DVD Player (Windows)

This article is about the Microsoft Windows software. For the electronic device, see DVD player.

DVD Player A component of Microsoft Windows
Details
Included with	Microsoft Windows 98, Me, 2000
Also available for	Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7
Replaced by	Windows Media Player
Support status
Discontinued
Related components
CD Player

DVD Player (also known as dvdplay.exe) is a computer program included in some versions of Microsoft Windows that autoplays a DVD disc if a supported MPEG-2 decoder was present. DVD Player was introduced in Windows 98^[1].

When the DVD Player is launched, it searches all local drives in alphabetical order, starting with the C drive, looking for a Video_TS folder. When this folder is located, the data file within it is loaded, and video streaming begins. If this folder exists on a drive that comes before the DVD drive, the player will try to play the data in the first folder it finds.

In Windows 98/Me and Windows 2000, DVDPlay.exe only plays DVDs if a hardware-based decoder is present. In Windows Me, DVDPlay supports software-based decoders.^[2]. With Windows XP, DVDPlay.exe was dropped as a separate application in favor of DVD functionality introduced into Windows Media Player. While the DVDPlay executable still resides in %Windir%system32, it simply executes Windows Media Player, but the Windows 2000 version can run on Windows XP/Vista/7 (With bugs). However, the full-working hardware-based version was still included with Windows XP pre-RC1.

References

1. ^ Windows 98 Multimedia
2. ^ Description of DVD Player in Windows Millennium Edition