Home theater experts - advice needed please

Hi all,

I have a quick question about DVD/CD-RW combo drives, the HP 9900Ci that I am thinking of purchasing. My question doesn't have to do with this drive in particular but rather with DVD drives in general as well as sound system setups. I am excited about finally being able to watch DVD's for the first time on my comp. The problem though, is that I have a SB live X-gamer (not 5.1) and FPS 2000 digital speakers.

With a DVD drive and the above mentioned setup, how much of the true surround sound experience do you think that I would be missing out on?? Would it be possible for you to estimate percentage wise? (ex only 85% of total effect) Is it even worth getting a DVD drive, if I don't even have a five speaker system or 5.1 soundcard?? Would it still be possible to get surround sound with only 4 speakers?? I am concerned that it might just be better to wait until I upgrade my entire system (speakers, soundcard etc.) before I spend money on a DVD drive so that I get the maximum effect possible.

I hope that I am being understandable and clear enough in my description. If not just let me know.

Thanks much everyone for offering your advice to this confused individual new to the DVD realm!!

Not much of a problem. Monologs will come out the two front speakers instead of the center speaker, that's all.

Video killed my Radio Card!

5.1 suround only uses 5 directional speakers and a sub. You can use additional speakers for a wider dispersion angle, but you still only get 5 channel surround.

Video killed my Radio Card!

You can get very good surround effects out of a 4.1 system. Actually, the surround effects will be just as good as a comparable 5.1 system, but the only difference will be the speech and a very minor amount of the sound in front of you is played through the centre channel speaker, instead of being equally divided between the two front channel speakers.

What I'd suggest though, is to keep the card you have, get the dvd, and then get a good pair of headphones. If you have powerDVD, it has the dolby headphone algorithm built into it which you can use to get 5.1 sound out of your standard headphones. This is definitely a better way to watch a movie than a 4.1 system, and actually, is better than having a 5.1 system too. Since the sound is being played right next to your ear, it won't get distorted by any imperfections in your room (ie furniture, monitor etc). You can check it out at <A HREF="http://www.dolby.com" target="_new">http://www.dolby.com</A>

Lyrics. Wasted time between solos.