# Can a CD drive read DVDs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 18, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400 "2005-01-18T18:32:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/1 "2005-01-18T18:32:23Z")
My son has an eMachine computer that’s about eight months old, and the one thing he’s dying to do on it (apart from surf the net) is watch DVDs on it. The problem is that the only drive he has is a CD R/W. Yet he’s sure (with all the sureness one can muster at 15) that there’s software out there that will let him watch “Van Helsing” from the safety (e.g., away from younger siblings) from his room. As computer-literate as I am, I’ve run into a roadblock on this point, so I need authorative advice from the Teeming Millions. Is there software that will let a CD drive play DVDs? ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/2 "2005-01-18T18:35:54Z")
Nope, sorry. No CD drive will play a DVD - the laser that reads it is of a different wavelength, to read smaller data pits. However, all DVD drives will play CDs. Time to upgrade! ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/3 "2005-01-18T18:36:17Z")
No, a CD drive cannot read DVDs. The infra-red laser simply has too long a wavelength to be able to see the tiny variations on a DVD. That’s why DVD players must have a red laser. There is a video format called VCD, which stores a highly compressed video file on a CD, and there is software available to watch VCDs. (In fact, many standalone DVD players can also play them.) Hollywood movies are not distributed on VCDs, due to the highly crappy quality, so if you’ve got one it’s most probably a bootleg. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/4 "2005-01-18T19:16:40Z")
What they said, except, if the machine is only eight months old, I’m a little surprised it has a CD drive. I thought pretty much everything came with a DVD reader nowadays. It may be worth double-checking. Remember, a DVD drive can read CDs (but not vice versa), so the fact that you’re using it as a CD reader doesn’t mean it’s not a DVD drive. ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/5 "2005-01-18T19:22:11Z")
If it turns out to be a CD drive and not a DVD drive, for less than the price of a DVD movie, you can buy a DVD drive just to watch movies in. They’ve dropped a lot in price in the last few years. For a little more, he could get a DVD-R/W, which does all the functions of a CD, CD-R/W and DVD as well as burn DVDs. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2005, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/6 "2005-01-18T20:48:27Z")
> [@audiobottle](#): > > If it turns out to be a CD drive and not a DVD drive, for less than the price of a DVD movie, you can buy a DVD drive just to watch movies in. They’ve dropped a lot in price in the last few years. For a little more, he could get a DVD-R/W, which does all the functions of a CD, CD-R/W and DVD as well as burn DVDs. DVD-ROM drives, and burners as well, are basically commodity parts nowadays. They’re super, super cheap. If you’ve never installed something like that, have a friend show you how, or if you and your son are reasonably computer literate, do it together. Tell the kid to watch newspaper inserts or look online for a good deal; there’s no reason he can’t buy one, given how cheap the things are. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/7 "2005-01-20T13:19:41Z")
Slight Hijack here. I once put a Sega Dreamcast Game CD (Yes back when Sega made game systems) into my Cd-Rom drive on my Pentium computer and quite frankly, I think it killed it. That is, it showed some files on the disc, including an Audio Wav file stating that this is a Sega Dreamcast CD, not a Regular CD, and that it can’t be played in a Cd Rom drive. After I popped the CD the out, the drive didn’t read another CD (Of any type) again. I found a replacement drive for cheap at a store, and installed it my self. (Relatively easy, but you need small hands :rolleyes: which I had to get help with.) FYI: As far as I can tell, in my own experience, you can Play SOME Playstation (The original PSOne) discs in a cd player. Especially the Demo discs you get with the system. The first few tracks may not play, but I can not see any damage to my only stereo player that Ive had for at least 12 years. (Yes, a Dial tuning wheel). :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rex_fenestrarum/32/7265_2.png) [@Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Fenestrarum)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/8 "2005-01-20T14:15:43Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > Slight Hijack here. > > I once put a Sega Dreamcast Game CD (Yes back when Sega made game systems) into my Cd-Rom drive on my Pentium computer and quite frankly, I think it killed it. That is, it showed some files on the disc, including an Audio Wav file stating that this is a Sega Dreamcast CD, not a Regular CD, and that it can’t be played in a Cd Rom drive. Well, Dreamcast discs are were in the GD-ROM format (“Gigabyte disc”) which could contain 1.2GB of data. Parts of the disc were in Red Book (audio) format and others were in the Yellow Book (data) format, so it’s perfectly conceivable that you could read a few tracks on the disc. (The other tracks were in a proprietary format, so you wouldn’t be able to read that). I don’t think it killed your drive, unless your drive was on the way out anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/9 "2005-01-20T14:25:15Z")
It’s _possible_ (not sure how likely) that the Sega disc killed the drive; CD rom drives have a feedback coping mechanism that ramps up the laser power if it considers it necessary (part of this is to get the best out of the diode as its output declines due to age) - it could be that something about the Sega disc provoked the thing to drive the laser beyond its tolerance (tolerance that itself may have been reduced due to age etc). Not saying it’s likely, but I think it is at least possible. ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/10 "2005-01-20T14:52:24Z")
