Convertible laptops and DVDs

[fivecandles]

I understand that it's not possible to get a convertible laptop or tablet with a DVD drive. Is it possible to buy an external DVD drive? How does that work? Will it connect to any convertible laptop?

TIA

Do you have any links to 'convertible laptops' (it's not a term I've seen before, but I suppose it may mean one of the most recent large screen tablet-style machines which can be fitted to a keyboard to transform into a 'netboook' or similar...

Yes there are external DVD drives which use a USB connection (or two, if it uses one for power, rather than having a power plug too). I saw a s/h one in a local store for 20 quid. Have not actually looked at the regular pricing for brand new (and much will depend on whether you choose a DVD reader, CD writer, or DVD reader/writer (as two examples). Obviously if DVD capability is important, then steer clear of CD-only devices :)

Thanks Network. Link here www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-series-5-11-6-touchscreen-convertible-laptop-silver-17056550-pdt.html

This sort of thing. So I could just plug in a DVD reader/writer do you think?

Part of the advantage of the convertible thing is its portability e.g. for going on holiday but no good if no DVDs for playing to kids on plane sort of thing.

Yes, you could buy an external DVD drive and plug it in, but for portability, you'd be better off saving the movies to the hard drive and playing them direct from there.

Gulp. That's a heck of a price. Sorry, but no way would I want to take something so easily stolen (and high cost to replace) away.

While I'm not keen on 'new' prices for Apple kit, I'd say
64GB iPad 2nd Gen at 400 quid, or 315/369 quid for 16GB or 32GB iPad v3 may be better value... Could get 2 at 315 each so there may be fewer family arguments, and you know you'd have Apple warranty just like 'new'.

unless of course you really want to stick to Windows...

I can respect that, but feel the Samsung and similar may be too new, too shiny, and you may be paying over the odds for being one of the first, before prices come down...

I ended up buying a blackberry playbook to use for long journeys.

It has 64gb of space so no need for dvds, DDs entire collection is stored on there!
Battery life is good too, last week we started our five hour journey with 49% of life and it died just after we arrived.
Much better for us than the portable dvd player we were using, it was such a pain having to reach round, take the player off it's holder and change dvds.

It's quite a bit cheaper than other tablets too, I haven't figured out why, it started off at a high price, there's a code on hotukdeals to get it for £116 at the minute.

Thanks for your advice and I know what you mean about the price. I'm actually thinking of something I can use for work - I've decided I need portability but realistically I would need the keyboard a lot too - so the travel and DVD thing is just thinking what else I could get out of it and we're going on a long journey this summer....