[Vasudan Commander]

My friend reformatted my entire PC, but he failed to mention that he deleted the DVD decoder for my DVD player ! 

God knows why he would need to do that (probably so i need to go back to him and pay him again to get a DVD decoder) , but i was wondering if there is anywhere on the net i can get one for free. I know this chat is about freeware / shareware, and thats usually taboo on most threads (stupid politically correct admins  ) , but if anyone could help me out id really appreciate it.

I cant watch my animes anymore !!!   

[redsniper]

I know this chat is about freeware / shareware, and thats usually taboo on most threads

perhaps you meant to say "pirating copyrighted media" since that's actually illegal and could actually get HLP in trouble, as opposed to freeware which is legally free and therefore wouldn't get HLP in trouble and therefore isn't taboo?

[Shade]

DVD decoder as in stripping CSS, or DVD decoder as in the plugin for WMP that allows you to watch DVDs on the computer? If the latter, Media Player Classic will do the job for you as it will play DVDs out of the box, no plugins needed. If the first, well, that's not something for these boards and I'm not going to go there.

[Herra Tohtori]

My friend reformatted my entire PC, but he failed to mention that he deleted the DVD decoder for my DVD player !

 

Considering he reformatted your entire PC, you would assume that everything on the PC was deleted...

God knows why he would need to do that (probably so i need to go back to him and pay him again to get a DVD decoder)

If he's a friend of yours, why would he do that?

It's more likely you didn't give explicit instructions of what to back up and what to not...

freeware / shareware

I would quote that huge WTF emoticon for great justice but it's rather big and clutters the thread so I'll just reference it. Hell, this whole community is about freeware, if you can call open source stuff that. Even discussions about piratism are not a problem, but links to pirated stuff are a no-no...

I cant watch my animes anymore !!!   

So what is the problem then? Wrong area codes or some other stuff?

Copy prevention methods such as CSS shouldn't in itself be any problem to Windows PC's they should be able to read those disks out of the box (theoretically anyway). Obviously, anyone who has Linux and wants to view most DVD's has to get a handy package called libdvdcss2 which enables the computer to read CSS-protected DVD's without any hindrances. But since your computer has had to be reformatted I would think it doesn't have a Linux installed...

If you're talking about software that circumvents the DVD area code stuff, I don't really know if that's even possible since the area codes are set on the DVD-reader firmware as far as I know.

If the problem is not having a DVD-player, I'd have to say that Media Player Classic, or VLC Player should do fine. Get both and there's not much that you can't playback.


...at any way, it's usually better to learn to do your computer-related stuff yourself, that way you know what's going on and what your PC has eaten.

[perihelion]

@Redsniper    Only 4 posts and I already think this thread deserves to be put in the Classics archive.  Well done!

[redsniper]

Yeah, and the old [size] trick doesn't work on smilies anymore. I had to resize it in GIMP and upload it to my photobucket.

[IceFire]

Yeah, and the old [size] trick doesn't work on smilies anymore. I had to resize it in GIMP and upload it to my photobucket.

Pure gold!  +1 for the extra effort too.

Vasudan Commander, not sure where you got the idea that freeware/shareware is taboo on this forum, but its not Those are perfectly legitimate distribution methods fully sanctioned by the people who wrote and released that software.  What we will not tolerate links to pirated movies, music, or otherwise illegal materials.  We have a pretty strict policy on that but legitimate means such as freeware, shareware, open source, and other creative commons licensed stuff is perfectly ok.  It'd have to be with the Source Code Project relying on that whole open source concept in the first place.

As for the decoder...you're probably talking about the bit of software that lets you watch DVD's on your computer. You can get these a few different ways.  Generally speaking when you reformat a computer all of the software, no matter what its for, is removed.  If you have a video card manufacturers driver CD then that should have what you're looking for on it (unless they cheaped out and didn't give you that).  There are some other options too...such as the ones already suggested.

[Scuddie]

What we will not tolerate links to pirated movies, music, or otherwise illegal materials.  We have a pretty strict policy on that but legitimate means such as freeware, shareware, open source, and other creative commons licensed stuff is perfectly ok.

Too bad the thin red line is so absurdly drawn on this forum that endorsing downloads of copyrighted works (FS2) is fine, but open source emulators such as PCSX2 are not.

BTW, for the best decoders, www.doom9.net (dont delete this, folks) is your friend.  They've got some grey stuff, but they have the largest collection of tools, players, and plugins available.  Most of the stuff there is open source, and everything (EVERYTHING) there is legal.

[Flipside]

Endorsing one companies Game, where they know where to find us and know full well that we would not allow it (WITH, I hasten to add, the poviso that people who do it understand that it is technically illegal) if there was so much of a hint of discontent about it from Volition or Interplay, it would not be supported, is completely different from allowing the free distribution of pirate media and webistes.

Considering after the Derek Smart fiasco, there is no doubt whatsoever that Interplay knew of our existence, and of what we were doing,  and we haven't heard a word, I think as long as we don't take the piss, we are ok.

[jr2]

If you're talking about the DVD area code, and you don't mind losing your warranty, check out Club CD Freaks (I have no clue whether it's legal, illegal, or whatnot, but I assume you have the right to put whatever firmware you so please on your property, as long as you don't mind the manufacturer in turn refusing to warranty it).  That's how I got a friend's DVD burner to recognize a newer kind of DVD that it wouldn't support at full speed.  (Drive was OEM, and the manufacturer's upgrade wouldn't load, because it wasn't retail.)  Whilst there, I noticed patches for different makes & models of CD / DVD drives to remove region codes, as well as remove max rip speed limiters, IIRC.)

BTW, I didn't put a link here because I'm not sure if they do or don't host illegal stuff, I noticed some conversation (in its own section) about music & P2P d'ls, but I imagine that could just be either innocent talk, or perhaps a legal way of doing it.  (yeeaahhh.... riiiight ).

EDIT: Well, according to this, I think it should be OK, so I've linkied the site.  Let me know if I should remove it.  Thx.