Windows Media Center Codec Problem

So I recently had to reformat and reinstall Windows Media Center 2005 on a laptop of mine, and everything works fine, except when I put a DVD in the drive, and Media Center attempts to play it, I get this error:

"The video decoder has either malfunctioned or is not installed. Please restart Media Center and/or the computer."

I have tried to download codecs to play DVDs but everywhere seems to want money for them. This laptop used to play DVD's just fine prior to reinstallation.

Can ya help me out? any thanks in advance!

 

Did you have a software player installed before? PowerDVD etc?

 

I may have, but I always just used Windows Media Center to play it.

 

That's the best way to get your decoder.