"Tom Francis" wrote in message

Ummm not so fast. You also *said* that Bill should have included it for
free.

Well, let's put it this way. There is a DVD player in the machine.
The DVD player is recognized by XP, but will not allow anything to be
played on it.

Why put one on the machine in the first place if it can't be used?

It's like purchasing a car, but having to pay extra for a
transmission.

Doesn't make any sense.

Now you're getting back on the right track. I agree with you that if an OEM
builder (any OEM builder from Dell to Joe's Computer Shack) includes a DVD
player in the machine, that he outta spring for the CODEC to play the MPEG-2
files. But that's not Bill's fault unless Microsoft actually *built* the
computer. Same with a DVD burner... you need the Nero suite or something
silmilar to make it actually burn a DVD. I've seen that missing in OEM
systems too, from big name companies.

-W