You're justified to ask this question especially if you're new to dvd software players apart or if you're only familiar with the Windows Media Player that came with your system.
Free DVD software players are looked at with suspicion by some folks for fear that if they are installed they may infect your system with a virus or destablise your system. This may be true for some players as they are known to cause the Windows operating system to hang. But that doesn't mean that all free DVD software players are unreliable.
Before you download and install a free DVD software player, you should do a little homework first. Make sure you download the player from a reputable site like CNet. Usually reputable sites carry software downloads which are virus and malware free.
Secondly, at the sites, there's a comment or review section where users comment about the quality and the reliability of the software programs they download. So, if it's an unreliable program they would alert other users.
I personally use the VLC free DVD software player to play my DVDs in my PC over the years and since it's an open source program developed by a serious community of volunteers, it's reliable and does its job well.
That said, if you're downloading another free DVD software player, you could do well to do a check by visiting forums which discusses DVD software players to see if members highlight any issues relating to the software player you intend to download and install.
You can also do a search over Google by keying in "name of player + complaints or issues" to see if anyone has had a bad experience with the free DVD software player you intend to install.
