Page 1 of A little PC help needed please! Pt. 1 (PowerDVD)

Hi guys,

A few weeks ago I was playing a DVD on my PC (E-Machines 550), and realised that PowerDVD was a bit crap, that it was much better viewing the DVD via Windows Media Player.

So being the great intellectual that I am, I decided to uninstall PowerDVD. What I didn`t know is that this would also delete the DVD drivers on my computer. In other words, it won`t let me play DVDs anymore.

There is a restore disc, but this is a backup for the entire machine, and will not allow me just to re-install PowerDVD.

Although it is not my main player, I would quite like the choice of being able to use the PC for DVD playback. Is there an easy (inexpensive!) way to get the DVD drivers back?


Hope someone can help,

Brian


PS. Part two of my PC questions is here: http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/forums/thread.asp?Forum=113&Thread=178621&Type=1&Page=1

This item was edited on Sunday, 11th May 2003, 11:32

Yes as you have Windows XP (according to part 2) just do a system restore. You will need to select a point just before you uninstalled PowerDVD. You will then have to reinstall any progs that you had installed since the restore point. HTH

This item was edited on Sunday, 11th May 2003, 11:54

PowerDVD is far better than WMP.
Why do you think otherwise?

Ste

I basically just preferred the look of WMP, and am used to using that. Using PowerDVD didn`t really appeal to me.

Regarding doing a system restore, this was done a number of weeks ago. I really don`t want to lose any data that`s been saved since then. How does doing a system restore affect data which has been saved since the uninstallation of PowerDVD?


Brian

This item was edited on Sunday, 11th May 2003, 12:43

It won`t affect data stored since the restore point, just programs. It should be safe to do as you can also undo the restore if you don`t like the results for any reason.

>>>I basically just preferred the look of WMP, and am used to using that. Using PowerDVD didn`t really appeal to me.

So it`s purely cosmetic then? I use PowerDVD to take screen grabs and watch DVD-ROM mainly, though I have watched films with it in the past and I think functionally it`s very good. Beyond `play`, there`s not a lot else to actually do apart from sit back and enjoy whatever DVD you`re watching! :-)

Hope you manage to restore your system.

Anil
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Site Reviewer and International Lover
http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/

Kevint,

Thanks for the advice, but unfortunately I`m not really prepared to do a system restore, since its been a while since PowerDVD was originally uninstalled. If it were just me, I`d certainly do it, but others use the PC, and I`m not willing to risk everything getting screwed up.

Is there not simply a download that will fix this?


Thanks again,

Brian

Well if it were me I would do the restore and then if it did screw anything up just undo it (but then there again if it were me I would never have uninstalled PowerDVD in the first place because it is much better than WMP).

As far as downloads go you can try a number of things:-
1) If you insist on keeping with WMP - have you tried playing a DVD while connected to the net as WMP should download any codecs that it requires.
2) You could try downloading the trial version of PowerDVD.
3) If all this fails you`re going to have to buy some DVD player software

Good luck.

just thought i would say that when these people are saying "System Restore" they dont mean that you have to use the recovery cd you got with the pc.

Goto

Start
Programs
Accessories
System Tools
System Restore

Now choose a date to which you want to roll the pc back to, the pc will reboot to the date you selected ( no personal files will be lost) if you dont like this or it didnt work, go back to system restore and choose "UNDO PREVIOUS RESTORATION"

Hope this helped...

Dan
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Dan...The CyberHome Man

I use InterVideo WinDVD for watching, PowerDVD for screen grabs (occasionally for watching too...oh the choice), and then WMP for all other video types aside from DVD.

(Although if I need to take screen grabs of say an MPEG file then I`ll use PowerDVD.)

--
Rik Booth
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