ERROR message when trying to play a DVD, HELP, PLEASE.

lew

My pc has played DVDs before, but now will not. I have windows 98SE. My graphics card dvd player ATI has worked in the past, just fine. At present I get an error message saying
"region code on disc not allow playback".
I have tried my NREO 6 AND CLIPREX, all say basically the same.
I would appreciate help. All devices in DEVICE MANAGER are fine (except ATI tv player which I don't want).
Happy to give information about my pc that will help.
MANY THANKS, LINDA

Little_John

DVD's from different parts of the world use region codeing to prevent dvd's being imported from other countries. Everyone wants region free dvd players so they can play disks from around the world.

have a look at the disk yor trying to play and see what region it is from they normally use an image of a globe and a number through it UK/Europe is region 2, The USA is region 1.

If you have been able to play different region disks in the past, it may be due to you changeing the region code of the dvd drive whihc windows will allow 6 times, once those 6 changes have been made the drive will be stuck to the region you last used. I used to have software that would tell you what region the drive was but I can't find it.
here you go Disk info it will tell you, just extract the files to your desktop and run the program and it will tell you everything.

Let us know if that explains things if you use disk info hopfully your drive will be set to region 2 and have 5 changes left, if that is the case the error is strange.

After some searching, the ATi player does seem to have a problem with dvd region codeing especially if your dvd drive is patched to region free.
Let us know the results to the above and we can try a few more things like DVD genie and power dvd which is my prefered dvd playing software.

lew

Hi Little John.
Thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to help me. I am very grateful.

Using the programme you suggested I got this report regarding the dvd drive. (Why does the top half say it can read dvd drive and bottom half say cannot?)
Does this report make any sense to you? MANY THANKS, LINDA

DISCINFO VERSION : 1.5.5.9
VENDOR : LITE-ON
MODEL : DVDRW LH-20A1P
REVISION : KL0G
VENDOR SPECIFIC : 2007/03/19 16:36
LOADING MECHANISM : Tray
NUMBER VOL. LEVELS : 256
BUFFER SIZE : 2048KB
INTERFACE : ATAPI
RPC2 SCHEME : YES
STATUS : Not Set
USER CHANGES : 5
VENDOR CHANGES : 4
CURRENT REGION : Not set
ANALOG AUDIO PLAY : YES
COMPOSITE OUTPUT : NO
DIGITAL PORT-PORT1 : YES
DIGITAL PORT-PORT2 : NO
READ UPC CODE : YES
MULTISESSION READ : YES
MODE 2 FORM 1 : YES
MODE 2 FORM 2 : YES
READ ISRC CODE : YES
READ BAD CODE : NO
BUFFER UNDER-RUN : YES
MT. RAINIER : NO
CAN READ CDR : YES
CAN READ CDRW : YES
CAN READ CDRM2 : YES
CAN WRITE CDR : YES
CAN WRITE CDRW : YES
CAN TEST WRITE : YES
CAN READ DVD-ROM : YES
CAN READ DVD-R : YES
CAN READ DVD-RW : YES
CAN READ DVD-RAM : YES
CAN READ DVD+R : YES
CAN READ DVD+RW : YES
CAN WRITE DVD-R : YES
CAN WRITE DVD-RW : YES
CAN WRITE DVD-RAM : YES
CAN WRITE DVD+R : YES
CAN WRITE DVD+RW : YES
MAX CDR READ SPEED : 126
MAX CDR WRITE SPEED: 48
<- ->
DISCINFO VERSION : 1.5.5.9
VENDOR : SONY
MODEL : CD-RW CRX230E
REVISION : QYS1
VENDOR SPECIFIC : May25 ,2003
LOADING MECHANISM : Tray
NUMBER VOL. LEVELS : 255
BUFFER SIZE : 2048KB
INTERFACE : ATAPI
RPC2 SCHEME : NO
ANALOG AUDIO PLAY : YES
COMPOSITE OUTPUT : NO
DIGITAL PORT-PORT1 : YES
DIGITAL PORT-PORT2 : NO
READ UPC CODE : YES
MULTISESSION READ : YES
MODE 2 FORM 1 : YES
MODE 2 FORM 2 : YES
READ ISRC CODE : YES
READ BAD CODE : NO
BUFFER UNDER-RUN : YES
MT. RAINIER : NO
CAN READ CDR : YES
CAN READ CDRW : YES
CAN READ CDRM2 : YES
CAN WRITE CDR : YES
CAN WRITE CDRW : YES
CAN TEST WRITE : YES
CAN READ DVD-ROM : NO
CAN READ DVD-R : NO
CAN READ DVD-RW : NO
CAN READ DVD-RAM : NO
CAN READ DVD+R : NO
CAN READ DVD+RW : NO
CAN WRITE DVD-R : NO
CAN WRITE DVD-RW : NO
CAN WRITE DVD-RAM : NO
CAN WRITE DVD+R : NO
CAN WRITE DVD+RW : NO
MAX CDR READ SPEED : 40
MAX CDR WRITE SPEED: 4

Little_John

It has give you the details for both your Sony CD writer and your liteon dvd writer.

From the info above everything seems fine. with the drive. what region disk are you trying to play? and make sure you have it in the dvd drive not the cd drive
I would also try a different dvd playing software further investigation slates the ATi software.

lew

The region disc is an open one I believe. It has played on my pc, and with ATI before, thus I feel something is not right with my pc.
I have also tried playing the dvd with cliprex, but get the message "Range check error",.
When I try my NREO 6 Showtime dvd player ist says "MPEG-2 ENCODING/DECODING/PLAYBACK IS NOT AVAILABLE. pLUG IN REQUIRED"

I chose this dvd disc (yes it is in the right drive, good question!!!!ha ha) because it is the one I have usually been able to play. My pc has always been eratic about playing dvds at the best of times. So agian I wonder if it is something on my pc that is the problem, because I have NEVER been able to play dvds with ease. (I have been trying only for some months) Is is something in SETTINGS or the like?
MANY THANKS for persisting with this problem, I appreciate it. LINDA

Donnie

Check your Private Messages.

lew

Many thanks for your help. I have now got the pc playing dvds with the ATI software, amazingly. What I did to get it working I do not know.

A friend came round to help. Before that I tried to play the dvd and ATI came up with a box giving me a choice of 3 reasons why it would not work.I left it like that till about 1-2 hours later my friend came. My friend came, did nothing but nudge the mouse and hey presto!!! the dvd played just fine and they have been playing since. WEIRD!!! Will now make an image of my c drive using NERO GHOST programme to save for future use.

THANKS, LINDA