All I wanna do is watch a movie . . . .

[dougthacker]

I have a DVD-ROM drive installed in my PC, one that I've used to watch commercial disks in the past. Yesterday I rented a few films on DVD. When I put one of them in the player, the disc stopped playing before it got to the actual film. Instead, I got a message telling me that, "This copy-protected disc cannot be played on your device because the video-out port on your video card is enabled."

I'd really like to watch these films I rented. Any thoughts as to how to disable the video-out port on my card?

[jmet]

Welcome to the forums dougthacker! Any chance you have your computer hooked up to your TV through a S-Video or composite video cable going to your video card?

[setarip]

Sounds like you've recently upgraded your video driver(s) - perhaps NVidia?

[dougthacker]

Thanks for the welcome, and the replies. No, I don't have anything plugged into the video-out port. I was planning to watch the vids on my monitor. I may have upgraded my video drivers; though, if so, it was some time ago. I seem to remember something about NVidia but I'm not sure. I'm using the PowerDVD software that came with my DVD-ROM drive. Other DVDs (those I've purchased) work fine in the drive. (I just finished watching "War Photographer", a documentary about photojournalist James Nachtwey, that I bought a few months ago.) Wouldn't the drivers be an issue, if they were an issue, more for the hardware than for a particular disc? In any event I'm clueless at this point. And stuck with the rental fee.

[photo_angel2004]

Do any of the movies that ou rented play on your pc?
About 1/2 of my DVD collection are pre viewed DVD's from Blockbuster.
Those were all rentals until they were sold and I have never had a problem playing any of them on either of my pc's. Are the discs damaged or dirty, finger prints on them ?
Is this a currant version of Power DVD that you have?

[dougthacker]

So far I've only tried one of them. But the problem is definitely not due to fingerprints, etc. According to the message I got on my screen, the problem is due, apparently, to the disc being copy protected, so that it won't play if your video-out port is enabled. Seems like the quick solution would be to disable the video-out port, I'm just not sure how to go about doing that, or if it's even possible. I'll try the other discs and see what happens.

[photo_angel2004]

All DVD's are copy protected. Weather they are rented or bought from a store should not make a difference. Most movies rental stores end up selling there dvd's after they are no longer new releases.

[dougthacker]

Yeah, sure, but thay're not all copy protected in the same way. This one appears to be protected by making itself unplayable if the video-out port is enabled; that way, you can't circumvent the copy protection with software. I guess that's the idea, anyway. I was thinking maybe all of blockbuster's DVD were protected this way. But, based on what you say, I see that's not the case. Probably the type of copy protection depends on the the studio. Well, hopefully the other DVDs will work. If not, I'm SOL, looks like. Unless someone can assist me in disabling the video-out port.

[photo_angel2004]

Do you have more then one type of soft ware that plays DVD video?
I had something cant remember what it was called it was on a dvd movie that I bought and when I put it in my pc it had soft ware to play the dvd, I used it for a while until I realized that that program conflicketed with my power DVD, I un installed it and never a problem playing again. How ever I did have some problems playing DVD's with an older version of Power DVD, now that I have power DVD XP no more problems playing on my either of my pc's.