo, etc. Intervideo/winDVD can be used to decode the dvd, but no matter what, you must have some type of DVD decoder.

I know that a lot of dell's software like Dell Media Experience which works with Media Direct if you have XP Home/Pro, must have Cyberlink PowerDVD in order to function properly. I'm sure it probably has to do with contracts between the two companies (Cyberlink even has dell's software on their site).

 

Update: I got home a while ago and did some more testing and deduced that there is something wrong with mediadirect on my system. All of the DVDs that didn't work on MD work fine when using powerDVD and Windows media center now that PowerDVD is installed on my system. One DVD I tried works fine but all of the rest just give me a black screen until I exit out by pressing the stop button on the front of my pc(it still shows the title though) So now I can play DVDs with Windows but not using the Mediadirect feature.

 

would running the repair utility again help at all? Another thing I discovered is that when I try to play a video from my HD it doesn't show any clips in my video folder and all I can do is select the folder and move up a level.

 

You can try to repair MD. I'm not sure if that will fix all of your problems though.

The black screen happens in MD or XP?

On the second problem, if you are talking about in MD, then you probably need to update your library. I remember that you press F8 while MD is loading, but not sure about after that. I'll try to find the directions.

 

MD, playing stuff through Windows works perfectly now.

 

then i guess you can try to do a repair of MD, and see what happens.

Have you formatted XP?

 

yes I did everything as it was said in your guide and it was fine. I rand MD repair afterwards like it said so it would work again.

 

I'd try repair again, may be your best bet. If you really can't live without MD, it may be time to call/Chat with Dell.