playing dvds on my pc

[busetibi]

I have a ligit copy of Nero StartSmart Essentials 7 on my machine but it's telling me I need to upgrade or get a plug in to be able to play dvds, I was wondering what you guys use to play dvds, if I can get away without having to buy something (not talking about warez) a freeware prog that will let me do it.when I was playing Q3 I was watching Q3 movies on divx or divex, but it's been ages since I used something like that and I'm out of touch
does a prog exist for this or will I have to buy something?
and If I have to buy something which/what is best?
It's summer here and the tv is absolute crap atm, being in a house with three females means I dont get to watch my horror/scifi/monty python dvds, and the games that are out atm do nothing for me.
so yea, suggestions please

[EggChen]

Well I use MediaPlayer for DVDs as Vista (premium) plays them out of the box.

For anything else I use VLC, it plays absolutely anything....

Edit: I am sure when I was on XP I could use VLC to play DVDs as well.

Edit2: Yep, try this http://www.videolan.org/
Never had to use anything else since I got it.

[EggChen]

Didn't want to do a 3rd edit!!!!!!!!!!!

On the subject of Q3, will you be giving us mere mortals some lessons when QLive comes out?

[busetibi]

w00t!
thank you kind sir
now watching Resident Evil 3
Mila...... rool:
heh, regarding Q3, hell yes!
I did get to number 154 in the world for OSPCTF, but that was back in the day.
I haven't played it for over five years, as it was part of the marriage council pact I had to make to save my marriage.
prac nights with the clan would go till two-three am and match nights would start at six pm and finish well after two am then the match would be taken apart by the coach and we'd all watch the match from different perspectives (demos)
so on one level I can see why she was so pissed at me, but at least I was at home and not chatting up the local barmaid

:sigh: tbh, I do miss playing Q3, shit I was playing it for over seven years

[EggChen]

No problem, and yes Resident Evil series of films are amongst my favourites for that one reason alone!!

I do some pretty stupid hours on this thing at times, so when its out I'd love to give you a game (get trounced by you) on Q3. I have never really done multiplayer in a big way, but I did spend about a year playing FEAR online, loved that.... until you get the kiddies with OMG WTF HAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! everytime you shoot them.

I got kicked from a couple of servers for hacking, never hacked a game in my life... I used to try and tell them "I don't have a wall hack, I wear earphones..... thats how I knew you were coming."

[busetibi]

yup, it can get annoying when they say that, but at least with Q3 you can play on a punkbuster server, no way can you use any sort of hack with pb.
I've been wearing/using 'phones for years, and if you know the map you can tell/hear the exact place they are at

[ket]

I use WMP11. Does a good job of any DVD I've stuffed in my drives, and plays divx, mpg, and just about every video format known to man too, apart from .mov, youll need quicktime for that, which you can DL for free.