Symptoms:
- Audio works fine, until you stick in a DVD and try to play it with WMP12: no sound.
- WMP12 playing mp3's is fine, but stick in a DVD: no sound.
- Load a DVD ISO on a virtual drive and try to play: no sound.
Because of some trouble I had with the Realtek drivers for windows 7, and the Sony DVD drive, I was not certain at this point where precisely the problem lay. Searching a bit for Realtek, DVD and Sony's DW-D56A didn't turn anything up, so I started looking more broadly.
Turns out a post on AVForums by Damernath pointed out a very simple solution that worked like a charm. I repeat below for your benefit:
- Go to: Control Panel -> Sound
- On the "Playback" tab select "Speakers" and click "Properties"
- On the "Advanced" tab uncheck "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device"
That's it. Restart WMP and watch your DVD glory.