Smart Computing Article - How To Install . . .DVD-ROM Drives

How To Install . . .DVD-ROM Drives October 1999 • Vol.7 Issue 10 Add To My Personal Library How To Install . . .DVD-ROM Drives The digital convergence of your computer and home entertainment center may be at hand. It's no longer a matter of being the first on your block to own a digital versatile disc-read-only memory drive; it's now a matter of keeping up with the Joneses. Just as audio CD players paved the way for CD-ROM drives in PCs, digital versatile disc (DVD) players are evolving from home entertainment to software. DVD drives for desktop computers can run DVD software titles and nearly all types of CDs and CD-ROMs, including photo, software, or audio. Add in the fact that a DVD drive in your PC can play full-length feature films with digital clarity, and that you can update it to play the upcoming DVD-Audio format, and you have quite a bit of functionality waiting for you. DVDs have much more room than today's software demands, but the future will almost certainly bring bigger programs. Today, CD-ROMs are still adequate for most software. The majority of titles fit comfortably within a CD's standard 650 megabytes (MB) of storage space, with a few larger programs spilling over on to two or three discs. DVDs look almost the same as CDs (although some are double-sided), but they store more than seven times as much data (4.7 gigabytes (GB) per side) and soon may be as cheap to produce. In this article, we'll tell you how to choose, configure, and install a DVD drive. We'll also explain some of the relevant technologies and options available to you. Your computer must be able to handle a DVD's enormous data streams, so check your PC's attributes before you buy a drive. Your PC should