DVD on computer

OK, I'm not much of a computer person so this might be a dumb question, but how do you play a DVD on your computer?

I'm running XP, I can play CDs with windows media player, but when I put in a DVD, nothing. All I get is a message saying put a disk in drive D. (Yes, there was a DVD in there already)

I tried downloading a free DVD software, nothing, I tried downloading the trial version of windvd, nothing.

Is there some trick I'm missing?

You do have a DVD drive, right?

because the answer is, I think so. I can play CDs, if you give me a disk with a bunch of files or what not on it I can access the files, but stick a DVD in there and nothing happens.

Is there a DVD symbol on it? If not, then you don't have a DVD drive *unless* you have one of those generic drives that has nothing on it to identify it. You don't run across those a lot, but they are out there.

If there is no DVD symbol, open your control panel> system>hardware>device manager, click on the little + sign next to where it says DVD/CD Drives and see what it says. If you have a drive that will read DVD's, the name of the device in here usually says something about DVDs.

If you do have a DVD, then you first need some DVD decoder software and then a player. That's easy to get, but first figure out if the drive is a DVD drive.

That would explain why I can't play DVDs.

Thank you for your help.

Just for future reference, if all you want is to be able to play DVDs, you can get a CD/DVD combo drive for less than $30. You can get one that writes CD's and DVD's for around $50 - $60.

I assume you have a DVD player (the hardware thingy) in the computer,
not a CD player.

On FreeBSD I use something named "mplayer".
I don't know of any free Windoze DVD software, but I have not
made an exhaustive search. Some possibilities:

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/showcategory.php?cid=13&scid=10&detail=high