Sorry to hear that Cliff it seems like Windows 8 is giving you nothing but woes. A dvd rom or burner is not that pricey though. You may be able to get a used one from an older computer if you know someone.
To be honest, there's only been a few problems. Disc drive being crap, space issues, live tiles, can't play DVDs (possibly related to the disc drive problem)...
If I had a better computer, I don't think I'd really have any of those problems. So it's more a money thing than a Win8 thing. (Although these issues are only coming out after having gone from XP to Win8.)
And yeah, I know someone who might have an old disc drive they're looking to sell. Or rather, he's the tech guy in mum's circle of friends, so all of them, when they want to upgrade, give him their old hardware to sell on for them (he takes a cut).
Going to check out prices before I ring him, and probably look into drivers, in case it's an easy fix.