WinDVD is a software DVD Player for Microsoft Windows. It is one of the software player options you can use to provide the necessary system capabilities that allow SSP to playback DVDs.

With the October 2006 Edition of SSP 7, tests were performed with the SSP DVD capabilities and WinDVD versions 4 through 7. These tests showed that WinDVD was compatible with SSP for DVD and MPEG-2 playback, but with some potential problems (read SW010).

WinDVD also installs the necessary codecs that let you play MPEG-2 files.

WinDVD is produced by InterVideo.

Update:

WinDVD 8 was recently released. We have run this version through a large set of tests. Due to stability problems associated with versions 5 through 7 their interaction with SSP, the recommendation is to not use these versions with SSP but to instead upgrade to WinDVD 8. This is primarily due to problems associated with the playback of MPEG-2 video files (read SW010), but also affects the use of two or more DVD discs in the same SSP program. At the time of this post, WinDVD 8 sells for $39.95. You can upgrade from InterVideo's website: http://www.intervideo.com/. If you are using WinDVD 4, there is no compelling reason to upgrade to WinDVD 8 for SSP purposes.

UPDATE:

As previously noted WinDVD 8 is a currently approved DVD application for use with SongShow Plus.  This update is regarding the third-party applications that come with the various installations of WinDVD 8.

Should you choose WinDVD 8 as your DVD playback software, none of the 3rd party applications (Google tool bar, RealPlayer, and QuickTime) should be installed. All of them can be either deselected or canceled during the installation process.

RealPlayer and QuickTime in particular are problematic and not required for SongShow Plus operation.  They have been found to cause issues with video playback of various file types from within SongShow Plus.  This is most likely due to the additional codecs/filters that are installed with them.