

And not only because of the development but also due to the price it's offered at since we can't download it for free: it costs almost $15. Microsoft's journey to the pastīut it's still surprising that at this stage Microsoft has developed its own DVD player for Windows. However, there are loads of people that still use DVDs because their capacity guarantees a decent quality to be able to play videos and movies, as well as supporting other kinds of data.

Maybe because Blu-rays haven't managed to reach all homes possibly because, despite their greater capacity, users no longer have the need to use this format thanks to the popularity of web services that offer us online contents via streaming. The good news for those of you who still want to play DVDs in their PC is there’s a much better free option available for PCs.Some people say that DVDs are dead but they've also been burying physical formats for quite some time and DVDs are still alive and kicking. It’s not even worth $0.99, let alone $15. Taking a look at the current reviews in the Windows Store, some users are also still experiencing playback problems. The features and interface haven’t changed much, if at all, since it first rolled out in 2015. Still, I wouldn’t recommend wasting your money even if it does work.įor starters, the app is very bare-bones. That compatibility check is a key test if you’re considering purchasing this app. All those multiple crashes were correct, however, and the Acer failed to play the same five discs used on the Lenovo. This didn’t happen with every DVD, but I did see it once or twice.īecause I now had a full version of the DVD player I decided to test it on the Aspire E15 again, just in case the compatibility test was faulty. You’d click on the option to play the full movie, and end up on a settings screen instead-the menu option right below the one you wanted. I encountered one annoyance, where some DVD menus couldn’t be navigated properly. There are also controls hidden under three dots to jump back to the DVD menu. Controls are easy enough to manipulate with a mouse, and it covers all the basics: play/pause, fast forward, rewind, and chapter skipping. Once I inserted a disk all I had to do was fire up Windows DVD Player, and the disc started playing after a few minutes. All five DVDs I tested worked, ranging from studio movies to exercise videos. So now that I know the DVD player works with the Lenovo, it’s time to invest $15 of PCWorld’s hard-earned money to see how it plays actual movies. So to recap, my 7-year-old Sandy Bridge PC also running Windwas compatible, while an Acer Aspire with the more modern Kaby Lake processor wasn’t. This combo worked with Microsoft’s DVD Player app in 2015 and, as it turns out, still does. With no luck on the Acer, I turned to my trusty Lenovo X220 and an external Transcend standard DVD player/burner.
