Laptop as DVD Player - Advice Please

[whovous]

A friend has asked me for advice on using a laptop as a DVD player. He wants high resolution and as big a screen as is cheaply possible. Sound will likely be via a headphone jack and of lesser importance, I think. Assuming the machine is called upon to do little more than play movies, send and receive email, and surf the web, what does he need? What kind of screen? Does the video card matter? How about CPU speed?

This guy will never tweak a machine in any way, so something solid and mainstream, like a typical Dell deal, is what he needs.

Could you folks tell me what is and is not important for this usage?

Thanks in advance.

 

[tw1164]

Any of the laptop that are selling today, are more then powerfull enough to play a dvd. If it has a dvd drive he'll be fine.

 

[Jeff7]

Well if you get a high quality big screen, the rest of the laptop is likely to be very fast too; I think DVD's requirement is a Pentium II 350. A laptop with that will probably have a screen that won't live up to high expectations.

 

[whovous]

Thanks for the replies.

Does the video card matter at all for simple DVD playback, will anything at all do the job? And what should I suggest screenwise, other than big? Is there a point where overkill kicks in? For movie playback will he be able to tell the difference between a best and second best screen? I know his ears are not the most discerning, but am not so sure about his eyes.

 

[Gunbuster]

If he is really concerned about a great movie experience a laptop is not the place to be looking.

Does he not have a TV?

 

[whovous]

He has a TV and DVD player, though I am pretty sure he will never go the "home cinema" route. He has not said so, but my guess is that his wife objects to some of the movies he watches, and this way he can watch what he wants where he wants. Of course he can already do that on his fairly decent desktop system, but I just make suggestions when asked, I don't get too far into the 'why this way?' part of the equation.

 

[SpeedFreak03]

A friend of mine has a dell laptop (I forget the exact model number though, but it's fairly new) that watches DVD's on it. It works good, but the DVD-rom drive gets hot and can be uncomfortable on your lap.

 

[whovous]

From the responses to date, I infer that screen size is probably the only thing my friend should be concerned with. The current Dell deal for $699 with a 2.0G Celeron and 256Meg of RAM is likely all that he needs. Not much of a machine, I realize, but it does not sound as though he needs anything more.