differs from what kind of user you are ....

if you want to play DTS CDs you must use winDVD
but in general powerDVD is much better ... note (v6 is a bloated v5)

but if you really want a good pice of software without all the advertising and registering crap ... you should use the free VideoLAN client.

for nV users ... you can DL purevideo from nV to run DVDs in WMP with hardware accelleration ... but its not free (even for GeForce owners .... what a shame)

Couple of Q's:

What is a DTS CD?

I like the sound of Purevideo with the hardware acceleration, will it allow for faster playback because it is using my gfx card?

Can I just use WMP instead of the DVD software?

What happens if I come across a DVD with different region, would there be anyway to play it on my laptop?

Thanks Mertsch :)

you can burn DTS streams as a "normal" audio CD ... this will result in static noise when playing it with a normal CD player or any other kind of player that is not able to detect the DTS stream ... and so far I have only seen WinDVD to be able to do so ...

but you do need a GF6 or higher afaik
check http://www.nvidia.com/object/dvd_decoder.html you can test for 30 days

this one lets you watch your movies in WMP