Freeware software DVD player?, Part 2

Recall --

Last week, I asked Infopackets Readers to send me their top picks for a freeware DVD player. Below are some of the responses I received (in no particular order).

Jeff 'MrPianist' recommended DSPlayer:

" DSPlayer is a free skinable DVD Player, which plays other multimedia formats as well. 100% no Spyware! Full compatibility with win 2000/XP; Supported formats avi, mpeg, mov, DVD, mp3, mid, wav, cda (AudioCD) ... requires Windows 9x/Me/2000/XP, DirectX 8 or higher. "

http://www.freewarenetwork.com/description/dsplayer.html

Keith, a retired Techie says:

" Cinemaster DVD player is free, plus download its codecs are a seperate file. So, 2 downloads and, Voila, you are playing DVD's with freeware. Unfortunately, there is a dry-up of this Player for some reason and it is hard to obtain. You can get it from sourceforge.net. "

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358

David B. writes:

" Try Zoom Player or Media Player Classic. I've used both on my W2K system. They will work on XP just fine. PS: The Doom9.org site is an excellent source of video related information. "

http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_beta.shtml

http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/Players/mpc2kxp6467.zip

Sam D. writes:

" I use a freeware program called MaXimusDVD: it works quite well for me. By the way, I enjoy your newsletter very much and am always glad to help out fellow readers and yourself. "

http://www.maximusdvd.com

And, James P. had some insight about Windows Media Player 9 and it's DVD playback capabilities:

" Windows MediaPlayer 9.0 does not come standard with DVD playback capability. From the Microsoft site, it states, 'As a consumer purchasing a new PC or DVD drive with DVD playback support, a portion of your purchase cost goes towards licensing a decoder (typically software) required to play back DVDs. Rather than charge you twice for this license (once when you bought your PC or drive, and the second time as a part of the cost of your copy of Windows XP), we worked closely with the third-party manufacturers of DVD decoders to update their solutions. The result is, the best range of playback options and support in Windows XP at the lowest cost to you, the consumer. The end result is more freedom of choice when selecting a DVD decoder.'

Bottom line: When you buy a DVD player for your computer, or you buy a computer with a DVD player in it, you should get DVD decoder software with the computer or DVD player.

If you upgrade to Windows XP and the DVD decoder no longer works, you will have to contact the decoder vendor to get an update, or you can buy one from people like InterVideo (WinDVD), CyberLink or Sonic (see second link below). "

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/windowsxp/dvdplay.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/windowsxp/buypacks.aspx

Thanks to all who wrote in!