Hello,
I'm new here and the site was the first to show up when I searched for "computer help" so here goes. I got a Dell Inspiron 1525 in March, and about a month ago tried to play a movie. I'm using Windows Vista also. It turns out, I can't play any video or music from CD's or DVD's, though it's NOT a hardware problem because I got Photoshop and Microsoft OFFICE from CD's. Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic, iTunes, they can read the file names and length of the songs, but nothing happens. With movies it sometimes plays the first few seconds but then freezes up. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!Welcome

First off, we will NEED more info about your computer to help you out.  MAKE? model? when did it start happening?  is this new problem?Thanks. Isn't the make and model Dell Inspiron 1525? Like I said, I got it in March, and my friend helped me install Microsoft Office and Photoshop from CDs onto it. In July I tried to play movies and music and it did not work.What player are you using?
Do you have on-line video, and sound?I've tried Media Player classic and Windows Media Player for movies and those 2 plus iTunes for music, all with the same result, they can read the file names and know how long the songs are and who SINGS them and how many scenes there are, and can even play the first few seconds of the beginnings sometimes, but then nothing happens.

Online video and sound, like games, youtube, etc work without a problem. Do you have another computer you can test these files on?Yes. The everything works on my old desktop, the movies work in DVD players, and the CDs work in cd players also.You may have some codecs missing.
To determine that, try VLC Player: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/Yes, I'd forgotten I had that and tried it, same thing happened. So I got the Combined Community Codec Pack, which also didn't help. Quote

So I got the Combined Community Codec Pack