#Best free dvd video player for laptop movie#
#Best free dvd video player for laptop drivers#

Other extras: All the drives we tested came with one-year warranties and claimed to support the archival M-DISC format, though we didnвЂ™t test those claims.

But if a drive comes with decent playback and burning software, thatвЂ™s a plus. Free (but potentially illegal) solutions are available for all of those problems, which we cover in the Playing DVDs and Blu-rays section. But macOS canвЂ™t play Blu-rays without extra software, Windows 10 canвЂ™t play Blu-rays or DVDs, and neither operating system includes software for burning video discs that you can play in DVD or Blu-ray players. Usable software: Both Windows 10 and macOS offer tools for burning data to DVDs and Blu-ray discs, and macOS still includes a DVD player app for playing video discs.Sturdiness: Few external disc drives are pretty, but the case shouldnвЂ™t fall apart under light pressure, the connections shouldnвЂ™t be wobbly, and the buttons should work when you press them.

#Best free dvd video player for laptop drivers#

Operating system support: All drives we tested were detected by Windows 10 and macOS 10.15 Catalina without our installing any additional software, and the operating systemsвЂ™ built-in disc reading and burning features worked without requiring any extra drivers or configuration.

Almost all of the cables included with drives we tested had USB Type-A connectors on the computerвЂ™s end, but the inclusion of a USB-C cable or a USB-AвЂ“toвЂ“C adapter in the box is a nice bonus. On the driveвЂ™s end, we prefer the still-common Micro-USB port, though the larger Mini-USB is fine too (optical drives with USB-C ports are rare to nonexistent).

Connector and cable: Drives should use standard detachable USB cables so that a frayed or broken cable doesnвЂ™t ruin the entire drive.

#Best free dvd video player for laptop movie#

Noise: All optical drives make noise, but the drive shouldnвЂ™t drown out the movie or show youвЂ™re trying to watch. VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files, and various streaming protocols. SystemMicrosoft Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP (SP2 or later) Intel Core2 Duo 2.

Price: A good DVD drive shouldnвЂ™t cost more than $40, and a good Blu-ray drive should cost around $100.

But if youвЂ™re burning or ripping discs, the rate at which a drive can move data from your computerвЂ™s hard drive to the disc or vice versa becomes more important.

Speed: If all youвЂ™ll use your drive for is playing discs, just about any drive you buy will perform similarly.

We didnвЂ™t require Blu-ray drives to support reading and writing to Ultra HD (or UHD, or 4K) Blu-ray discs, but we considered it a nice bonus if you didnвЂ™t have to pay much more for that feature.

Read and write capability: DVD drives must read and write DVDs and CDs, and Blu-ray drives must read and write Blu-rays, DVDs, and CDs.