Question about adding a DVD player to PC

[Larry_OHF]

I did a search on Circuit City.com and found that there is only one kind of DVD player, a generic brand that is called Star...something, with ATAPI interface. It is 16x, I think is the only speed available, and costs like $50 or something. I have a space available for it in my machine, under the CDROM and CDRW. Now, my question is...what will it take to put it in there? Is this something that you guys can teach me to connect on my own? What more would I need installed in order to watch a movie on it? I have a SoundBlaster Audigy 2, so no problems there, and the Video card is a NVidia, GeForce 3, Ti200. I have WinXP and 1024MB, SDRAM.

In other words, I have the system to back it up, unless I need more than the DVD ROM.

[Ziroc]

Originally posted by Larry_OHF: I did a search on Circuit City.com and found that there is only one kind of DVD player, a generic brand that is called Star...something, with ATAPI interface. It is 16x, I think is the only speed available, and costs like $50 or something. I have a space available for it in my machine, under the CDROM and CDRW. Now, my question is...what will it take to put it in there? Is this something that you guys can teach me to connect on my own? What more would I need installed in order to watch a movie on it? I have a SoundBlaster Audigy 2, so no problems there, and the Video card is a NVidia, GeForce 3, Ti200. I have WinXP and 1024MB, SDRAM. In other words, I have the system to back it up, unless I need more than the DVD ROM.

Just remember, you get what you pay for [img]smile.gif[/img] Like that last Hard drive I had... It was cheaper, THIS time, I spent 30 more dollars and got a KILLER Drive.

Now I don't know if Lite-on makes a DVD player, but those are ok--they make another 'known' brand as well. But I have a Plextor DVD drive, and it kicks ass.

I saw that DVD-ROM burners are at $167.00 (At Circuit City) with rebate now... Yum! [img]smile.gif[/img] Wish I could afford it NOW!

[WillowIX]

Yes Lite-on has some DVD players, or at least one. And it's cheaper than the one you listed Larry. I bought mine for about $40 (US) and it works fine. To watch a movie you're all set, but you need a DVD-player (software). You will most certainly get one bundled with your DVD though. Otherwise you need to install the codec DVD's use, mpeg something...

[Ziroc]

Originally posted by WillowIX: Yes Lite-on has some DVD players, or at least one. And it's cheaper than the one you listed Larry. I bought mine for about $40 (US) and it works fine. To watch a movie you're all set, but you need a DVD-player (software). You will most certainly get one bundled with your DVD though. Otherwise you need to install the codec DVD's use, mpeg something...

Cool! Yeah, I use one of the best software packs, it's called 'Power DVD'. and it rocks!

[andrewas]

ATAPI is a kludge built on IDE, and ATAPI drives are often labeled IDE, so any drive marked IDE will go in your machine with minimum fuss. The alternative is SCSI, but thats more complex to fit even if you already have the right SCSI interface on your machine, which you probably dont.

IDE drives are dead easy to fit. The easiest way in your circumstance is to rip out the CDROM and plug the DVDROM in its place. Make sure to set the master/slave jumpers on the back the same way the old drive was.

You can have a maximum of 4 IDE drives in your machine, but if you currently only have 3 you could put the new drive in addition to your old drives. Its simple enough to figure out, just pay attention to which way the IDE cable goes and make sure you get the master/slave setting right. The most difficult thing about doing 3 opticals and 1 HDD is that your typical case puts the HDD bays to far from the front bays to run the cable.

Oh, and your soundcard will probably only have 2 audio inputs, so youll have to choose which drives you want to listen to music in and connect accordingly. This does not affect sound in DVD playback, just analogue playback such as when you play a music CD through CDplayer.

The drive will come with software to watch DVDs, the same software will probably also steal every multimedia assosciation under the sun, so you might have to mess with the options if you want to watch mpg files with something else.

Your hardware will be fine for playback, anyone that trys to tell you you need hardware decoder is living in the past.

[Ziroc]

BTW, Some DVD Drives will not come with a digital out wire. But unless you play lots of CD's or rip them, it doesn't matter much.

The normal wire (analog) is fine. I just went digital, and have the Audigy Sound card and front bay option board.

[Larry_OHF]

Thanks for your help, everyone!

[Zero Alpha]

Originally posted by andrewas: The most difficult thing about doing 3 opticals and 1 HDD is that your typical case puts the HDD bays to far from the front bays to run the cable.

please tell me you didnt just say you have a hard drive on the same cable as one or more optical drives [img]graemlins/saywhat.gif[/img] . that is a bad bad idea!

[andrewas]

Course I dont. The cable dosent reach. And its not that bad with a modern controller, apparently the IDE interface can switch speed depending on the drive so you dont limit your HDD to the CDROMs speed. As long as you dont use that drive for copying straight to the HDD its OK.

Of course since I only have 2 opticals and 1 (tiny) hdd its not a problem I have to worry about. And Ill be getting SATA drives when I next upgrade, so itll still be no problem and I can let the opticals have 1 IDE each.

[Ziroc]

Originally posted by andrewas: Course I dont. The cable dosent reach. And its not that bad with a modern controller, apparently the IDE interface can switch speed depending on the drive so you dont limit your HDD to the CDROMs speed. As long as you dont use that drive for copying straight to the HDD its OK. Of course since I only have 2 opticals and 1 (tiny) hdd its not a problem I have to worry about. And Ill be getting SATA drives when I next upgrade, so itll still be no problem and I can let the opticals have 1 IDE each.

Same here brother! SATA is looking SO good.. I was wanting to go SATA with that new drive I just bought, but I didn't have the extra $$.