If you just get a blank window (like below) when trying to playback some DVD’s on a laptop, the following steps should rectify the problem!

1. Select ‘Tools’ and then ‘Preferences’ (or press Ctrl+P), which will bring up the following;
2. Click on ‘All’ at the bottom left, under ‘Show settings’, and type ‘dvd’ in the top box.  This should now look like the following;
3. Click on ‘DVD with menus’, this should present the following;
4. Now click to remove the tick mark ‘Start directly in menu’.
5. With the screen looking as above, make sure to press ‘Save’.  Now if you stop / start playback – or simple close and start over to play the dvd it should launch right away.