Oops, the Steam Deck is my only DVD player

polygon.com:

I’ve messed up at multiple points in my life if I’m relying on a Steam Deck to help me play DVDs. But that’s where I’m at, having gotten rid of practically every device I owned over the past few years that could play discs.

The Steam Deck cannot play DVDs by itself, so to revisit our collection of discs, I had the idea (one that I’m far from the first to try) to connect a no frills, USB-powered DVD drive to the Deck’s TV dock, then run the discs with the VLC Media Player app. I’m equal parts proud of and embarrassed by this hacky setup. You don’t need to feel bad for me!

This method, as you might have assumed, is about as far from an elegant user experience as it gets, especially if you’re trying to implant it into an entertainment center. Actually using it without tearing your hair out involves either using a mouse connected to your Steam Deck, or painstakingly remapping VLC’s mouse and keyboard commands to a controller. Honestly, neither choice nets something that feels “good” to use.

On the software side, getting things set up is simpler, thankfully. The VLC Media Player app is supported by the SteamOS version of Linux, and you can find it in the Discover store that’s accessible in the Steam Deck’s desktop mode. The Steam Deck: It’s a computer! After installing it, right-clicking the app and selecting the “Add to Steam” option will add it (and, really, any other app) to the collection of tiles that show up in the Deck’s more TV-friendly gaming mode.

Launching it takes you directly to the VLC interface, taking up the full size of my TV with its utilitarian Windows 98-esque design. From there, it’s pretty breezy if you’ve used the software before. If not, learning how it works shouldn’t take much effort if you’ve