Member Avatar for WASDted

So I have a Windows 7 PC running Media Center (home theater situation). I have one of those LG super-everything drives that can play Blu-ray as well as HD DVDs. Most of my movies are Blu-ray but a still have a few goodies on HD DVD and I've been itching to watch one of them. Trouble is I cannot get it to play at all, not even outside of the media center interface.

Any suggestions?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by shivam9962

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Quick context: HD DVD is a discontinued format (Toshiba stopped investing in it in 2008), so support in modern software and players is sparse. (wired.com) Windows 7 / Media Center never included native Blu‑ray or HD‑DVD playback—an optical drive alone is not enough; you need compatible, licensed playback software. (learn.microsoft.com)

Why a disc can "not play" even when the drive is capable: HD DVD titles use licensed content protection (AACS) and playback depends on the player software having current keys and the proper AACS implementation. A drive that reads the disc physically does not guarantee a decryptable playback path. Software vendors issued mandatory AACS updates back in the HD‑DVD era; missing those updates can stop playback. (en.wikipedia.org)

Practical checklist (work through these in order):

  • Inspect/clean the disc and try it in Explorer: if Windows can list files the drive can at least read the media; if not, the disc or drive optical pickup may be bad.
  • Test the disc on another machine or a standalone HD‑DVD player (if available). If it fails everywhere, the disc is likely damaged—this echoes ’s suggestion.
  • If the disc reads but won’t play, install/update an HD‑DVD–aware player from the era (examples: WinDVD or ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre historically supported HD‑DVD); make sure the player is fully patched. Modern players often removed HD‑DVD support after the format died, so you may need an older build. (cgw.com)
  • Update the LG drive firmware and Windows drivers, and check Device Manager to confirm the drive is recognized correctly.

Note: HD‑DVD discs were defined without region coding in the spec, so region locks are unlikely to be the cause. (en.wikipedia.org)

If the disc is unreadable on multiple devices, replacement or a legal re‑purchase (Blu‑ray/digital) may be the simplest route. For systems where the disc is readable but playback still fails, focus on finding a patched, HD‑DVD–capable player and current firmware/drivers. This expands on ’s corruption idea by separating hardware/read errors from DRM/player issues, which are the two most common causes.

Member Avatar for shivam9962

i think your dvd was corrupted pleace chek it outside the pc

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