My External DVD Drive Arrived Today

My nephew and sister helped me order it last Friday before I left Longview. It's a DVD and CD read/write external drive. I was all excited--well, still am but with a moderate (temporary I hope) annoyance--because I had just checked out two DVD series from the library this week. Both BBC: Torchwood series one and To the Manor Born entire series. Was hoping to watch some tonight but after I got my device installed I discovered that I can't play DVD on it yet because my Windows 7 Starter Edition that came with my netbook does not include a MPEG-2 decoder. Just to get the decoder will cost me $14 and to get the Windows 7 upgrade that includes it will cost $79.

I don't get the point of withholding that when every multi-media PC we've had since 1996 has allowed the playing of DVD. I feel somewhat like being held hostage. I never know when I try to do something on my netbook that I've taken for granted for over ten years if it is going to tell me I need this upgrade or that plug-in. Like there is someone in the shadows holding out his hand for cash every time I click on a shortcut.

I just spent the last two hours searching online for freeware that would play DVD or supply the MPEG-2 codex. Found one promising one and installed it but it didn't work. Found a free Windows Media Player Classic which also promised to solve it but it didn't work. Got the audio after installing the MPEG-2 but no picture.

So for the moment I'm stymied. I'll have to wait until Ed gets home from work tomorrow to see if he can solve it.

I know one possibility but I don't know if he is still inclined: he upgraded his Vista machine to Windows 7 Home edition last month and after we discovered the limitations of the starter edition that came with my netbook he discussed the possibility of taking his machine back to Vista with the factory discs and installing the Windows 7 upgrade on my netbook. There was something about the Vista he wanted back, so it wasn't just for my sake. We were discussing that on the phone just after I got my netbook nearly three weeks ago but we haven't discussed it again since.