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Thread ID: 24377 2002-09-09 11:09:00 Do I need a DVD-ROM? Susan B (19) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
77969 2002-09-09 11:09:00 1. Can those of you with DVD-ROMs in their PCs please tell me what you use them for?

- Do you watch movies on your PC?

- Do you buy programs on DVDs? Is Win XP on a DVD or CD-ROM?

- Is there anything I have missed?


2. Can anyone please confirm that all/most DVD movies definitely have English sub-titling like you get on Teletext on TV? I specifically want to know if popular hire movies like The Matrix for example, have the subtitles.

Any other (relevant) comments appreciated. Thanks. :-)
Susan B (19)
77970 2002-09-09 11:23:00 I think you may find it better to go for a stand alone DVD player if you want to watch movies Susan .

2 . Can anyone please confirm that all/most DVD movies definitely have English sub-titling like you get on Teletext on TV? I specifically want to know if popular hire movies like The Matrix for example, have the subtitles .

I would presume so . My friend is deaf, and he brought a DVD player for this very reason . . . . .

BALDY:-)
Baldy (26)
77971 2002-09-09 11:36:00 1. Thanks Baldy, I'm trying to figure out if a stand alone player is actually my best option. I do want to watch movies, but if lots of programs come out on DVDs now I might need one to install/run them.

2. Can you find out for sure for me please? If not all movies have sub-titles, which kinds don't? Ta Baldy. :-)
Susan B (19)
77972 2002-09-09 21:47:00 1. Depends on how big your TV is compared to your computer screen - I don't have a standalone player, and so have to watch all my DVDs on the 15" computer screen, which is okay for now, but can't last much longer :) I would assume that more and more programs are going to start coming out on DVD rather than CD soon (XP is, I believe, available on DVD, as are quite a few programs - just very few places stock them just yet), and the price of DVD players isn't that much more than a CD player, and you get the added bonus of being about to watch movies on them as well. The fact that you can store up to 10 CDs worth of data on a disk would be a big reason for switching to DVD for software manufacturers. It hasn't quite happened yet, but it will.

2. All DVD movies have at least English subtitles. I haven't seen any DVDs yet without them (including the old classic movies that have been put onto DVD).

Mike.
Mike (15)
77973 2002-09-09 22:06:00 XP comes on CD so you don't need a dvd player for that,
most software that I know of if they come in DVD format, they also come in CD (Usually)

:)
NathanTheKind (472)
77974 2002-09-09 22:06:00 When I built my new computer I thought a DVD was an essential. Don't bother. I have not yet seen any programs other than Encarta on DVD and watching movies on the computer is not very satisfactory.
Get a stand alone player - a "Home Theatre" if you can afford it. The picture quality is great and the sound awsome. I have not yet found a movie without captions - most have several to choose from, including a special one for the hard of hearing. That is one of the main reasons I purchased one, as my wife is in that group. She can now enjoy movies again. Be wary of the "cheapies" flooding the market at the moment. I have been trying to get one for a family member but have not been able to find one under $500 that I would recommend. All that I tried had faults - Poor picture, stuttering sound, and out of specification output signals that were overloading the TV's video or colour circuits.

Tom
Tom B. (864)
77975 2002-09-09 22:54:00 Hi Susan, I have a stand alone player myself but a friend hooked his DVDROM up to the stereo. However I believe the sound/picture quality isnt as good as stand alone.

I have a sound card connection from PC to stereo (mainly to play MP3z before I bought a DVD player) and the sound quality is nowhere as good as stand alone. All depends on your sound card I suppose but it's not worth the hassle with DVD players so cheap these days.

Im not going to bother with a PC DVDROM - I will just go for DVD-RW or DVD+RW. But thats going to have to wait until they come down in price and compatibility between the standards is better. :-)
parry (27)
77976 2002-09-09 23:12:00 Well, I can't afford a new TV or stand alone DVD player, so I use my PC/DVD combo to look at movies. My 17-inch monitor and surround sound, 5-speaker system on the PC is actually pretty good for looking at movies - better than my amzing 14-inch TV with tinny speaker .... Biggles (121)
77977 2002-09-09 23:13:00 I agree, the quality of the DVD out of a PC is not as good as the low end stand alone players in my opinion.

I have a DVD drive. I needed a second CD drive, so bought a DVD to do both jobs.

I have a cheap stand alone player (TEAC) which works fine.
godfather (25)
77978 2002-09-09 23:28:00 Tom
your comments on the cheaper DVD standalone players is quite interesting. I have a Yukai ( Mustek ) 560V and as a cheap unit to play DVDs it performs reasonable well. It plays all widescreen movies fine but on fullscreen when the very bottom of the picture is white or light coloured the whole picture jumps. I have been thinking this is some sort of signal overload or sync problem but as I only have one fullscreen movie I have not worried about too much so far.
Is this the sort of problem you mention and is it a common fault ?

cheers
Steve
SteveB (1243)
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