10 Best DVD Players for Windows 10 You Should Use

Feb. 6, 2021

In this article, we have shared the 10 best DVD players for Windows 10. Almost all the apps support and can play a large number of DVD media formats. Besides the third-party apps, we have also included a DVD player developed by Microsoft. You can click on the link below to easily move to the apps. But before that let’s find out what exactly happened to the Windows Media Center.

Windows Media Center was a popular media application that had support for several media formats. It could play media files directly from the DVD without any codec or incompatibility issues. However,due to licensing issues with the MPEG2 codec, Microsoft had to remove built-in DVD playback support from Windows Media Center.

Gradually, WMC faded into oblivion and Microsoftdiscontinued the productafter the release of Windows 10. At present, there is no native way to play DVDs on Windows 10. But you don’t have to worry at all. We have got some amazing third-party apps that can play DVDs without any issue. So without further ado, let’s begin with the best DVD players for Windows 10.

List of Top Windows 10 DVD Players

List of Top Windows 10 DVD Players

VLC doesn’t need much introduction, but if you have no idea about it, let me briefly tell you about this awesome app. VLC is a free and open-source media player that supports countless numbers of media formats.It can play DVD, CD, Blu-ray, and both encrypted and unencrypted DVDs, along with standard audio and video formats.

Talking about the performance, it’ssimply top-notchand plays videos without any stuttering issues. You won’t find any incompatibility problems, lag, or audio issues with VLC, largely due to its huge library of reliable decoders and encoders.

VLC heavily relies on theopen-source FFmpeg projectwhich provides many alternatives to proprietary codecs. All in all, it’s one of the best apps among all the DVD players for Windows 10 and you simply can’t go wrong with it. To learn more about the app, you can go through our article on thebest VLC tips and tricks.

Pros

Cons

Download VLC Media Player(Free)

Note:You must have VLC 3.0 or above to play Blu-ray media files. Also, make sure to download the installation file directly from the official website. The one hosted on Microsoft Store doesn’t support Blu-ray playback.

Since Windows Media Center is no longer available, Microsoft has developed a standalone app that can play DVDs fairly well.It is not part of the OS and you will have to download it from the Microsoft Store. Do note that Windows DVD Player is a paid app and you will have to shell out $14.99 to buy it. But before that, you can take a 7-day free trial and decide if you want to go with this app.

At the outset, it plays DVDs pretty well andsupports many video formats. However, you can’t play Blu-rays so that’s a bummer. Nevertheless, the performance is decent and I found no playback issues. Overall, it’s a good app without any bells and whistles. If you miss Windows Media Center, this app could be a good replacement, but do take a trial before finalizing your purchase.

Pros

Cons

Download Windows DVD Player(Free trial for 7 days, $14.99)

Media Player Classic is a popular media player, second only to VLC. Similar to VLC, it’s a free and open-source app that supports a multitude of media formats.It can render DVD and Blu-ray media files flawlessly using its in-house developed codec. MPC, as it’s widely known, is popular for its community-based codec pack. It has a huge library of codecs that can transcode and play almost every media format out there.

Pros

Cons

Download Media Player Classic(Free)

Kodi is apowerful media server appthat can play anything and everything you throw at it. Among the many things it offers, Kodi has playback support for DVDs, CDs, Blu-rays, and a lot more. You have to just insert the DVD and Kodi will detect the media source. It uses something called the Core which is designed to handle DVD playback. The Core is based on the libdvdcss library whichsupports almost all the mainstream media formats.

It’s so powerful that it can transcode media files in real-time. The open-source library can directly play DVD formats such as VOB, FUP, etc. without uncompressing the media files. If you are looking for the best DVD players for Windows 10, Kodi is surely one of them. If you are new to this world then go through ourbeginner’s explainer on Kodi.

Pros

Cons

Note:To play DVDs automatically with Kodi, go to Settings-> Player-> Discs-> Enable the first toggle. Also, if you are new to Kodi, check out our article on bestKodi addons,Kodi repos,Kodi skins,Kodi keyboard shortcuts,Kodi installation guide, and more to get started with the app.

Download Kodi(Free)

CyberLink PowerDVD is a powerful application to play all kinds of media disc formats. It can play 8K, 4K, and HDR videos from DVD and Blu-ray media discs.The app has got certification from the Blu-ray Disc Associationso it uses the proprietary codecs to play a large number of media formats without any playback issues. Besides the video playback, it has got TrueTheater Technology which is supposed to bring surround sound system effect.

It’s clear that CyberLink PowerDVD is afeature-rich appand one of the best DVD players for Windows 10. But keep in mind, if you want all the premium features then you need to pay $59.99. That said, CyberLink now offers a free version with support for many DVD formats but it won’t have Blu-ray support.

