[zapp22]

I didn't know whether to post this here or in "Multimedia". Since its mostly about hardware I'll try here.

I want to be able to spin Blu-Ray DVD's on my two desktop PC's. I've got pretty beefy Nvidia graphics cards in both now, but want to buy Blu-Ray DVD reader/writer for each [about 100 bucks now... and falling] and whatever else I need. I THINK the flat-panel monitors are good to go, but would appreciate any advice you have on that score.

is that all there is to it or am I missing some big issue?
Oh, we run Win XP Pro on both and typically use PowerDVD as our player of choice [though we have half-dozen players]

thx!!
z

[paul.hugill]

Hi Zapp,
I wanted to do pretty much the same as you and ended up buying the External Blu Ray writer so that I can switch where I watch them.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...e%20-%20Retail

I went for that one as it does HD DVD aswell and I thought I may aswell get a writer as I was gonna need to spend a fair whack anyway. Its a bit more than you were thinking but if you end up getting 2 internals it could work out about the same.

Cyberlink do an Advisor which checks your system to see if it should work OK.

In terms of monitors the theory is that if you use DVI it needs to be HDCP capable but you can get AnyDVD from Slysoft which removes this necessity.

Now all I need to do is sort out why one of the computers Blue screens on me! Narrowed it down to a memory problem fault so have got it working and it is pretty awesome.

Regards
Paul

[zapp22]

Thankee, Paul!

Clarification, are you saying Cyberlink scans your system for compatibility with B/R ???? where is the executable? great idea!!

I plead total ignorance re: this comment:
"In terms of monitors the theory is that if you use DVI it needs to be HDCP capable but you can get AnyDVD from Slysoft which removes this necessity." ...

huh?

I have DVI capability and with ordinary graphics stuff have used both with no remarkable diff. I don't follow your comment at all. maybe I'm IQ deficient [likely]...

Originally Posted by paul.hugill

Hi Zapp,
I wanted to do pretty much the same as you and ended up buying the External Blu Ray writer so that I can switch where I watch them.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...e%20-%20Retail

I went for that one as it does HD DVD aswell and I thought I may aswell get a writer as I was gonna need to spend a fair whack anyway. Its a bit more than you were thinking but if you end up getting 2 internals it could work out about the same.

Cyberlink do an Advisor which checks your system to see if it should work OK.

In terms of monitors the theory is that if you use DVI it needs to be HDCP capable but you can get AnyDVD from Slysoft which removes this necessity.

Now all I need to do is sort out why one of the computers Blue screens on me! Narrowed it down to a memory problem fault so have got it working and it is pretty awesome.

Regards
Paul

[chart2006]

Zapp,
As you know some of us have been in the same situation as you. Mostly setting up a blu-ray enabled PC isn’t that difficult. With a decent video card you can accomplish your task easily.

However there are drawbacks using your PC to play blu-ray instead of using a stand alone player and that falls into the audio aspect of your playback. If you’re looking to taking full advantage of the blu-ray features especially the TrueHD audio at 7.1 surround sound you’ll have to do a bit more than simply installing the drive and expecting everything to function properly. Currently the problem lies in the fact that PC’s cannot encode any Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, or DTS-HD Master Audio over HDMI. Now a properly outfitted PC running CyberLink’s PowerDVD 8 can decrypt and decompress them and output it as uncompressed 8 channels LPCM (Linear Pulse Code Modulation) to HDMI.

Any newer Nvidia card that is outfitted with HDMI does carry audio but it’s a 2 channel LPCM. ATI’s RV7xx-series is the only video card that is capable of carrying 8 channels LPCM audio over HDMI. Of course I am talking if you are connecting your PC up to an A/V system that can support 5.1 or 7.1 DTS signals. If you’re simply using headphones then disregard what I am about to tell you.

There are 3 scenarios to connecting your PC to an A/V system and being able to take advantage of the HD audio.

Scenario 1: Onboard Audio w/ Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect
It’s nearly as simply as connecting an S/PDIF from your onboard audio adapter to you’re A/V receiver. Most motherboards have incorporated HD audio for quite some time now. All you really need to do is open Windows Control Panel and simply change your speaker configuration to a 5.1 or 7.1.

Scenario 2: Sound Blaster X-FI Card
You have two options here.
Option 1: connect one of the cards discrete analog outputs to you’re A/V receiver’s multichannel inputs however you will need three cables and each with a 1/8-inch stereo connecter to stereo RCA for 5.1 while four cables for 7.1.
Option 2: Install the Dolby Digital Live Software and use the X-Fi’s S/PDIF output.

Scenario 3: Radeon Video card w/ HDMI
Any HD 4600 or 4800 series GPU you can connect a DVI-to-HDMI adapter to you card and send uncompressed 7.1 channels of digital audio over HDMI.

I hope this adds to the confussion…

[paul.hugill]

The BD Advisor is here:
http://www.cyberlink.com/stat/bd-support/enu/index.jsp

It is just what it says, an advisor, and doesn't guarantee that you will be able to play it.

