How to Use Your PC for Entertainment

These days, PCs are steadily replacing TVs and stereos as the main entertainment centers in the home. You can use your PC to play music, convert your CD collection to a digital library, and watch movies on DVD.

To play music on your computer, all you need is a CD or DVD drive and a software program that can play music. Dozens of music software programs are available for free. Among the most popular options are:

Usually, when you place a CD into your disk drive, Windows Media Player will launch automatically and start playing the CD. If it doesn’t launch, you can start Windows Media Player manually by clicking Start > All Programs > Accessories > Entertainment and clicking Windows Media Player. To listen to music on your PC (either from CDs or digital files), you’ll need a set of speakers, which range from $25–300 and up.

Burning a CD or DVD refers to copying files from your computer to a CD or DVD. To burn CDs, you need special CD/DVD burning software, such as Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator®. Many PCs come with pre-installed trial versions of burning software. The process for burning audio CDs and video DVDs (which you can then play on any CD or DVD player) differs somewhat from burning ordinary data files (documents and so on). Most CD/DVD burning software will handle both tasks. CDs can hold up to 700 MB of data. DVDs can hold six times as much: up to 4.7 GB.

Ripping refers to copying music from a CD to your computer. This process creates digital versions of the songs on the CD and stores them in a format known as mp3, which PCs and portable mp3 players can play (Apple’s iPod® is the most popular mp3 player). By creating digital versions of your existing CD library, you can make playlists (custom arrangements of songs in an order you specify), search for music on your PC by artist or title, and burn custom CDs. You can use Windows Media Player to rip CDs.

Any PC with a DVD drive can play DVD movies. To watch a DVD, place it in the DVD drive. DVD-playing software, which usually comes preinstalled on a PC, loads automatically. The DVD’s menu options then load and appear on your screen. Use the mouse to navigate the DVD menu, which allows you to play the full movie or access additional features.