Pros

Cons

Download CyberLink PowerDVD(Free, Paid Version Starts at $59.99)

KMPlayer is one of the oldest and most powerful multimedia players available on Windows 10. It supports a wide range of media types including DVD, VCD, SVCD, and Blu-ray disc images.KMPlayer sports a powerful renderer which can play any kind of video formatyou throw at it. The video quality is great and there is no lag whatsoever even while playing large files.

KMPlayer has a huge list of media libraries andin-house codec supportwhich brings significant improvement to DVD playback. Simply put, if you are looking for a DVD Player for Windows 10 which supports almost every media format then KMPlayer is for you. Just install it and you will be all set to play DVDs on your Windows 10 PC without any issues.

Pros

Cons

Download KMPlayer(Free)

PotPlayer is a simple multimedia player for Windows 10 with support for DVD playback. It doesn’t have a fancy UI but it can play Blu-ray disc images, IFO media files, and more. The great part is that the performance is absolutely fantastic.It uses open-source video codecs to transcode and render DVD media files.

I found no stuttering, incompatibility, or rendering issues while playing DVD files with PotPlayer. If you are looking for ano-frills DVD playerfor Windows 10, PotPlayer can be a great alternative. You should definitely give it a shot before going for the paid ones.

Pros

Cons

Download PotPlayer(Free)

SMPlayer is another free and open-source app that can play a large number of media formats including DVD, VCD, Blu-ray, etc. The video playback is excellent with great clarity and itcan also play 4K videos up to 60 FPS. Overall, the performance is quite stable and I found no glitch while playing multiple DVD media files.

It can also provide subtitles for videos played from DVD and Blu-ray discs so that’s great. Besides, SMPlayersupports hardware accelerationso you will not face playback delay or stuttering issues while playing a large volume of DVD media files. All in all, it’s an awesome DVD player for Windows 10 and it’s regularly updated, unlike many media players out there.

Pros

Cons

Download SMPlayer(Free)

GOM Player is an interesting DVD player for Windows 10. Among many media formats, it can play DVD, VCD, and SVCD disc images flawlessly. The distinct feature of GOM Player is thatit can play broken media files by finding the missing codecs. It has something called Codec Finder service which looks for the damaged part and rebuilds the index.

Itpatches the bad frameswith missing codecs or by simply skipping it. If you have a DVD and you are unable to play it due to damaged tracks, you can give GOM Player a shot. Keep in mind, it offers both free and paid versions but in terms of DVD playback, both are the same. However, on the free version, you will have to live with ads.

Pros

Cons

Download GOM Player(Free, Ad-free version for $25)

5KPlayer is our final app on this list. It’s a multimedia player that supports several mainstream media formats including DVD and VCD images. Do note that it doesn’t support Blu-ray media files so you will have to convert the disc images first and then play it with 5KPlayer. Talking about the performance, it is quite decent andthe app can play DVD file formats directly from the optical disc.

I didn’t findany stutter or audio delayissues while playing DVDs so that is great. However, you are inundated with many ads which I found really annoying. All in all, it’s a decent app and you can give it a try if you want a sleek-looking DVD player for your Windows 10 PC.

Pros

Cons

Download 5KPlayer(Free)

In the above section, I have shared the top 10 best DVD players for Windows 10. Butif you want to truly have a seamless experience with DVDsthen you must tweak the Auto-Play settings. It will make the DVD watching experience much better. Here is how you can do it.

Press the Windows key once and type “DVD”. You willfind “Play CDs or other media automatically” option.Click on it.
Here, scroll down andchange the “DVD movie option” to the DVD player of your choice. Similarly, you can change apps for other scenarios as well. After that, click on the “Save” button.
That’s it. Now whenever you will insert a DVD on your PC, the said DVD player will open up, ready to play the media files. Enjoy!

Yes, there are a number of free DVD players for Windows 10 such as VLC, Media Player Classic, Kodi, KM Player, and more. You can find a comprehensive list of the best DVD players from this article.

As I have mentioned above, due to licensing issues of the MPEG-2 media format, Microsoft had to remove support for DVD playback on Windows Media Center. As a result, Microsoft dropped DVD support altogether on Windows 10. That said, there are a number of third-party apps and one Microsoft app as well that allows you to play DVDs on Windows 10. You can find the apps from our above list.

Windows Media Player can no longer play DVD files because of the licensing issues with the MPEG-2 codec. You can find other alternatives from our above list.

To make VLC play DVDs automatically, go to Settings -> Devices -> Autoplay. Here, turn on the toggle. That’s it.

You can connect a DVD player to your laptop, but you will need an HDMI converter that can connect HDMI to a micro HDMI port.

So that was our list of top 10 DVD players for Windows 10. You can go through the article and pick whichever fits your bill. I would, however, recommend VLC because of its no-nonsense experience. You just install VLC and it works. Nevertheless, you can go through other options as well and choose one according to your preference. So to wrap up, if you liked the article or you want to share your favorite DVD player, do comment down below. We will definitely check it out.

Passionate about Windows, ChromeOS, Android, security and privacy issues. Have a penchant to solve everyday computing problems.