Hey i need to know if my computer can play dvd or dvd games

[CallToArms]

I looked in dxdiag and couldnt find the drive name and it doesnt seem to say it on the drive, i have an hp pavilion 7850 computer. I want to watch dvd's and play a game that uses the dvd drive (unreal tournament 2004) if someone wouldnt mind searching and telling me the answer that would be great

 

[PC eye]

According to the specifications seen at http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=bph06371 that model comes with a dvd rom drive. If the drive is working properly you shouldn't have any problem running a game or any other dvd unless in the case of video you need a specific codec.

 

[jp198780]

yeahh, you need a dvd decoder, i use VLC, it's free: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/.

 

[ChrisDVD]

whay do you mean by DVD decoder?

 

[PC eye]

That's not a dvd decoder. It is a cross platform video player there. Video codecs are something that often has to located and installed for Windows Media Player and others in order to run certain video file formats. If you are currently running WMP 9 it's a good to update to WMP 10 for the added features there. The WMP 11 beta is still a little lacking there. Other dvd players often already have what they need for the different formats.

 

[jp198780]

whoops, but you need that program, or something else 2 play DVD's.

 

[PC eye]

One excellent player for a large variety of video types able to run video cds as well as dvds is CyberLink's PowerDVD 6.0. The older 4.0 version that was initially run on an older 98 machine and was only recently upgraded only lacked one item. When you put an audio cd in a drive the newer version not only auto runs it but also includes screen savers similar to WMP.

 

[CallToArms]

so...

so what your saying is this drive can play the dvd version of unreal tournament 2004 or any other game?

 

[m0nk3ys1ms]

so what your saying is this drive can play the dvd version of unreal tournament 2004 or any other game?

According to the site PC Eye listed, yes.

 

[PC eye]

If the drive is fully functional there shouldn't be any problems unless a software conflict came out due to something else running on the system. A dvd drive will run dvd games, movies with a player, and even install softwares that are on dvds. Due to the size seen on many of the newer games they often come on either dvds or in sets of 4 or 5 cds.