Alienware Area51 cant play a Blu-Ray DVD movie?

Getting lots of views on this but not any answers.

Any help would be appreciated.

What is the HDCP Status reported by the NVIDIA Control Panel ?

In the NVIDIA Control Panel there is a tab labelled "View HDCP status" that displays the support status.

In Device Manager under 'Monitors' if it shows simply as "Generic PnP Monitor" then you may have to install the monitor drivers from Dell.

Thanks for the reply...

In the NVIDIA Control Panel it shows my display as DELL U2913WM. This display supports HDCP.

There is a small picture of the video card and a monitor with a cable between the two. The cable has a lock symbol on it.

In the windows control panel my monitor is listed as a DELL U2913WM as well, Yes it does have the dell driver for it installed.

oops, an update...

If I click on the box showing the graphic in the NVIDIA control panel the status will change to This display does not support HDCP.

I guess it starts getting interesting from here

Could be issue with cable, try an HDMI cable if possible.

Monitor does not come with any other cables that seem to be able to make such a connection.

Not sure if I am even able to buy such a cable to try this.

Your monitor has an HDMI port - does you graphics card not have one ? You'll need to get hold of an HDMI cable to try this.

Got through to their sales and ordered a HDMI cable.

Honestly I don't know how they figure out the connectors on these things but the guy seemed to understand my card and monitor.

I'll update this thread as soon as I have a chance to try it out.

Thanks for the efforts so far.

Al

Well got the new HDMI cable connected. Everything remains the same and still the same error.

Opened another ticket with them that has been open for 8 days now and they are not even responding to it. I'm truly disappointed in this brand and feel as though I've been mislead after throwing a lot of money at it.

Dell and Alienware have been a disappointment and it looks like this will never be resolved.

Thanks to the users here that at least have tried to help me. You're doing a far better job than Dell.

-1 customer

Al

Al,

I'm not sure how to help you, but you may want to try posting your problem here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/forums/alienware-desktops.1122/

It's free to join and then you can post.

There are many knowledgeable people there.

John 

What Country are you in? If USA, is the actual BluRay disc a USA retail disc or Region-1 disc?

In Device Manager, is the optical BluRay drive itself set to the proper Region? If USA, should be set to Region-1. Also, don't be needlessly changing it, because you are only allowed 3-5 CHANGES EVER (in the life of the drive).

Could be issue with cable, try an HDMI cable if possible.

Yep, I have seen an issue like this.  Not sure if you are using a laptop or the tower.   Anyway.  In my experience with an Alienware 14, It is more of a Windows problem, rather than an Alienware problem.   I had issues trying to play DVD and then ejecting that, and starting a Blue Ray, which on my Alienware 14 only plays with the provided Power DVD software.  

My first piece of advice is, if you are in the US, and you said that it is a recently purchased computer.   Back up all your stuff to an external drive.   Make sure you have copies of all your activation codes and passwords, because what you are about to do, you might end up needing to use them.   All those things you might need if you re-installed the OS.   It is a good thing to do, even if you do not need to re-install the Windows OS, and your personal files.  

This would be a good time to create a back up of your Registry.  

Call Alienware Support, be prepared with several different kinds of discs, Blu-Ray, Regular movie, and Audio CD.  and some time of your own to spend on this.   They likely will want to do that Remote Desktop thing and take over your computer from their offices. 

Likely the issue is either you have some new form of Blu-Ray, which you might not have the latest update of Power DVD Codecs to read.   IMO: that is not likely it.  It is something to do with the Registry,    The usual advice is to go into the Registry and delete the high and low filters, then reboot.  

That was when I discovered that I did not have copies of all the Activation Codes I needed after I re-installed Windows.   That is, my trying to edit the Registry did a hard crash of Windows.  If I had realized I could create a Registry Back-up.  and if I had known how to go into Windows Safe Mode to Re-install the Registry, I would have been back to where I start, a working computer that can not sort out how to run a regular DVD or a Blu-Ray.    Sometimes this problem can be solved by simply using an audio CD between the two movies, as it does something to re-intialize the firmware with the Drive.  Or something that Re-Sets how Windows looks at the Optical Drive.  

There is a M$ Fix-It program that is supposed to sort out this issue as well.  Did not work for me, but it might for you.   If you could also figure out whatever sequence you need to perform to get the Windows looking at the Drive and its Firmware correctly.  

Then again might be something in Nividia needs to interpret a Blu Ray differently than a regular movie. 

Notice I am not commenting on, or contradicting all those things about the Monitor and cable, They may be right.   If you can run a Regular Movie, then that says it is maybe not the Monitor or Cable.  

I have had another issue where just getting the Power DVD to start with any movie being difficult,   Having to turn the PowerDVD off.   Re-insert the DVD,   Power DVD can take a minute or two to figure out what-how it needs to read a DVD.   Like I said, put an audio in and get it started in Media Player suite from Dell, and then go back to the DVD.  

I have not really solved this issue to my satisfaction, but I have no intention of again re-installing my OS because I messed around in the Registry.