We’ve all seen it at some time or another. You nonchanantly slip a DVD into your PC, fire up Windows Media Player and settle down with a nice cup of cocoa and some pleasant company to enjoy a flick or two…when bang! Your eyes are rebuffed by a dialog box that pops up on the screen and rather impertinently informs you that your PC is missing a compatible dvd decoder for Windows Media Player. To translate that into English and put it simply, Windows Media Player can’t read the DVD. Fundamentally, there is only one way to fix this error and that is to install a compatible DVD decoder. However, depending on the windows platform you are on, whether or not you are prepared to pay for the codecs or whether you are just looking for a free trial, a few options are open to you.

How To Fix ‘Compatible DVD Decoder for Windows Media Player’ Error

Firstly and most importantly…Do you actually need to fix this problem in WMP or do you just want to get on and watch DVDs on your PC? If the answer is the latter, you can simply use other software and download one of these amazing and free compatible DVD decoders and be done with the matter.

Fix ‘Compatible DVD Decoder for Windows Media Player’ Error on Windows 7

You only need to read on if you specifically are looking to fix the dvd compatibility issue for WMP. In such case, if you are on Windows 7, then the only reason you should get this message is if you are on the ‘Starter’ edition. You could simply upgrade to the ‘Home Premium’ edition in order to instantly start enjoying DVD playback in WMP and banish compatible dvd decoder problems to the closet forever.

Fix ‘Compatible DVD Decoder for Windows Media Player’ Error on XP or Vista

If you are on other versions of Windows such as Vista and XP then you could consider upgrading to Windows 7. Not interested? Very well then. Your next best option is to buy and download a compatible dvd decoder Windows Media Player software plugin from multimedia providers such as Corel, Nvidia, Roxio and Cyberlink.

If you are looking for a free compatible dvd decoder for windows media player, then you could try giving the free trials of the providers listed above a bash but this naturally is not a long term solution. It makes a lot more sense to simply go with the free compatible dvd decoder downloads listed previously which preclude the requirement to use WP in the first place.

Why Does Windows Media Player Not Come With An Installed Compatible DVD Decoder?

Windows Media Player is an application that can play DVDs on your computer or laptop. However, in order to do so it must be able to decode the MPEG-2 format in which DVDs are encoded. DVDs are encoded in order to protect the marketing strategies of film distributors.

Since MPEG-2 is a licensed format, licensing and royalties must be paid to the patent holders in order to decode the DVD and view the data on it.

Earlier versions of Windows including Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Vista and even the entry level Windows 7 ‘Home Basic’ and ‘Starter’ editions do not include the license in order to pass the cost saving benefits to customers who can choose to upgrade according to their own needs.

About Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player is a digital media player made by Microsoft which will handle audio, video, and images. Windows Media Player is offered as a free download from Microsoft’s Web site, with the exception of the mobile version of the software, which only ships with Windows Mobile devices.

Over the years, the windows media player has seen some very dynamic and exciting changes made to it. Even though it has been thrown upon us by being bundled with the windows platform, this player has built up its fair share of loyal followers.

Back in the mid-90s when Real Player and Quicktime looked like the only contenders to playback video on PC’s, WMP 6.1 stormed onto the scene with its ability to play back the MP3 format which was gaining favor at the time and seeing spreading usage.

WMP 7.1 was released in conjunction with Windows 2000 and this was quickly followed up with Windows Media Player 8 or Windows XP Media Player as it was released with the then brand new and now long-standing Windows XP operating system.

More codec upgrades and the brief and forgettable advent of Windows Vista saw the ninth, tenth and eleventh issues of WMP come and play their part.

Even after so many releases, the error message ‘compatible dvd decoder’ for Windows Media Player was common as the core DVD decoding codecs were not installed in the player as standard.

Finally with the release of Windows Media Player 12 on the successful Windows 7 operating system, the decoder required to play DVDs and many other file formats come bundled within the cost of the operating system in all editions of Windows 7 except ‘Starter’.

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