The three major operating systems of the time were, (and still are), Windows, Mac, and Linux. I remember my Packard Bell computer came with a 345 MB hard drive, and that was a big hard drive back then!Įventually, the need for a DVD player in a laptop became necessary, so laptop manufacturers started putting them in every laptop. Let’s not forget that hard drives we’re not very large it all, and only were made in megabytes, not gigabytes back then. People could save computer data to the DVD, instead of saving to their hard drive. Fujitsu and Toshiba were the first to release the first DVD-ROM-equipped computer, followed by Pioneer, Panasonic, Hitachi, and Sony.ģ 1/2 inch floppy disks became a thing of the past and DVD players completely took over, replacing multimedia drives.

When the DVD became mainstream, stores such as Blockbuster Video replaced every VHS tape in stock with a DVD. Prior to that, people were using laser disk players that were literally the size of a record, (the kind that you would play on a record player to listen to music). A Brief History of the DVDīefore the release of DVD’s in the late 1990’s, people used the widely accepted VHS video tapes as a means of watching full length movies. We will then look at 7 DVD players that you can play DVD’s on your computer, and even show you how to watch a DVD on a Mac. In reading the following, we will take a brief look at the history of the DVD, and then discover why people sometimes have a problem playing a DVD on their laptop. Though Windows does not ship with a built-in DVD player that plays DVDs you can rent, there are software solutions you can employ that are completely legal, some of which are free. Have you ever attempted to play a DVD on your laptop for a cross-country flight, only to find that it just won’t play no matter what you do? In that moment of frustration you ask yourself, “How do I watch a DVD on my laptop?”ĭVD movies have been around since the late 1990’s and offer superior quality to their predecessor, the VHS tape. By Tim Chesonis | Last Updated: February 27, 2019

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