trying to play a dvd on a mates laptop, and nomatter what codecs i install, media player i use we cant get dvds to work. it says there is copy protection between the dvd drive, the graphics card and the os.

im stumped, we are using real dvds as well

Have you tried to update the graphics drivers?
Only thing I can think of.

Try using VLC. It basically ignores the copy protection

sweet vlc works well good.