HDCP is an encrytion technology used with Digital Hi-Def Video and anyone thinking they want to purchase it new Monitor should try and make sure they have this capability on it if they want any future-proofing. The same would go for Graphics cards as any component that is connected needs to support HDCP for it to work.

Just did a quick google and http://www.practical-home-theater-guide.com/hdcp.html seems to look fairly good for info.

AnyDVD does allow you to use non-HDCP monitors/graphics cards as it removes this encryption.

As Chart has said Audio is the downfall at the moment for PC's although if you are only using 2 speakers it will work and you just wont get the full 5.1/7.1 surround sound.

It really all depends on how much you are looking to spend and what you want to get out of it. At the moment, I can't afford to get a decent AV setup and am happy (for now) with the HD video and not HD Audio.

[zapp22]

Thank you both, paul, and Chart2006.
Chart, your response is worthy of Sticky-Consideration. Great synopsis of the situation.
Like Paul, I am trying to not spend a fortune right at the moment, and part of my buy equation is I'm thinking of upgrading my desktop rig at the same time - nothing spectacular, just move to a more recent mobo/bus/etc mainly for FSB speed and newer/better video slot. my evo 510 is a great workhorse that has never hiccup'd but its a couple generations backrev

Now Chart, what you didn't say but I guess is implied is which of the PC DVD players has the best features: it would seem the answer is 'any of the good ones' - sony, liteon ???
I do not plan to fight the entire HD Audio battle at the moment, but if the choice of DVD player makes a diff in that respect, I may as well buy the one that gives me the best path to eventually resolving the audio.
Which one did you get?
z

Originally Posted by chart2006

Zapp,
As you know some of us have been in the same situation as you. Mostly setting up a blu-ray enabled PC isn’t that difficult. With a decent video card you can accomplish your task easily.

However there are drawbacks using your PC to play blu-ray instead of using a stand alone player and that falls into the audio aspect of your playback. If you’re looking to taking full advantage of the blu-ray features especially the TrueHD audio at 7.1 surround sound you’ll have to do a bit more than simply installing the drive and expecting everything to function properly. Currently the problem lies in the fact that PC’s cannot encode any Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, or DTS-HD Master Audio over HDMI. Now a properly outfitted PC running CyberLink’s PowerDVD 8 can decrypt and decompress them and output it as uncompressed 8 channels LPCM (Linear Pulse Code Modulation) to HDMI.

Any newer Nvidia card that is outfitted with HDMI does carry audio but it’s a 2 channel LPCM. ATI’s RV7xx-series is the only video card that is capable of carrying 8 channels LPCM audio over HDMI. Of course I am talking if you are connecting your PC up to an A/V system that can support 5.1 or 7.1 DTS signals. If you’re simply using headphones then disregard what I am about to tell you.

There are 3 scenarios to connecting your PC to an A/V system and being able to take advantage of the HD audio.

Scenario 1: Onboard Audio w/ Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect
It’s nearly as simply as connecting an S/PDIF from your onboard audio adapter to you’re A/V receiver. Most motherboards have incorporated HD audio for quite some time now. All you really need to do is open Windows Control Panel and simply change your speaker configuration to a 5.1 or 7.1.

Scenario 2: Sound Blaster X-FI Card
You have two options here.
Option 1: connect one of the cards discrete analog outputs to you’re A/V receiver’s multichannel inputs however you will need three cables and each with a 1/8-inch stereo connecter to stereo RCA for 5.1 while four cables for 7.1.
Option 2: Install the Dolby Digital Live Software and use the X-Fi’s S/PDIF output.

Scenario 3: Radeon Video card w/ HDMI
Any HD 4600 or 4800 series GPU you can connect a DVI-to-HDMI adapter to you card and send uncompressed 7.1 channels of digital audio over HDMI.

I hope this adds to the confussion…

[chart2006]

Z

As for which player to purchase that is entirely up to you. Brand(s) i would probably stick with Samsung, Pioneer, Sony, or LG. Lite-On isn't a bad brand but you can find better stuff at good prices. I personally have the Pioneer BDC-202 but you wont find that model anymore. It's Pioneers first Blu-ray player.

Really your next choice is whether or not you're strictly looking for a reader or writer and the additional burning capabilities of DVDs and CDs. Any drive will of course read all formats and most will write DVDs and CDs. If you have a secondary drive that burns DVDs and CDs then it's something you wont have to worry about too much.

Lastly at this point try to keep the 'recommended' requirements of the drive and not the 'minimum' requirements. Especially with Sony products because you'll run into issues of the drives non installing or being recognized by the bundled software. WinDVD 8 BD Edition is added to most name brand drives so unless you want to pay an additional 100 dollars for the full copy which will give you all the advanced capabilities you should be fine for now. As for the edition packaged with the drives i highly doubt it will do much in the audio aspect but i honestly don't know.

Sorry i wasn't more helpfull on which drives but there's just a lot of them out there that will work fine as long as you have the software and the hardware requirements to back them up.

Chart