Any long term issues with playing dvds on a side-mounted desktop tower?

[yoda313]

Ok I have decided to remove my vista home premium desktop from my high def system and relegate it to an analog WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER system. This will be for watching and recording multiple shows on an analog 4:3 set.

I'm pretty much set except after having to do a reinstall of vista (for the first time mind you) I still have to get one of my two tuner devices to be recognized. However I'm pretty much there and even almost have my harmony 520 remote ready with my dvico usb ir adapter.

My main question is this:

Are there any long term ill effects of playing dvds with the unit laying on its side? This is a desktop tower designed to stand vertically. I have it laying on its side and I made sure the pci card slots are facing in the correct upwards position (ie not upside down).

I do understand that ps3, 360, WII and even the PS2 are designed to play vertically. My question is does this mean a vertically desgined desktop tower will not having any longterm ill effects of playing dvds on its side? (this is actually optisite of the game consoles situation - since when they lay flat the disc drives are flat and then the drives are vertical when the console is placed vertical - so in otherwords the disc drive in the tower is horizontal when the tower is vertical and the drive is vertical when the tower is horizontal).

FYI the main dvd drive in the pc is a factory spec hp lightscirbe drive that I never replaced (a tss something... I could look it up if you need me too). I also have a lite-on bluray rom in the unit.

another question:

If I intend to watch dvds more frequently on this unit would it be more ideal to invest in a 5 1/4 external drive so that it would lay properly? I do have room to do that next to the tower.

Thanks for advice.

[vhelp]

Ah. Well, I tell ya.., (if I understand you correctly) I've had my upgraded win xp home system (a tower) settled on its side. And I've been burning my DVD's this way the whole year and a half with not signs of trouble..and also played (dvd/home encoded) videos, too. I don't think you'll have trouble playing CD discs eather way--horizontally or vertically, long-term-wise.

-vhelp 4938

[Number Six]

The optical drives will work perfectly in any position - the disc is locked in place on the spindle when the drive is closed. The only thing that may be a PITA is putting the disc in the tray without it falling out.

Now - if you were to attach the drive to a centrifuge while it is working, then I think you will run into some issues :P

[redwudz]

Some older optical drives used to have 'flip out' clips on the drawer to hold the DVD/CD in place vertically as the drawer is closed. But they seem to now just use little tabs to hold the disc in place while loading. But as mentioned, the disc is clamped in there so playback itself is not a problem.

When you use them vertically, you get used to putting your finger through the middle of the disc to place it in the tray. Much easier than trying to place it by the edges. Install the drives so the open tray is on the operators side.

[AlanHK]

Are there any long term ill effects of playing dvds with the unit laying on its side? This is a desktop tower designed to stand vertically. I have it laying on its side and I made sure the pci card slots are facing in the correct upwards position (ie not upside down).

I've had my tower on its side for a few years, too tall to stand upright on the shelf .

After a year or so the optical drives started to jam when opening.

I have to press eject at least 20 times before the tray ejects now.

I found a utility to do that, so I just start it and wait about 20 seconds.
"Eject" at http://www.geocities.com/urifrid/soft.html

Depends on the drives. Some may be designed to work either way.

No problem with playing or burning though, except for mini-CD/DVDs which are impossible to insert vertically, as they slip out of position. A couple of times I got software installers on those and had to pull out the PC and stand it up temporarily.


Otherwise, make sure that the hot air can rise up and out, should be okay if the mobo is on the bottom.

[yoda313]

@everyone - thanks for the insights. I kinda figured it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Good to hear positive results.

@AlanHK - I really don't have any of those mini disks. If there were any issues I'd just copy the discs to a full size cd on my xp machine that is upright in another room.

Well I'm nearly done with getting media center working the way I want to. I may have to redo the setup again for both tuners. The odd thing was I tried ati media center and went back to windows media center. WMC then said I had to rescan my tuners. Odd issue there. I have an ati all-in-wonder hd card and a pinnacle hd pro usb tuner. I did have it working just fine. Hopefully I can get it back again.

One other question - Does Windows Media Center offer a swap button to go from tuner a to tuner b? I haven't figured that out just yet. On my cable hd dvr it has a button literally labeled SWAP to go back and forth between tuners.

I'm also still fighting my remote control options. I just can't get anything working properly. My old dvico remote does work with its usb ir receiver but the button layout is horrible and doesn't work the way I want to. I can configure my Logitech Harmony 520 to mimick the dvico remote but I can't add any buttons to it. Even IR Learning with my xbox 360 media center remote doesn't seem to be working right.

Ah well at least its a great alternative to signing up and paying for my tivo box again. I already have windows media center no sense in letting it go to waste. I'll be able to record up to four shows at once now in two seperate rooms digitally - two on the cable dvr and two on the windows media pc

I could push it to three on the media center pc. I do have an extra capture card but I'm unwilling to dump my soundcard right now. I can go to onboard audio but I dont' really need three tuners in the one pc right now......

[Snakebyte1]

Just make sure you don't kick or knock the unit when the disc is spinning, which could knock the disc off the spindle. It will make one hell of a noise as the disc bounces around.

I have an external DVD drive and very little space on my cluttered desk so I wedge in the drive wherever I can, sometimes vertical, sometimes horizontal. On occasions I've accidentally hit the drive hard enough to knock the disc off the spindle and from my experiences it certainly sounds a whole lot worse when it was vertical as opposed to horizontal, and is easier to do when vertical.

Obviously I should clean up my desk so this won't happen, but, well, you know....