Windows XP Pro, Windows Media Player - DVDs won't play after a fresh install

Title pretty much says it, but here's what happened.

I recently did the once-every-six-months hard drive format and OS re-install, and have found that DVD videos will no longer play in Windows Media Player, while they did before the fresh-installation of Windows XP Pro.

I have done everything I did with the previous OS install (and the one before that...), and there is no reason I can think of for DVD videos to not play.

I get the following error message when trying to play a DVD video (picture attached at bottom). I am using an NEC DVD drive that works fine, and gives me no trouble with anything else. I can watch all my Anime and .AVI movies in WMP without issue, only commercial DVDs cause problems. The DivX player works, but won't autoplay for some reason.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as this is extremely annoying!

have you checked mycomputer\tools\folder options\file types and find VOB File and make sure that it is set to open with MP

after a fresh install media player can not play DVD's - you need a 3rd party dvd software like WinDVD or PowerDVD - media player alone can not play dvd's. - they dont have the codecs.

Yes you need a plugin to play in MP.

Yep, been there done that. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but nothing free will play a dvd. You either have to buy a codec for WMP9 or buy DVD software like PowerDVD or WinDVD. (unless your dvd player came with software)

dose anyone know where to get such a codec or player for free,
i didnt buy a dvdrom to buy software for it

Thanks for the info guys, I suppose I picked up a free soft somewhere before.

I guess I'll get hunting through my CD collection and try to find it

try:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
it worked for me

Beware with downloading free versions of dvd software. In my experience, most will let you play 30 minutes of video and then cut out.

If you are really daring and like spyware and stuff, you can get real player which comes with a dvd decoder. Other than that, you can probably look through your piles of CD's and find one or two.

Try checking your old video card driver disks. I know my daytona tnt2 came with a nice edition of powerdvd, so did my dvd player.

i like power dvd

my 2cents

unless you have a hardware accelerated version that came with your graphics card, PowerDVD is really the only way to go in my opinion. It isn't terribly expensive either.