For a free piece of software, Windows Media Player is an excellent choice for
managing your growing collection of video and audio files.

However to make the experience of using WMP complete you need to add a simple
plugin that will allow the software to playback your DVD collection too!

You see Windows Media Player does not come with the ability to play your DVDs
due to the fact that it is a free application and any manufacturer that wants to have this capability in their software must pay a "royalty" payment to the
owners of the DVD format...

So specialist video software companies like COREL and CyberLink have created the
necessary plugin for WMP and paid the royalty" payment, so that you and I can enjoy playing our DVDs in Windows Media Player.

There is a Windows Media Player DVD Plugin available for Windows XP and Windows Vista.

For more information on a suitable Windows Media Player DVD Decoder for your
PC's operating system you can read Microsoft MVP - Marc Liron's article: Windows Media Player DVD Decoder

Please leave a comment if I can help!

Regards

Xavier Lane
Windows Media Player Product Specialist