no you cannot play HD-DVD in a regular dvd-rom drive, also regulaard dvd is 480p while hd-dvd is 1090p or1080i, also what resolution does your monitor support? 480,720,1080? blu ray wont work on a dvd-rom either although nero infotool says my dvd-ram drive reads BD but i havent tried it yet, on a different note imo I think Blu-Ray is going to win the format war since it has more space on a single disc than hd-dvd that is why PS3 is gonna kick Xbox;s ***, but if you want a true hd experience you will need a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player, a tv with an hdmi input,hdmi cables, and a monitor or tv that supports 1080p, or try getting an XHD monito from dell or apple