View full list of our PCs and Prices

All your DVD Questions Answered:

We often get requests for DVD drivers. Please note that DVD players and DVD Writers do not come with special drivers. Optical drives like CD and DVD drives are automatically picked up by modern BIOS/CMOS and operating systems. In older operating systems you did need to have drivers so you could use the CD drive in DOS. That is not relevant anymore as Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating system CDs allow you to boot from the Windows CD itself without the use of any special drivers.

Should you choose to install MS DOS or PC DOS on your sytem and need to have a working CD Drive in DOS you can use the Windows 98SE or Windows ME boot floppy disk drivers, or download standard ATAPI drivers off the net and use your DVD player as a CD Drive in DOS mode. You cannot play DVD movies while in DOS mode.

FAQ on DVD playback: What hardware and software to use, common problems and what they mean, questions on media and other FAQ: DVD Demystified.

Terminology Guide: CDROM GUIDE (DVD)  

When it comes to write-able DVD disks/drives are you confused between DVD-R, DVD RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD ROM? Who isn't? Answers here.

LINKS:

Links to commercial DVD playback software

CYBERLINK PowerDVD

INTERVIDEO WinDVD

Purchasing DVD`s

Amazon

DVD Shopping UK

DVD-Store UK

Links to other software download sites: CNET , TuCows , The Free Site

All software allows you to change the region code a maximum of 5 times, once you have reached this limit the software locks the region code to the last setting. However there are a few programs that allow you to change the region code as many times as you like DVD Genie.

REGION CODES:

Region 1: USA,Canada

Region 2: West Europe, Japan, South Africa

Region 3: South East Asia

Region 4: Australia, Spanish America

Region 5: Russia, East Europe, Africa

Region 6: China

Region 7: Reserved

Region 8: Special international venues (airplanes, cruise ships, etc.).

Warning: While many home DVD players can play disks from different regions the DVD drives in computers are normally locked to about 3-5 changes. If you keep changing the region you may end up with an unusuable DVD drive. Some PC users reinstall Windows or use hacking tools to get around this problems.

DVD forums

The DVD Forums  

Ezboard

DVD Debate

View full list of our PCs and Prices

Known DVD Problems - MMSYSTEM275 Error when trying to play DVDs:

Possible solution: Goto Start>Run, type in msconfig
Go to General>Advanced and check the "Disable UDF file". Restart your PC. You may be able to now play your DVD.

Known DVD Problem: DVD Drive plays DVDs but does not play CDs.

Solution: Windows XP needs to have a codec installed before Windows Media Player will play DVDs. We install this automatically on all PCs we ship. However, if you have reinstalled Windows you may need to install a DVD player program like Win DVD or Power DVD which contain the CODEC. Once such a program is installed you can either use that program, or Windows Media Player to play DVD movies.