PowerDVD DX came installed on this computer. Now everytime I try to play a DVD it always opens. I can't even tell it to use the open with command. It doesn't listen. I want to watch DVDs in Windows Media Player. Actually it opens WMP for about half a second before it closes it again and PowerDVD opens. I can't find a setting in PowerDVD to disable it. Aside from uninstalling it, is there anything I can do?
Did you try to set WMP as the default player for you DVD files? Right click on a VOB file, click->Open With .... Then go to Choose Program, then choose WMP, and tick the "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" box.
You tried all the suggestions, including going into registry? I downloaded a trial version of PowerDVD just to screw around with it. Of course it took over the DVD format(vob, ifos, bup..)But I right clicked the file and set it to always open with WMP and I have no problems. In PowerDVD, did you try to go in "Configuration"->under "Player" Tab-> click "Advanced" and uncheck the option to "automatically play the disc upon insertion" and the option to play the IFO files. Also, under "files associacion", deselect all of them. When you try to open the DVD with WMP, do you get an error or something? Open WMP, then go to "Now Playing" and try to open the disc from there. If nothing happens at all, you might be missing the DVD codecs for WMP(you can download them though).
Yes I even tried the registry thing. There is no player tab. The only settings it gives me are display settings such as showing the subtitles by default or changing their positioning. That's it. Remember it's PowerDVD DX. Not just PowerDVD. Someone in the videohelp forum thought it might be an update only available for Dell computers. Said they'd never heard of it. WMP doesn't give me an error. It just shuts down. No matter how I try to open the DVD PowerDVD sorta cancels out my instructions.
Just out of curiosity: since you want to play your DVDs with WMP, most likely you will not be using that PowerDVD son of a b!^1@h for any other files. There are super good free players like MPC, VLC. Why not uninstall the sucker since is useless anyway, just taking space. Just because it came with the PC it doen't mean it has to stay and be a pain in the arse.
I probably should just give up on it. I'm doing a lot of messing with DVDs on the computer (splitting, editing the menus, removing titles, and adding a commentary track). I thought I heard somewhere that PowerDVD was the definitive test player. If it'll work in PowerDVD it'll work in a standalone. I've had problems where Media player Classic only sees one audio track (even in unmodified DVDs) and VLC doesn't see the subtitles and WMP caused a blue screen of death (there's something wrong with it on our old computer, but one problem at a time). I guess I'll just have to find an older version somewhere if I need it.
You ever heard of uninstalling? PowerDVD is shit anyways. It's too glitchy and sensitive to bad media and different formats. Try MediaPlayer Classic, it's free and plays around 98% of video formats.
I thought that before I uninstalled PowerDVD I should test the other programs. Turns out both VLC and MPC will play ok. It's just WMP that won't. However nothing's autoplaying when I put in the DVD now so something worked there. Didn't fix the problem though.
