Dell DVD player software problems - help please

usignuolo

I have a Dell Dimension PC just over 2 years old. It runs Windows XP Pro latest version with all the patches.

I bought the Dell with a 16x DVD +-R/W drive. It shows up on my PC as Drive E and works fine playing CDs. I thought it worked fine playing DVDs until recently although I usually watch them on the tv but now I am beginning to doubt I ever used it.

The other day I bought a Stormchasers DVD (someone has to) and loaded it onto my PC. Basically it would not play, I kept getting an error saying that I was trying to use a feature not available and needed to reload the relevant CD. (It works on my OH's Vista laptop just fine BTW).

The Dell DVD player is called Cineplayer and was sourced by them from Roxio/Sonic. I suppose that in itself is a dreadful warning. I found the source CD in my box of software and reinstalled it along with the patches recommended by Dell on their support site.

Still did not work. I also got an error message saying it could not install it because I lacked the relevant DMX.MSI component on my PC. This seems to have been some sort of Dell Multimedia environment which was always a bit flakey, only in my case it was never pre installed on my PC at all and without it I cannot run the Cineplayer software.

I went to Dell forums and found the whole issue of Dell and DVD software was a big mess back in late 2007 when I bought my PC. At least two versions of Cineplayer were preinstalled and I seem to have had one of the duff ones which the patch was then supposed to fix. It did not in all cases. In cases like mine where the DMX.MSI environment to support it, this was never supplied, they are supposed to provide it if you ask for it.

At the time this fault first surfaced there was a link to obtain it, but that no longer works.

I then contacted Dell Support to request this and got an automated response that because my PCs service tag showed it is an OLD machine, (Nov 2007) it is classed as a hardware fault and out of warranty and can only be fixed by paying for hardware support. A further email pointing out the facts has been ignored. It seems Dell has washed its hands of it.

So I have an unusable DVD player. I suppose I could install WMP but I had v10 of that a while back and it gave me a lot of grief so I uninstalled it. I could put on one of those free shareware packages and suppose I shall have to do that but I am pretty fed up with Dell over this. Anyone had similar problems and have any advice to offer?

debitcardmayhem

Try VLC loads of folks on here use it give it a try http://www.videolan.org/

Basil1234

most people would have found a fault well within 2 years so it would appear you use it alot then.
anyway try link below for cineplayer dvd decoder module which is freely available http://download.cnet.com/Cineplayer-DVD-Decoder/3000-7970_4-75126141.html?!!!!!mncol

most people update software as a matter of course

usignuolo

Thanks for the link Basil1234, I am pretty sure I last played a DVD over Christmas on my PC in fact. It seems (to judge from their forums and other searches) that there are situations where Windows upgrades get out of sync with the Cineplayer, and cause it to malfunction. Also the Dell media function, DMX.MSI, which Cineplayer needs to run, has a habit of going missing in ill defined circumstances. Quite a lot of users have complained about this.

So I am also a bit concerned that if I buy the codec you linked to (thanks for that), it will not solve my problem if I am also missing the Dell DMX.MSI environment Cineplayer needs to run in?

ddoris

What's wrong with vlc -post no. 2 ?
Advice ? - don't buy dell.