So, DVD Roms, can they be used on a 'normal' DVD Player?

Yeah yeah yeah, laugh it up nerds!

Look, if it isn't powered by being hit with a hammer, or possibly steam, then I haven't got a chance OK.

I've got a DVD-Rom with a load of mp3 audio files on (German lessons if you must know) and the DVD drive thingy on my old laptop died a death ages ago.
Housemate's computer has only got a CD drive so in desparation I stuck it in my DVD player - but it only came up with 'Bad Disc'.

So, is the disc fecked or or do I need to find some nice soul out there with a computer-DVD-Rom-thingywotzit to rip the audio files off and bung them onto a normal CD for me?

Er, lets try to explain

A DVD is a physical medium. You can store lots of things on a DVD - for example DVD movies, mp3 music, photos, word documents, archives of sv650.org. If you can store it on a computer hard disk, then you can also store it on a DVD-ROM. Think of it a bit like a gigantic, write-once floppy disk (remember those?)

Some DVD playes are clever than others. The dumbest ones can only play dvds that have dvd video on them. Others can play mp3s, digital photos or video that's in other formats (like divx). None, as far as I know, can open word documents or archives of the org.

I think that you need the nice soul with a computer, or a fancier dvd player that might (or might not) be able to cope.

some cheap players are very good too, i purchased a dvd player from lidl for £30 and as far as i'm aware it plays everything and has a 7 in 2 card reader and has 3 years warranty.

my philips 610 dvd recorder was £200 and only plays dvd's.

I think I've got a DVD drive in box of bits somewhere.
If I have, you can have it for the price of the postage.

Might be best if you get some help fitting into your computer.
They don't always respond well to being hammered in