DVD player problem...

[OlympusXP]

I'm really not sure if this is my DVD player or windows, but if I could get some ideas/help that would be great.
I rented a couple of DVD movies from the rental store and since my family was using the dvd player I was going to use the one on my computer.
To no avail I put it in the drive...the light on the DVD drive comes on...everything's normal, but then Windows just freezes sort of and I can move the mouse, but can't do anything else.

I made sure my regions were ok, and I closed all other running programs and tried again and again.
Thinking it was the DVD, I cleaned it, and tried again to no avail.
Thinking the DVD has a serious bad problem, I tried one of my own DVDs that was in very good condition but the same thing happens.

I checked Device Manager for anything I could adjust, etc. but everythere there was ok.

I have no clue whats going on, I just want to watch my damn DVD!!
What do you guys think is going on?
I use WinDVD btw, but the freezing happens before I even have any programs open. :-(
BTW it's a Panasonic 8X DVD drive....known really as a Matsushita, and im on WinXP pro edition.

 

[MasterHoss]

What version of Windows are you running? If you're running WinXP, are you using Windows Media Player as your softDVD player? What softDVD player are you using?

 

[DanFungus]

have you restarted your computer?

 

[Furyline]

What if you turn off the autorun for your DVD drive and then you put in the DVD? Then just start up WinDVD? I've never had any problems like this myself, but just throwing out ideas.

Mike

 

[RayThunderEarth]

try using another software like powerdvd. i have the same problem with u when i used powedvd when i used another dvd sofware the problem was gone