I have a DVD-ROM, but why when I try to play a dvd, my Windows Media Player says I don't have a dvd decoder?

At my job we received 2 donated Toshipa laptops w/ DVD-Roms that were wiped clean. Our IT department put the Windows XP operating system and Office software on them but windows media player doesn't have this DVD decoder, we occasionally receive educational DVDs which we would need to view. I consulted our IT Dept. and they said we would have to purchase a decoder. They also suggested that installing a dvd player that is bundled on some DVDS, may solve the problem. Would InterActual Player or PC Friendly be the fix? And once installed, could you also view DVDs using Windows Media Player?

Well WMP isn't my first choice for a DVD media player, but it's not my personal PC either, Object.

Before you go out and spend money, download and install this free codec pack and then try playing your DVDs again. It contains the MPEG-2 codec which is required to play DVD movies.
http://www.filehippo.com/download_codec_...

I had somewhat of a similar problem. Interacutal player would probably work but what i did was this..

I got VLC media player. It plays dvd's no problem and is free. Its really simple. I use it for whenever I need to play dvd's

get it here:
http://www.videolan.org/

go to: http://www.videolan.org/

Windows Media Player dont have this facility .U should use Windows Media player 10 or 11.U can download it from www.microsoft.com for free.Download it and install.Iam sure it will work

^_^

InterActual Player or PC Friendly would work. Why would you ever want to use that bloated piece of trash that is WMP?

the IT Dept is right.
but you can also download codecs for Windows Media Player so that it ca "read" DVDs.

or you can just hook up a DVD player to the laptop, as a short solution.