How to Play DVDs on Windows 11 Handily?

DVDs are a dying form of entertainment media because they are starting to be phased out in favor of digital files and streaming service. Most people watch movies on their PCs, laptops, tablets, or smartphones these days. However, if you still have a huge DVD collections and don't want to part with them, you can always play them on your Windows 11 computer.

As everyone knows, Microsoft has neutered the DVD playback capability starting from Windows 8, so you have to take a roundabout way to get there. Fortunately, the following paragraphs give you two simple ways to play DVDs on Windows 11 swimmingly.

As mentioned, Windows 11 doesn't natively support DVD playback, you have to buy Windows DVD player in the Microsoft Store at $14.99. But it's not as good as you think with many negative reviews. Of course, it wouldn't be a problem if you don’t care about that. :-)

Instead, with the built-in rich codecs, there are some free third-party media players powerful enough to play any media files as well as DVD discs on Windows 11, such as VLC media player, KMPlayer, PotPlayer, Kodi, PowerDVD player, and so forth.

Basically, they all share the similar operation steps. I'll take VLC as an example, run VLC > Media > Open Disc, choose a DVD drive and start playing a DVD on Windows 11. In addition, they're also capable of playing DVD ISO images and Video_TS folders.

Sometimes, even with the right media player, you might run into issues playing DVDs on Windows 11. Here are some common problems and how to solve them:

a. DVD not recognized

Make sure your optical drive is working correctly. Try inserting a different disc to see if it's recognized. If not, you might need to update your drive's drivers or check for hardware issues.

b. Playback is choppy or freezes

This could be due to a dirty or scratched disc. Clean the DVD gently with a soft cloth. If the problem persists, try lowering the video quality in your media player settings.

c. No sound during playback

Check your audio settings in Windows 11. Make sure the correct audio device is selected and the volume is turned up. Also, check the audio settings within your media player.

d. Region code issues

DVDs are often region-locked. If you're trying to play a DVD from a different region, you might need to change your DVD drive's region code. Be careful, though, as most drives only allow a limited number of region changes. Or just purchase a region-free DVD drive.

e. New DVD copy-protection

The third-party media players works well for your homemade DVDs, but may fail to decode commercially produced DVDs on Windows 11 due to the ever-changing DVD copy-protection. In this case, you have to wait for the software updates.

f. Error messages about missing codecs

You need to install additional codecs if the problem occurs or you can opt for a player like VLC that comes with its own codecs.

If all else fails, give it another shot on the Method 2.

For a large DVD collection, you're able to create your DVD digital library onto Windows 11 hard drive so that you can conveniently manage and play movies, TV episodes, anime, concerts, music videos and the like without a hitch. Given this, a decent DVD to digital converter is necessary.

WonderFox DVD Ripper Pro is a professional DVD ripping application that offers a one-stop way to remove all DVD copy-protection like region code, CSS, RCE, UOPs, Sony ARccOS, Disney X-Project DRM, etc., and convert DVD to MP4, MKV, AVI, MP3 and 300+ video and audio formats. It can compress an 8.5GB DVD content to 2GB video file for free playback on Windows 11 anytime and anywhere. Here's how to use it.

That’s all! Now, you can easily and successfully play DVDs on Windows 11 with the two recommended methods. If you only watch DVDs once in a while, just install one Windows 11 DVD player mentioned above.

But for long-term use, you can build your own DVD digital library on your Windows 11 PC, external hard drive, Kodi, Plex, media server, NAS, cloud storage, etc., which is much more convenient for playback, backup and personal fair-use. If so, DownloadDownload WonderFox DVD Ripper Pro to get the work done easily.

Compared with other DVD ripping programs, WonderFox DVD Ripper Pro stands out from the crowd because of its intuitive interface, powerful DVD decryption technology, straightforward operation and fast processing speed.

Hopefully, this post is of some help to you on how to watch DVDs on Windows 11. Start your work now! Cheers!