Hi I just bought an NEC 1300 DVD drive at half price (no box/instructions/software). It has installed fine and plays cds but what software would you recommend for viewing DVDs? Thanks Shaun

WinDVD, PowerDVD, or update Media Player to version 9.0 There is no turning back, now that you've woken up the demon in me...

i just got one of those off of ebay for 55 + 20 shipping...it came with roxio easy cd & dvd creator basic edition...i obtained nero 6 ultra edition and that works great...i use windvd, then again windows media 9 does dvd's too...i've done some extensive dvd burning, this past weekend dvd +r about 15-17 minutes to burn full dvd and it burns at 4x dvd -r takes about 28 minutes for a full dvd burn and it burns at 2x haven't tried the +r/+rw's yet made a dvd with one each of the disks and the -r was more compatible, it plays in a playstation2,my laptop and of course the computer Abit NF7-s 2500+ @ 3200+ 512 Corsair XMS PC3200 128 meg Radeon 9800 Pro 36 GIG WD Raptor SATA 3+ Mbps cable connection

Jam left out a little bit of information there. Yes windows media player will play dvds, If you have the dvd decoder to go with it which you must buy! I have yet to find a free dvd decoder to work with windows media player that is legal and free. For every american man and woman who has lost your life in Iraq I say thankyou for so costly a sacrifice and pray peace to your families.

doc, Why does Media Player 9 allow me to play DVDs on my machine then? I never installed a "dvd decoder"? or does it "borrow" it from PowerDVD, which I DO have installed? ...there is no spoon...

Jam, That is exactly what it does. The Media Player software knows you have a decoder on your machine and uses it.

Yes it gets its decoder from your other software. Either way you have to buy software from somewhere! I myself have about three dvd player and editor programs, one of them being power dvd and like you it works with mine also because it using the decoder from them but if someone doesnt have any dvd software at all installed then windows media player will not have a decoder and will not work. You usually get software with the dvd rom or writer. Either way I would still like to find a free legal version decoder to use with media player for the purpose of putting it on clients computers who dont have anything. There must not be such a thing as a free legal decoder for it. For every american man and woman who has lost your life in Iraq I say thankyou for so costly a sacrifice and pray peace to your families.