I second the reccomendation to just buy a DVD drive. [Newegg has some pretty good prices - this basic DVD-ROM](http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-131-116&depa=1) is only $23.50; the black color version is a buck more. Or you could get a [DVD-RW](http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-106-959&depa=1) drive so he can burn DVDs for $60, the black version is a couple bucks more. And any computer geek worth his silicon will tell you Newegg is good store to buy from. ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rex_fenestrarum/32/7265_2.png) [@Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Fenestrarum)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/11 "2005-01-20T15:13:38Z")
> [@RandomLetters](#): > > I second the reccomendation to just buy a DVD drive. [Newegg has some pretty good prices - this basic DVD-ROM](http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-131-116&depa=1) is only $23.50; the black color version is a buck more. Or you could get a [DVD-RW](http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-106-959&depa=1) drive so he can burn DVDs for $60, the black version is a couple bucks more. > > And any computer geek worth his silicon will tell you Newegg is good store to buy from. I think that buying a DVD-ROM drive is silly in this day and age. A DVD-burner is only a few dollars more and can burn video DVDs, data DVDs and all types of CD-ROM discs. Unless you’re _absolutely_ sure that you’re never gonna want to burn anything, go ahead and get a burner. And yes, Newegg rocks - if you’re buying single items (each item has its own S&H fee and if you buy 2 or more things you have to call them and get them to consolidate shipping). But they always ship quickly and via FedEx. I ordered a 512MB SD card for my cell phone yesterday at 3PM EST and had a tracking number for it by 8:30PM EST. The SD card was $39.99 - already half of what Best Buy wanted for the same model number SanDisk card - with a $15 rebate. FedEx “Express Saver” shipping was free. The only downside is that Newegg shipped it from their warehouse in CA, not NJ, and being that I’m on the east coast it’ll probably take the full three days to get here, not the 1 or 2 that their NJ packages take. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/12 "2005-01-20T15:44:44Z")
IIRC you also need software to be able to watch a DVD movie on a computer. Just having a DVD drive alone is not enough. Generally DVD drives come with some basic software that allows this but it may not be a foregone conclusion (especially with super cheap drives where they are partly cheap because they ignore any extras). There are also hardware based decoders. I think some video cards will do it. Hardware decoding is better than software decoding but if you have a passably fast PC software decoding should do fine. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/13 "2005-01-20T18:15:15Z")
If your scared of cracking open your computer case, then you can always buy and external USB2 or Firewire DVD Drive for not much more. Make sure your computer has the appropriate inputs. ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/14 "2005-01-20T18:23:40Z")
I picked up a Samsung DVD+/-RW from a clearance bin at Microcenter for $25 a couple of weeks ago. ---
**Author:** ![Roadruner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Roadruner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadruner)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/15 "2005-01-21T09:53:56Z")
Dont know if this will help but I have been using CyberLink PowerDVD and this will play dvd and all sorts of stuff. hope it helps 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/16 "2005-01-21T10:28:42Z")
Windows Media Player also seems to play DVD content quite happily now (for Windows users, obviously, yadda yadda) ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/17 "2005-01-21T10:36:22Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Hollywood movies are not distributed on VCDs, due to the highly crappy quality, so if you’ve got one it’s most probably a bootleg. True enough , the quality is better than my VHS tapes off the TV (and they don’t degrade as quickly) but not as good as DVD in any way. That and the fact that the media size means one DVD sized film (like AI for example because I have it on VCD) can take up two or three VCDs. However, even though I’ve picked up one or two bootlegs off EBay, most VCD’s I’ve bought seem to be proper official VCDs from the far east. They come in English language with no need to resort to subtitles for English speakers. And, as a bonus, there’s no region settings on VCDs. Not much of a bonus, but then they can be quite cheap in comparison to DVD’s if you can forsake the extra features and quality 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/18 "2005-01-21T11:12:42Z")
I’m dubious about ‘official’ VCDs from the far east; although the packaging does look better than most obvious bootlegs I’ve seen, they are very often movies from studios that I would have thought would be unwilling to allow their content to be presented in a lower-quality medium. Does anyone have the straight dope on this? Does, say, Disney sanction the production of VCDs of their titles in some markets or are these VCDs we’re seeing just bootlegs that happen to have been produced and packaged a little more professionally? ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/19 "2005-01-21T11:24:38Z")
Yeah, the packaging is _very_ professional. EBay seems to have scrubbed out bootleg VCDs (for the moment here in the UK) and the only others floating around seem to be these official looking ones. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400/20 "2005-01-21T11:25:40Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I would have thought would be unwilling to allow their content to be presented in a lower-quality medium Having said that, its not _that_ bad really, as good as VHS on whatever TV I’ve been running it 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-cd-drive-read-dvds/285400.md?page=2)