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DVD Player (Windows)

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This article is about the Microsoft Windows software. For the electronic device, see DVD player.

Template:Infobox Windows component

DVD Player (also known as dvdplay.exe) is a computer program included in Windows 98, Windows Me and Windows 2000 that autoplays a DVD disc. DVD Player was introduced in Windows 98 and removed from modern versions of Windows, starting with Windows XP.[1] After Windows XP, DVD playback was built into other apps such as Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center instead.

Due to the removal of Media Center from Windows 10 and the prior removal of DVD codec from the Windows operating system, a new standalone DVD Player program was introduced.

Features

When the DVD Player is launched it searches all local drives in alphabetical order from C:, looking for a Video_TS folder. When this folder is located, the data file within it is loaded, and video streaming begins. If this folder exists on a drive that comes before the DVD drive, the player will try to play the data in the first folder it finds.

Compatibility

In Windows 98 and Windows 2000, DVD Player only plays DVDs if a hardware-based MPEG decoder is present. In Windows Me, DVD Player supports software-based MPEG decoders.[2][3]

With Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8: DVDPlay.exe was dropped as a separate application in favor of DVD functionality introduced into Windows Media Player. While the DVDPlay executable still resides in %Windir%system32, it simply executes Windows Media Player. However, the full-working hardware-based version was still included with Windows XP pre-RC1. On Windows 8, Windows Media Center and DVD playback support were relegated to a premium add-on for Windows 8 Pro, citing the costs of licensing the decoders and the increasing number of devices that do not include disc drives.[4]

Windows 10 version

DVD Player in Windows 10

Windows DVD Player is a Windows Store app that provides DVD playback functionality for Windows 10.[5]

When launched, it searches for movie files in the disc drive to launch. It can also be picked as an option in the AutoPlay dialog when a disc is inserted. However, if the disc is switched, the app needs to be restarted.[5]

It is available as a paid app through Windows Store. Windows DVD Player is distributed at no charge to those who had upgraded from an installation of Windows 7 or Windows 8 that included Windows Media Center, as the program has been removed from Windows 10.[6][5]

References

  1. ^ "Chapter 12 - Multimedia". TechNet. Microsoft. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  2. ^ "Windows Media Player, Run DVD, Find the IP Address". Ask the Windows 2000 Dev Team. Microsoft. 5 January 2000.
  3. ^ "Description of DVD Player in Windows Millennium Edition". Support (2.0 ed.). Microsoft. 19 June 2014.
  4. ^ Albanesius, Chloe (May 4, 2012). "Microsoft Dropping DVD Playback Support in Windows 8". PC Magazine. Ziff Davis. Retrieved May 20, 2012.
  5. ^ a b c Paul, Ian (29 July 2015). "How to play DVDs in Windows 10 for free". PCWorld. IDG.
  6. ^ Weir, Andy (29 July 2015). "Microsoft rolls out Windows DVD Player for Windows 10 users who used to have Media Center". Neowin. Neowin LLC.


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