How can i play a dvd on my asus notebook using an external cd disc drive as it w

when you say "I've played the software disk that came with the disk drive" does that mean that you have installed the driver for your USB DVD drive? is it a DVD drive or just CD drive?

Depending upon what OS you're running you man need to install some codecs before a DVD will play even if you do have a DVD player.

#1 - Is your external optical drive a CD drive or a DVD drive? CDs and DVDs are not the same format. A CD drive can only read CD discs. A DVD drive can read both DVD and CD discs. Additionally, Blu-Ray movies requires a Blu-Ray drive which can also read DVD and CD discs.

#2 - You need a program to play back the DVD movie. I prefer using Media Player Classic (Google it). It includes the necessary DVD codec.

Thanks for trying to help but I really struggle with techno messages. What's a codec???? I thought the DVD/CD player would just work as soon as I connected it to my notebook. I don't understand all these acronyms I'm afraid.

Thanks for your help. Yes, it's a DVD multi compact disc rewritable drive so should play both CDs and DVDs. I thought it would just play when I plugged it in, especially as I'd run the small disc that I got with it. Why is it so difficult!! I don't understand all the techno messages I'm afraid, what's a Codec?? I tried that Google website you recommended but I got a message that it could harm my computer so discarded the download. Any other suggestions??? It's soooo frustrating!

Media Player Classic download

http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

I downloaded directly from there. There should be no warnings at all. If there are, then your anti-virus program is giving you a false positive indicator.

Codec = Coder / Decoder = Basically instructions for the operating system on how to play back a specific audio / video format.