Huzzah! finally 2.0 is up and running! Now I can resume hounding da pimps with inane questions!

Now I'm guessing this is a simple yes or no question, so shoot be down what quick if ya feel like it.

I'm looking into a 9800NP (for OC'ing), a 9800PRO 128mb (if I wimp out on the OC'ing idea ) or a 9800PRO AIW to upgrade away from my aging Ti4600.

My question is, if I wanted to attach a DVD player (not a 5.25" DVD-ROM drive) to my computer, would the AIW have the proper attachements for me to do so? Is it possible to attach a standard DVD player to a computer at ALL? I see so many crummy DVD-ROM's out there* and I thought 'well, hell, why not just use a real nice DVD player and hook it up to the rig?'. No, I have no particular DVD-player in mind. Figured I'd ask this before going for the actual player.

So is it possible? If so, how? Where do babies come from? Is there a 'God'? And why are we here?

Thanks for takin' the time to read this. Thanks even more if you're gonna reply.

*- Crummy according to folks on several different NewEgg review boards anyway.

AM wondering why you would want to hook up a DVD player to a comp in the first place ? To watch movies on your monitor ?
ANyways you can through an S-Video conection your player will have one and so will your VC.

Gaming is top dog priority on my upcoming computer. But watching DVD's has always been a very close second. My TV downstairs is mediocre at best (guess where the money goes?) as is it's sound set-up.

I have a Klipsch 5.1 Ultra speaker set already here along with 3 rear SWS's and the DD-5.1 digital decoder all strung into a SB ZS Platinum Pro. So my sound for movies would be adequate. And I will be garnering a Dell UltraSharp 2001FP later this year for a new display to replace the ViewSonic 19" CRT that is coming for Christmas.

However I don't want the DVD-ROM to be such a weak link that it becomes detrimental to actually watching the movie. Maybe I'm overreacting. I guess I just see all these DVD-ROMs for $30-60 and wonder if they'll do the job or not. I recently had my old one kick it randomly and so now I'm a little leery.

In my infinite wisdom (hah. or total lack thereof) I thought if I hooked up a nice DVD player, that I'd have a dependable, long-lasting solution for entertainment. If you know of a DVD-ROM that will perform well and hopefully last a while, please, let me know. I just haven't seen much to convince me there are such things. And granted, it's be a hell of a lot easier to just install a very nice DVD-ROM than rig up a DVD player and hope for the best.

I had a similar situation a while ago nice sound system on my comp and used it as the home theatre cept i ran an S-Video from the comp to my 36 inch TV to watch movies on, was runnin an OEM Toshiba 16X DVD-Rom, it'll be more than adequate for your movies almost any DVD-Rom I mean.

Okay. Well that helps me feel a little better. What about the video card then? I wanna stick with ATI and have something that'll keep me truckin' in DX9.0 games until the spring video card lineup comes out. The choices (basic ones) as listed in the originating post are:

9800NP from Ebay which I'm kinda leery about just for the sake of customer service...
9800PRO from NewEgg I'd probably go with just ATI since I my only other choice for brand would be Sapphire and I hear their 9800PRO's are relatively sub-par compared to the Built-By-ATI's. I may just buy the sapphire-esque Zalman cooler seperately and throw it on later for fun.
or...
9800PRO AIW from NewEgg which, as I said, the usefulness of is a little iffy now that I won't be having a cable hookup in my upstairs computer room. I may have two CRT's for a while though, in which case the standard 9800PRO would be better. What do you have, NoSlak? More importantly, what do you recommend?

Stipulations:
-Nothing over $400 (not counting shipping).
-No 256MB silliness since I'm waiting out till spring games to see if it's even worth it.
-Must be ATI.
-I'm not huge into AA or Aniso, so I won't be going full bore on those, but I go high res.
-This will probably go to my brother after I get a new card in the early summer, so it needs to be from a reputable brand and be good and stable.

Erm.... while you will not have trouble watching some movies, any with MacroVision encoding (or in other words.... MOST) will not be viewable. Any device capable of recording video (in the US anyway) has to have MacroVision support, either via hardware or firmware. You may be able to locate a hacked firmware to disable the protection layer or you might look into building a device like the one described here (although this one is for PAL video signals, not NTSC): MacroVision Filter

A brief summary of MacroVision

If you don't know of a way of defeating it, then trust me, the worst DVD-ROM drive on the market will produce a better looking picture. Macrovision typically causes the luminosity and contrast of the content to go nutz.

I've never had a problem with viewing from my Lite-on DVD-ROM or my Sony DVD+/-RW (DRU510A). Can't say I've noticed it myself, but playback on a DVD-ROM to a computer moniter is supposed to be MUCH better as there's no loss due to the conversion from digital to RF.... this loss happens regardless of whether you're using composite or S-Video as they're both RF video signals.

Personally, I'd go with a decent DVD-ROM over RF playback from a stand alone anyday even if copy protection weren't an issue.

DVDrom all the way or you could look into dvd burners? Ram has one for 158 I just picked about 6 weeks ago so it might be cheaper. Its even a lite-on dvd +- rw/w. Something to think about if you store alot or stuff.

But the dual moniters is a nice thing to have, I have just been useing mine for two weeks and will never go back to just one again. You can get a seprate tv tuner card to handle the dvd in out, if want to watch a movie and have dual moniters.

Its too early in the morning for me to catch typos

ATi 9800 Pro, because pro's are just cool like that. AND, you'll have more O/C overhead.

Lite-On CD-RW/DVD-ROM 48x24x48x16, because who wouldnt want an all-in-one optical drive?

D00d, I run the 9700 Pro Built by ATI, still a great card that has lasted me over 1 year I run ALL my games with ALL bells and whistles to the max and have no probs.
I was gunna suggest as well to go with a DVD burner I just bot my first one off New Egg , the Sony OEM dru 510 works with all formats, was cheap, its black, and I love it like a son if I had one; been burnin things left and right with it.
BTW on a different thread I found out what an enclosure was for drives, I went out and got one so I can swap out my burner with the change of a USB or firewire connection between comps , if Im gaming on one I can burn on the other.

Yeah. I had dual monitors for a while back when I first picked up my Ti4600 at launch. Good times. Confused the hell outta my friends too. Now everyone has 'em. Ah well. Haven't done it since then though. I'd have to get used to using the ATI software for it as well. Adventure! *hack*

Yeh, I'm snagging two new I/O drives. A Plextor PX-Premium 52x32x52 CD-RW and then just a Samsung DVD-ROM for now. If I get adventurous with my cash I'll go the distance and snag the Plextor 8X PX-708A/SW-BL since it's been getting rave reviews. Yeh, I have some brand loyalty when it comes to them. But they never let me down in the past!

As for the GPU, 9800PRO it is. Built-By-Ati sound like the best bet, you guys? Anyone know if the Hercules ones are any good? I think I'll snag one of those titanic Zalman coolers for it later just to scare my friend's Dell a little more.

Thanks for all the input ya'all!