DVDs were all the rage when they were released. An advanced drive, it had high storage capacity and was affordable. They immediately took the market by storm and computer manufacturers began modifying their hard drives to support the new feature. Over time, people have begun to switch to USB drives and online media. However, music and media companies still release the original version of their movies and music on DVD and are great for long-term archiving.
Windows Media Player is the main Windows media player and supports most codecs. However, to make sure they pack as much of the smallest size as possible, they continue to remove any features they find redundant. The same goes for DVD-based media.
A DVD can store any type of file. However, there were some specific codecs for DVD drives and Windows Media Player is no longer supported. If you are playing supported extensions like .mp3, WMP will play them just fine. Otherwise it could give an error.
Here are the solutions we could try to fix the problem:
Solution 1] Update Windows
Windows instructs Windows Media Player to accept or reject codecs by updating it. If the files that worked before don't work now, it's because Windows has updated WMP accordingly. When users report this issue to Microsoft, they will also release the fix in the form of updates. So our first attempt to fix the problem should be to update Windows and see if it helps.
Solution 2] Uninstall suspicious programs
Since Windows Media Player is the default media player for Windows systems, fewer users bother to change it. This affects the activity of third-party media player companies that try to introduce malware into the system in a way that compromises the functionality of WMP and prompts users to switch to other players.
This usually happens when users install media players or other software on their system. We may search for recently installed suspicious software and remove it.
1] Press Win + R to open the Run windows and type the command control. Press Enter to open the control panel window.
2] Go to Programs and features. The list of applications installed on the system will be displayed.
3] Organize the list in order of installation date by clicking on the column.
4] Right click and Uninstall Suspicious software recently installed on the system.
Solution 3] Update your audio drivers
Sometimes the audio drivers may be out of date even though WMP can read DVD files. If so, we could update the audio drivers and see if it helps.
Solution 4] Reinstall Windows Media Player
If the above steps fail, our last option to fix Windows Media Player would be to reinstall it.
1] Press Win + R to open the Run window and type the command control. Press Enter to open the control panel window.
2] Go to Programs and features and then click on the option on the right side that says Enable or disable Windows features. If you can request admin permissions.
3] Go to Multimedia functions and expand it.
4] Deselect the check mark next to Windows Media Player and click OK.
5] Restart the system.
Solution 5] Use another media player
No wonder this isn't a solution, but we have no options here. Some codecs are not and will not be compatible with Windows Media Player. If so, we may simply give up and use any other reputable media player.
