I just purchased a Dvd/CdR combo for a friend and installed it and
tested it.  The price was around $100.
It worked fine but if you were to compare it to just a Cd-R unit of a
comparable price,  it is much slower at writing a CD, 2x instead of 8x.
What this means is that it would take 74 minutes (1x)  / 2 (2x) or 37
minutes to create a full 700 Meg CD instead of 74 minutes (1X) / 8 (8x)
or  ~10 minutes.  So you need to think about which is more valuable to
you, the ability to read a DvD or the ability to write a full CD in  ~10
minutes?  As time goes by this difference will disappear but for now it
exists.

As to what can one use a DvD player on their computer for?  With the
proliferation of  large Hard Disk Drives 30-100 Gigabytes, it is
possible to copy a DvD movie to a hard disk drive for backup purposes or
for later viewing.  Some people will checkout several Videos from the
library or Blockbuster and then return them and view them at their
liesure.  Many of the graphics cards available today allow for TV output
and the quality is very good on a TV.  When viewing a Windows screen on
a TV it looks terrible but when playing back a DvD (or a video AVI file)
on a TV it is excellent.

There are 2 free utilities that are very valuable when working with
DvD's and computers, one is "Flask" and the other is "Virtual Dub".
Some good background information on this free software (Flask & Virtual
Dub) these yahoo groups are good reading.


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Flaskmpeg

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VirtualDubSupport

        The NOSPIN Group provides a monthly newsletter with great
       tips, information and ideas: NOSPIN-L, The NOSPIN Magazine
           Visit our web site to signup: http://freepctech.com