How to Play a DVD on a Projector Screen

There are lots of good reasons to show a DVD in a business setting. You might want to create an employee bonding event by showing a movie and enjoying some popcorn and soda or beer. Or perhaps your office periodically receives promotional DVDs from your corporate office to incorporate into your sales meetings or uses DVD-based training programs to help your employees improve their skills. Whatever the reason, it's not difficult to connect your computer to a projector in order to display a DVD on the screen.

Connecting your computer to your projector to play a DVD is just like connecting it to play a PowerPoint presentation. Depending on your configuration, you can simply run a Video Graphics Adapter cable between the VGA ports on your projector and your computer, or use a High Definition Multimedia Interface cable between the HDMI ports on your computer and projector. Generally speaking, the HDMI cable will provide better video quality. If you are using a laptop, you might also need to press a special key combination to turn on its video output. While the key combination varies, it is usually either "Windows-P" or a combination of the "Fn" or "Function" key and one of the numbered F-keys like "F7," "F8" or "F9."

Most computers have a built-in DVD drive and software to play DVD disks. As such, simply insert the DVD in the drive and let the software play it. Once the DVD starts playing, you can usually select a full-screen mode by right-clicking anywhere in the image and navigating through the context menu that appears to find it.

If you do not already have an audio system installed in your conference room, you will need some way to play back the movie's audio. If you have a good pair of computer speakers, connect their plug to your computer's output jack and turn up your computer's volume control. If they are not loud enough, consider adding an inline headphone amplifier like a Boostaroo, Fiio e3 or Fiio e5 between the computer and the speakers. These will make the signal loud enough to fill a small conference room.

DVD videos typically require better projection conditions than presentations because they are more likely to have dark areas with relatively little contrast. Because of this, controlling the amount of light in the room is more important than with other projected content. Turn off as many lights as possible and cover the windows as much as you can. If you have a very dark room, use your projector's menu to select its "Cinema" or "Movie" mode. While this will further reduce your projector's light output, it will give you a more realistic and movie-theater style image in a dark room.