File cannot be rendered

Hello. I am in desperate need of help. I have a course that I bought in 2007 that is on a set of DVDs. There is a security code to open each DVD. My current computer is a Surface Pro 6 with Windows 11. Windows Media Player, VCL and 5Kplayer all have failed to open/play the DVDs which contain video lessons. I figure it is a Codec problem and downloaded the K-Lite Codec Pak (Standard). It was installed on Windows Media Classic. The error that I am now getting is that the file cannot be rendered. These files are WMV. I don't know what else to do again. Kindly help if you can. Thanks in advance.

Those wmv files are DRM protected. You should be able to play them with Windows Media Player once the decryption key is installed. That is what the DVD does (or should do) when it prompts for the security code.

Which error does WMP show? You should use the old WMP, not the modern player from Windows, as I am not sure if that still supports the old DRM stuff.

Hi and thank you for your response. When I attempted to open it with Windows Media Player I got the error message: Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file.

If you can make an ISO of one of those DVDs and upload it to for example Google Drive or Dropbox, then I could have a look at it.

Otherwise, I would suggest trying it on an older computer with Windows 7 or 10.

Thank you for your help thus far. I really do appreciate it. Here is the link for the ISO file on my Google Drive.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QWflQ93oPBK04bpTwM0DwaNY5k-Qx7Od/view?usp=sharing

The wmv files are not DRM protected, they are encrypted files.

You need to open autoruns.exe file.

Can you expand a bit more on your suggestion, please? I had to do a bit of searching for what is autoruns.exe file.
I sadly don't know what my next steps should be. Thank you for your patience and knowledge.

autorun.exe is the program that is located on that DVD.

In the past that would be executed automatically when inserting a DVD. In modern versions of Windows, that is often disabled by default, so you need to run it manually.

Thanks... so this is what happens when I try to manually autorun the DVD:
1. Error Message: Acritical error occurred in the previous instance. The automatic internet support system might be able to solve the problem. Do you want to connect to the automatic internet support system?
When I selected 'yes' I get an email stating 'Auto support is no longer active for this product'.

2. Error Message: This CD-ROM is not approved. If this is an original CD-ROM, please contact your distributor for support. Machine Code: RD9L-2LRT

I do have the Original DVDs. At this point, with no company support, I am trying to figure this out alternatively.

I don't know if there is anything else you can suggest at this point. Thanks for all your help thus far.

I can't help you any further.