Hi All
In answer to the docking station ? On the bottom of My Sony Vaio Laptop It has a Port that hooks into the Docking station and the Laptop sits on top of the station. I think other companys have a USB variety and possibly their may even be third party versions. I use it to hook up audio and video to it, the docking station has right left audio in and out that I use to plug my mixer into, it also has video in and out RCA ports as well as S video and Coaxial. and I can hook sony computer speakers into it as well if I just want to use them in a home situation. I use my stereo for that most times but If I was in a hotel room and wanted to watch a DVD I could use my laptop with decent sound. The dual display comes from the ATI chipset. It has the Radeon 9700 which does offer Dual display but you have to set it up as such using the display properties after right clicking on a blank portion of the laptop screen. Make sure your TV or second monitor is hooked up at the time and turned on.It is a matter of dragging the singer screen, and singer name display to it. Once you set up the dual display feature. I had to use my cursor and physically drag them to the TV set with everything hooked up. If I don't have the TV or second monitor hooked up it will change the settings back to single display. If you have Monitor 1 and Monitor 2, Make sure your Laptop's Screen is your Primary display, you don't want Monitor 2 (TV) to be the primary display. It is a real problem to see the screen well enough to change everything back due to TV's not having clear enough resolution. I'm not sure about S3 cards and hoster compatibility.
As far as the reader/writer I use a Plextor PX-716 UF external plugged into my USB port. It also can be used on the firewire port if you don't have a extra USB port availiable. Might save you having to buy a new laptop if you get the video worked out. That unit runs about $200.00 and will read/ write CD+G and DVD. Or you can buy a certified burner from MTU.
Hope this helps
John
