You do not want devoted DVD player to like clarity, control, additional features, and excitement of DVD movies. DVD-ROM drives help carry DVD movie experience to PC, but having a DVD-ROM and a DVD movie player program is only part of what you want to bring big screen to desktop.

To obtain most out of your desktop DVD experience, you want following:

• DVD playback software that supports Dolby Digital 5.1 or better output. One of the best choices is Cyber link’s Power DVD 5.x.

• An audio adapter that supports Dolby Digital input from DVD drive and will output to Dolby Digital 5.1–compatible audio hardware. Some will remix Dolby 5.1 to work on four speaker setups if you do not have Dolby 5.1 hardware or will accept S/PDIF AC3 input designed for a four-speaker system; some can also go through Dolby Digital audio to speakers that can do Dolby Digital 5.1 decoding. Some high-end audio adapters now support 6.1 and 7.1 speaker configurations; these also work with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

• Dolby Digital 5.1–compatible stereo receiver and speakers. Most high end sound cards with Dolby Digital 5.1 support connection to analog input Dolby Digital 5.1 receivers, but some like Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live, Audigy, and Audigy 2 Platinum series and Hercules Digifire 7.1, Game Theater XP 7.1, and Fortissimo III 7.1 support digital input speaker systems. Based on which kinds of speakers you are using and how they are connected, you want to switch your mixer settings in Windows from analog to digital to hear sounds from your applications.