Free Alternatives to DVD Decoders

Without a DVD decoder, your computer will not be able to play DVDs. DVDs have become the standard media format for personal computers. DVD players allow a user to play CD-ROMs in addition to DVDs. In order to play these DVDs, however, the disk must be decoded by a particular software on the computer.

How does a DVD decoder work?
*It unlocks the CSS copy protection placed on video files on a DVD movie disk
*It uses the MPEG2 codec to decode the MPEG2 formatting applied to video content
*It displays the video through a multimedia player previously installed on your computer.

Developing and getting a DVD decoder certified requires that licensing and royalty fees be paid to the various patent holders of the specific DVD technology. This is why DVD decoder software is not available for free. Usually, a DVD decoder is included when you buy a DVD player for your computer. This option is available if you personally bought the DVD player for your computer. However, you may have a problem if you purchased a used or refurbished computer that didn't come with a decoder program. How will you get a free DVD decoder?

If you have a DVD player on your computer with no decoder, I suggest that you download VLC from here. While there isn't any free standalone DVD decoder available, VLC is capable of playing DVDs, VCDs, and many streaming video formats.

VLC is a portable multimedia player that can be used for many audio and video formats such as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, and OGG. VLC can also be used as a server to stream on a high-bandwidth network. Given the fact that VLC doesn't need a DVD decoder, it is the best free solution for using your computer's DVD player to play DVDs without having to buy a DVD decoder

If you want to use Windows Media Player to play DVDs, you should purchase InterVideo's DVDXPack from here. This DVD decoder package adds DVD playback to Windows Media Player on Windows XP. You can also purchase WinDVD from here. WinDVD is used by over 45 million users and is the world's leading DVD decoder.

You can also backup DVDs using a program that will create an image of the DVD to be saved on your hard drive. My personal favorite is Alcohol 120%. In addition to being able to burn and backup DVDs and CDs, Alcohol 120% allows user to create a virtual drive that acts like a DVD or CD player. Alcohol 120% can be downloaded from here.