We need to replace our crappy old DVD player. I thought I’d be smart and see if I could kill two birds in one and buy an external DVD player my girlfriend can use with her Acer Aspire 1.
Trouble is, that the external DVD drives designed for netbook use connect via USB. Good for netbooks but not for making a connection with the TV.
Is this possible/a good idea? I’m guessing all that’s needed is some sort of adaptor to enable USB in and TV connecting cables out.
Uhm… 
Sure, you could use the netbook as a DVD player. But check that the TV has a D-sub input first, as otherwise you can’t connect it up.
You’d need a D-sub to D-sub cable and also a 3.5mm to dual RCA jack (the red and white plugs) for the audio. I guess the cables would come up to maybe NT$3-400 if you get some long-ish cables.
You’d also need some DVD playback software, as you can’t just play DVD’s in XP. You could try videolan.org/vlc/
Ah, I see :s The netbook has to be in on the act.
What I had in mind was simply to hook up the external DVD player to the TV. I had this vague feeling I might be missing out on some key aspect. Ha.
You might just have invented a new category of device 
Now you just need a million bucks to invest and you can start making some money… 