New DVD drive won't play DVDs

[MPTech]

I installed the new dvd drive and the computer recognized the new hardware. I also set the country location to US. I get the following message when I try to watch a DVD:


Windows Media Player cannot play the DVD because a compatible DVD decoder is not installed on your computer.

I went to web help and got the following info:

DVD Playback Options for Windows
If you are running the Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, or Windows XP operating system on your computer, you might need to install a compatible DVD decoder (also known as a MPEG-2 decoder) before continuing with the following activities.
Playing a DVD
Playing a recorded TV show
Playing video files that were encoded with the MPEG-2 codec (.mpeg, .mpg, and some .avi files)

To purchase a compatible DVD decoder, visit Plug-ins for Windows Media Player.

Do I really need to purchase something or do I need to update or enable something else?

[wonderinguy34]

Did the drive not come with software such as PowerDVD ?

[Midknyte]

Try VLC.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

[photolady]

You could also install K-lite Codecs to use Windows Media player.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/...codec_pack.htm