Hi. I have a weird problem. DVD RW drive in my system cannot play original DVD movies. It can play the backed-up DVDs. I am running Windows 7 Professional, 32-bit and problem is reproducible with two DVD drives - LG and Lite-On and both Media Player and Media Center. Both, Media player and 7MC can access the DVD, display DVD Info (Title, Cover Image and other stuff), but when you click play, screen goes black. No error message is displayed. DVD region is set to Region 1. And it started happening probably last week. What could be issue here. I guess it has something to with DRM. I would appreciate if you help me this situation. Thanks.

 I would guess you are trying to upconvert through component or sVideo? This should downgrade to 480p, not go blank, but I don't know what your tv is. If you can possibly hook your tv through and HDMI cable (or DVI to HDMI), it should work properly. Otherwise you'll need to purchacse a product called AnyDVD which will allow you to upconvert the DVD.

 HTPC is connected to projector with HDMI and monitor with VGA. It was working fine till about a week ago or so. Moreover, DVD ripped to HD or copied to DVD (Verbatim DVD-R) play fine. Problem is with original DVDs. Only thing unique about original DVD is the encryption.

No idea. Has anything changed recently? Driver updates? Silent Windows updates? Codec pack installation? If you're using AnyDVD or other driver-based helper, can you still rip DVDs? Will it play on the monitor if not the projector? Is there anything in the Windows or Media Center event logs?

The only DRM issue I've had came after I installed the VIA audio drivers from the Asus web site for my P7P55D motherboard. That knocked out WMC/WMP's ability to play protected audio files I downloaded from Zune marketplace. Even after uninstalling the VIA drivers, I had to reset the Windows 7 DRM system to restore the WMC/WMP capability. And it was definitely the VIA drivers, because I verified with a pristine OS image in a partition I keep for testing and dual booting, managed with the excellent BootIT NG software. But I have no idea if this affected DVD playback as I didn't try it while I was having the problem.

 tims, how did you perform "Windows 7 DRM system to restore the WMC/WMP capability".

aminoacid:

tims, how did you perform "Windows 7 DRM system to restore the WMC/WMP capability".

I followed the instructions in the "Things to Try" section of KB929642, which restored my ability to play DRMed music files not currently in the WMP12 library in WMP12. To restore the ability to play files currently in the WMP12 library, I had to reset the library per zachd's instructions on that, which requires stopping the WMP Network Sharing Service and renaming the "Media Player" folder in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft. I did this from another account, and when I logged back in and started WMP12, it began rebuilding its libary, and I could play everything, including Zune DRMed files.

Again, I have no idea if this is going to help you, and I did it just for the small amount of DRMed music I have. I was just trying to clear up a minor annoyance, and it didn't really matter a whole lot if it worked or not, as everything played okay in the Zune software. It would have continued to nag at me, and that's about it. It was only a couple of weeks after I did this that I gave up on WMC/WMP for music anyway and removed all folders from the Windows 7 Music Library due to the extremely poor performance and interminable library rebuilding.

The KB article warns:

Warning This procedure affects all media files on the computer that use Windows Media DRM technology. The effect of this procedure is not limited to media files that you obtained from the Zune Marketplace. If you follow this procedure, content licenses for all protected media files on the hard disk are deleted. Other providers, such as, Napster, MSN Music, and Wal-Mart, use different mechanisms for restoring licenses. If you have content from other providers, examine the appropriate license restoration policies before you continue.

I recommend trying this only as a last resort, and only if you have an image backup of your OS drive.

aminoacid:

 HTPC is connected to projector with HDMI and monitor with VGA. It was working fine till about a week ago or so. Moreover, DVD ripped to HD or copied to DVD (Verbatim DVD-R) play fine. Problem is with original DVDs. Only thing unique about original DVD is the encryption.

Did you update your video drivers? How is your display set? Is it an extended desktop or cloned? If cloned you could have problems with some dvds since it thinks it's being copied since it's on two displays.

John

 I restored the system back to 1/14/10 when I think the system was working fine. This whould have removed CCC10.1 that installed sometime back. But still no luck.

My desktop is cloned. Again, it was working fine till sometime back.