WinDVD and PowerDVD on same machine

J

JWhipple

Member
Back in my XP and Win2k days I learned quickly that having both WinDVD and PowerDVD on the same machine caused more problems than it was worth.

These days I am running a Dell Studio 17 laptop with Vista Ultimate on it. The Dell pre-loaded DVD apps (Which are based on WinDVD) work ok, but I'd like to have PowerDVD installed as well.

Can anyone advise if having both PowerDVD and WinDVD on Vista will cause issues?

Thanks!
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD Athlon 64x2 3800+ (Socket 939)
    Motherboard
    MSI K8N SLI
    Memory
    2GB Corsair DDR in dual channel mode
    Graphics card(s)
    2x BFG Geforce 7600GT in SLI mode
    Sound Card
    Soundblaster Audigy 2
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Big ol' 21 inch Gateway LCD monitor
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    160GB SATA1 (Western Digital) 500GB USB External (Western Digital)
    PSU
    600 Watt BFG
    Mouse
    Logitech G7
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15
Hi JWhipple,

I haven't tried this in Vista as I use the built-in support that is available in Ultimate to play DVDs. I have, however, used both in XP without problems. What you could do is to try it out to see what happens (create a restore point first, then you have something to go back to if it doesn't work).
Just curious as to why Dell chose to include DVD playback software when Vista Ultimate already has support for this media built-in. The only reason that I might opt for one of these programs is if I decide in future to upgrade to HD or BluRay and I find that I need one of them in order to decode the disk content (assuming, of course, that Vista itself is unable to do so).
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dwarf Dwf/11/2012 r09/2013
    CPU
    Intel Core-i5-3570K 4-core @ 3.4GHz (Ivy Bridge) (OC 4.2GHz)
    Motherboard
    ASRock Z77 Extreme4-M
    Memory
    4 x 4GB DDR3-1600 Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B (16GB)
    Graphics card(s)
    MSI GeForce GTX770 Gaming OC 2GB
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition on board solution (ALC 898)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ViewSonic VA1912w Widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    OCZ Agility 3 120GB SATA III x2 (RAID 0) Samsung HD501LJ 500GB SATA II x2 Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 1TB SATA II Iomega 1.5TB Ext USB 2.0 WD 2.0TB Ext USB 3.0
    PSU
    XFX Pro Series 850W Semi-Modular
    Case
    Gigabyte IF233
    Cooling
    1 x 120mm Front Inlet 1 x 120mm Rear Exhaust
    Mouse
    Microsoft Comfort Mouse 3000 for Business (USB)
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 3000 (USB)
    Internet Speed
    NetGear DG834Gv3 ADSL Modem/Router (Ethernet) ~4.0 Mb/s (O2)
    Other Info
    Optical Drive: HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH10LS30 SATA Bluray Lexmark S305 Printer/Scanner/Copier (USB) WEI Score: 8.1/8.1/8.5/8.5/8.25 Asus Eee PC 1011PX Netbook (Windows 7 x86 Starter)
My reason for wanting to have PowerDVD is that you can specify a folder to play the DVD from instead of from the DVD drive. Since I travel with my PC I tend to copy the contents of a few DVDs to the hard drive before each trip so I can have something to watch without bringing the discs. . I'd like to be able to do this on the new laptop.

If there is a way to play a DVD from a folder in WMP or WMC, please, let me know !
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD Athlon 64x2 3800+ (Socket 939)
    Motherboard
    MSI K8N SLI
    Memory
    2GB Corsair DDR in dual channel mode
    Graphics card(s)
    2x BFG Geforce 7600GT in SLI mode
    Sound Card
    Soundblaster Audigy 2
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Big ol' 21 inch Gateway LCD monitor
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    160GB SATA1 (Western Digital) 500GB USB External (Western Digital)
    PSU
    600 Watt BFG
    Mouse
    Logitech G7
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15
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