[SOLVED] Watching dvds on laptop, via usb dvd drive. Is there any benefit from buying a DVD player?

[NOT_PROVIDED_16]

I've recently started watching some old dvds. I've been watching them on a USB dvd drive connected to my laptop, then thats connected to my TV. I've been using VLC media player.
Would there be any benefit from buying a dvd player? some advertise as being able to upscale? or am i already getting the best quality?

 

[86zx]

DVDs resolution is 720:480 so sure upscaling might help a little bit but it’s never really gonna look amazing hence why we went to blue ray and now 4K blue ray. Like dvd was to vhs, dvd is blue rays vhs

 

[NOT_PROVIDED_16]

DVDs resolution is 720:480 so sure upscaling might help a little bit but it’s never really gonna look amazing hence why we went to blue ray and now 4K blue ray. Like dvd was to vhs, dvd is blue rays vhs

Trust me I know the quality isn't going to look great, It's old episodes of DR WHO from the 1970s + I don't want them to look like they were filmed yesterday. I just want the best quality from the DVD.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Depending on the graphics your laptop has, it might be performing the upscale as well. Personally, I wouldn't bother with purchasing another component (unless you intend to switch to blu-ray).

-Wolf sends

 

[NOT_PROVIDED_16]

Depending on the graphics your laptop has, it might be performing the upscale as well. Personally, I wouldn't bother with purchasing another component (unless you intend to switch to blu-ray).

-Wolf sends

It's only a cheap ultrabook. I only intend on watching old dvds from my collection and to be honest it does handle playing the dvds very well.

 

[Wolfshadw]

A new DVD player is probably going to run you around $40 (US). You could probably find one used for around half that. If you're repeatedly setting this up and tearing it down just for DVD playing, then it might be worth it to just get a used DVD player to always be connected.

-Wolf sends

 

[Barkfunklerbunk]

Here's something to consider (depending on your CPU, etc.), use MakeMKV to rip all of those Dr. Who DVD's, and then use Handbrake to encode them into a more manageable compressed file. Then you can watch them when and wherever you want without the use of an optical drive

 

[NOT_PROVIDED_16]

A new DVD player is probably going to run you around $40 (US). You could probably find one used for around half that. If you're repeatedly setting this up and tearing it down just for DVD playing, then it might be worth it to just get a used DVD player to always be connected.

-Wolf sends

I can get a dvd player here in the UK delivered to my home for £20 with free delivery.
or a dvd player with hd upscaling? for £25 with free delivery.
For the past couple of weeks i've been watching the old dvds practically every night for a couple hours.

 

[Wolfshadw]

That's fine and dandy, but is it worth it to YOU?

For me, if I were constantly hooking up the laptop for DVD use and then disconnecting it for personal use, and then hooking it back up the next night... Yeah, I'd probably go ahead and spend the £25 for a decent DVD player.

If it's something that stays connected all the time, then no. I wouldn't bother, but that's me.

-Wolf sends

 

[NOT_PROVIDED_16]

That's fine and dandy, but is it worth it to YOU?

For me, if I were constantly hooking up the laptop for DVD use and then disconnecting it for personal use, and then hooking it back up the next night... Yeah, I'd probably go ahead and spend the £25 for a decent DVD player.

If it's something that stays connected all the time, then no. I wouldn't bother, but that's me.

-Wolf sends

I see your point and I completely understand where you're coming from.
Just one last question do you think there would be any real benefit from buying an upscaling dvd player? Would the quality look any better compared to a standard dvd player?

 

[Third-Eye]

I see your point and I completely understand where you're coming from.
Just one last question do you think there would be any real benefit from buying an upscaling dvd player? Would the quality look any better compared to a standard dvd player?

You could try running the DVDs through VLC and use the sharpen filter in the Effects and Filters menu (Ctrl-E or Tools button) on the Video Effects Tab to see if it's good enough for you instead of spending money for an upscaling dvd player. It's not the same process, but it can give good results on blurry or low quality videos. There is also DVD playing software that will upscale and sharpen video with your GPU or CPU, but I haven't used one in nearly 10 years, so I don't even know what is available. The last one I tried was ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre with their SimHD plugin.

https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

 

[Wolfshadw]

I see your point and I completely understand where you're coming from.
Just one last question do you think there would be any real benefit from buying an upscaling dvd player? Would the quality look any better compared to a standard dvd player?

Again, that depends of the video capabilities of your Ultrabook. Look up the graphic specs of your unit and see if you see anything that says "upscaling".

-Wolf sends

 

[Zizo007]

The thing with DVD players is that they don't support playback of many video types and extensions. A PC can playback any type and extension of videos. Also, a PC will have better picture quality since usually a laptop's screen DPI (Pixel concentration) is much higher than a TV plus the video enhancements and upscaling a GPU is capable of.

 

[Zizo007]

Also a PC can play videos from any region, e.g. PAL Europe etc, but a DVD player is limited to NTSC US.

 

[NOT_PROVIDED_16]

Also a PC can play videos from any region, e.g. PAL Europe etc, but a DVD player is limited to NTSC US.

Not true, the disc drives are locked to a particular region, you can change it. But only 5 times.

 

[Zizo007]

Not true, the disc drives are locked to a particular region, you can change it. But only 5 times.

I had PAL Europe DVDs that worked perfectly in my PC but never worked in my DVD player.

 

[NOT_PROVIDED_16]

I had PAL Europe DVDs that worked perfectly in my PC but never worked in my DVD player.

So would you say i'm already getting the best possible quality playing the dvds on my Ultrabook? So there would be no point buying a dvd player?

 

[Third-Eye]

So would you say i'm already getting the best possible quality playing the dvds on my Ultrabook? So there would be no point buying a dvd player?

DVD players intended for use on a TV are most often region locked. PC DVD players can come without region locking, but when it does, you have to manually change it in the Windows Device Manager if you need to change regions.

 

[Zizo007]

So would you say i'm already getting the best possible quality playing the dvds on my Ultrabook? So there would be no point buying a dvd player?

YES! Unless you have an OLED TV and your laptop is not OLED.

 

[NOT_PROVIDED_16]

DVD players intended for use on a TV are most often region locked. PC DVD players can come without region locking, but when it does, you have to manually change it in the Windows Device Manager if you need to change regions.

Yes i am fully aware of that, so would there be any point buying a dvd player? would there be any difference in quality?

 

[NOT_PROVIDED_16]

YES! Unless you have an OLED TV and your laptop is not OLED.

i'm watching them on my laptop connected to a 1080p 22" tv

 

[Third-Eye]

Yes i am fully aware of that, so would there be any point buying a dvd player? would there be any difference in quality?

It would be the same "quality" and resolution, but running at 25FPS instead of 24 or 30fps. Quality is kind of subjective when dealing with older films and videos as something can look fine to one person and ugly for another. A DVD player for a TV would have more image processing features like upscaling to 1080p and sharpening and image noise reduction, which you would only get from PC software if it has those features. If you just want to make old movies on old DVDs look a little better, try my suggestion above of using VLC to sharpen the image a little.

 

[Zizo007]

i'm watching them on my laptop connected to a 1080p 22" tv

Then its up to you, in term of picture quality, your laptop might provide a slightly better picture quality but if you don't want to hook it up everytime and only use NTSC US discs, get a DVD player.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

i would get a region free player, because many of my discs are PAL but they cost +$40 to the average price

 

[NOT_PROVIDED_16]

i would get a region free player, because many of my discs are PAL but they cost +$40 to the average price

I'm from the UK all my discs are PAL. My USB dvd drive only cost £8 so i'll just keep using that.