Many people may have encountered troubles of DVD playback when playing DVD on a computer.As long as the default settings in Windows Media Player are not support video DVD play-back any more,you may have to take more actions in order to play a DVD on a computer.

1. Firstly, make sure that the computer’s optical drive is able to read DVD disk. Commonly, the drive would be named as “DVD-ROM”, “DVD R/RW” or similar under My Computer,and the DVD logo would appear on the drive itself.

2. If you see an error coming up from Windows Media Player that says “compatible DVD decoder not installed”,that means an mpeg-2 decoder is needed to play DVDs,and it is not set up yet.The Windows Media Player plug-in needs you to pay for it.Differently, the VLC Player is no need to pay and will enable you to play DVDs or any type of video file.

On Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Business, and Windows Vista Enterprise:

You may need to install a compatible DVD decoder (also known as a MPEG-2 decoder) to enable DVD playback.

Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, Windows Vista Ultimate Edition:

You can play audio,data CDs,video and data DVDs by using Windows Media Center.This lets you enjoy both commercial CDs and DVDs, as well as CDs and DVDs that you have created. Your computer should have a DVD drive and a compatible DVD decoder to play DVDs. The Windows Media Center is already inluded in the compatible DVD decoder when it is installed on computers

On Windows 7:

All versions of Windows 7 include full DVD support via Windows Media Center.

 On a Mac (OS X 10.0 – 10.5):

Use the preinstalled DVD player program to play DVDs. If the DVD does not show up on the desktop, get online support from Apple.

 On Linux:

Use your DVD player of choice to play any DVD.

 On a consumer DVD player:

Choose a proper DVD player can that perform DVD playback well. A program that is stable and powerful is preferred.