Play DVDs on my Pavillion?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

I have a plain vanilla Pavillion a305w. I'd like to put an ordinary
video disk like I could rent at Blockbuster in the drive and watch a movie on my
monitor.

When I try that now, Windows Explorer, XP home, doesn't see any file
system on the disk that it can use. I suspect I need another drive to handle
the DVD format.

I only want to watch and not to write.

Which new drive do I need?

Once I get a new drive, is the video card that the computer came with
capable of showing movies? If not, what else would I need to add to the system?

I got my IBM Thinkpad to show movies, surely my HP desktop can too.

HP's web site is no help.

Jim

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.hp.hardware (More info?)

James Meyer <jmeyer@nowhere.net> wrote in message news:<3m4bn09vq2duoql5i5k9cbftu7mif50lh0@4ax.com>...
> I have a plain vanilla Pavillion a305w. I'd like to put an ordinary
> video disk like I could rent at Blockbuster in the drive and watch a movie on my
> monitor.
>
> When I try that now, Windows Explorer, XP home, doesn't see any file
> system on the disk that it can use. I suspect I need another drive to handle
> the DVD format.
>
> I only want to watch and not to write.
>
> Which new drive do I need?
>
> Once I get a new drive, is the video card that the computer came with
> capable of showing movies? If not, what else would I need to add to the system?
>
> I got my IBM Thinkpad to show movies, surely my HP desktop can too.
>
> HP's web site is no help.
>
> Jim

Hi Jim,
All you would need to add is another DVD ROM drive ($25 approx.)
A retail package would include cable and software (PowerDVD).
Nothing else should be needed.

b_d