HTPC as Blu-Ray player

Nymins

Nymins

Nymins

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Well im getting a 40" Samsung 1080p TV pretty soon, so im thinking of getting a Blu-Ray player. However, i realised that i have a fairly decent small form factor HP computer that my brother doesn't use since he got a laptop for xmas. Anyway, im thinking i could just get a blu-ray drive and put it in the PC and use it as a player. The only thing that concerns me are the specs of the PC:

Pentium 4 2.8GHz
1GB Ram
Integrated GPU
40GB Hard Drive
HP Motherboard with an AGP slot (small version graphics cards only though)

For playing Blu-Ray movies at 1080p, would i need to upgrade the CPU and GPU mainly cause i would like an HDMI output? Don't really know much about the requirements for Blu-Ray playback on PC's.


Thanks

EDIT: I noticed that the Radeon HD2400 PRO's come with a DVI-HDMI dongle. This right and does it work well?
 
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Really need dual core 2ghz and a ATI 2600Pro. Although I'm not sure how a HD accelertion could will take away the requirement of a fast CPU.
 
the theory is that you should be able to get away with a new gfx card that will take the load of the decoding.

In reality it is a bit hit and miss at the moment, particularly for AGP, and there are very few software options for playback. Mainly powerdvd (which is very buggy atm) and the new arcsoft total theater exteme which is already reportedly quite buggy.

If you really are just looking for blu ray playback it might be better getting a standalone/ps3 unless you like fiddling with things.

If you like the idea of a HTPC in general, I would start over and build something from scratch as there will be plently of occasions where you will get no hardware acceleration (usually form .mkv files) and your cpu will let you down. This option will give you more playback versatility but once you add a HD optical drive, it will be more than a PS3.

Not all Radeons come with the dongle (even if reviews say they do) and you must use the specific ATI one to get audio over the HDMI connection.
 
Yea i thought the specs could cause a problem. The PS3 is tempting cause the price isn't too bad and standalone players seem to cost a lot. Also, i noticed on AVforums that people buy the US version of the PS3 over the UK version for the Blu-Ray player, why is that? I don't think its cause of the price, something about playing different DVDs.
 
Nymins said:
Also, i noticed on AVforums that people buy the US version of the PS3 over the UK version for the Blu-Ray player, why is that? I don't think its cause of the price, something about playing different DVDs.
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Its becuase blu-ray has region restrictions on some content. So there are a few movies released over there which we cant play and cant get hold of until their UK release, which is usually a few months after. But with the US version you may have problems warranty wise if it breaks down. Iv considered getting on from america as prison break and lost are both released and region locked grrrrrr...
 
the_dead_parrot said:
Its becuase blu-ray has region restrictions on some content. So there are a few movies released over there which we cant play and cant get hold of until their UK release, which is usually a few months after. But with the US version you may have problems warranty wise if it breaks down. Iv considered getting on from america as prison break and lost are both released and region locked grrrrrr...
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I see. Are the majority of Blu-Ray movies not region free? Or is that HD-DVD? May just find a PS3 for cheap or are there any good cheap standalone players coming out?
 
I wouldnt say the majority there are a few big names but we will hopefully get them in a few months... Have a look here for more info http://bluray.liesinc.net/. HD-DVD doesnt have region restrictions on it, which was quite a major plus for the format. There isnt really any good or cheap standalones on the horizon, the PS3 is a top BR player and can be had for around £270 which is around the price of a standalone anyway. Personally I would go for one and you get the added bonus of being able to play games on it.
 
Very nice list there. So should i go for the UK PS3 just? Probably easier and i can always buy US region free blu-rays if they are on that list yea?
 
Nymins said:
Very nice list there. So should i go for the UK PS3 just? Probably easier and i can always buy US region free blu-rays if they are on that list yea?
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Yeah thats the best option, as I said most things shouldnt be too much of a wait for a UK release and there is plenty region free from the US so you should be fine. The list is updated pretty much constantly so will keep upto date with the new releases aswell. Hope you enjoy it
 
90% (well, 90% of the films worth buying:p) of bluray is region free anyway. people mostly buy us consoles for region 1 dvd playback, not because of the blurays
 
If you use a HTPC you can remove the region coding from blu-ray a couple of ways easiest way is to run anydvd HD. I run a HTPC with both a HD-DVD, Blu-Ray and a dual tunner freeview card works well but takes a bit of work to get everything working properly but the girlfriend now uses without issue which is always a good thing.

ArchAnGeL is spot on with his advise I would build a new one up from scatch.
 
the_dead_parrot said:
Its becuase blu-ray has region restrictions on some content. So there are a few movies released over there which we cant play and cant get hold of until their UK release, which is usually a few months after. But with the US version you may have problems warranty wise if it breaks down. Iv considered getting on from america as prison break and lost are both released and region locked grrrrrr...
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This is where a HTPC with anydvd HD comes in handy.

I dunno which one to buy either. Do i get a Blu-ray reader for £90 for my HTPC, a standalone sony blu-ray unit for £250, a blu-ray/HD-DVD combo rom for £140, or a PS3 for £270?

Does Blu-ray play Dolby Digital through SPDIF using powerdvd ultra 7.3 ok? DD works fine in vista for HD-DVD but doesnt seem to work at all in XP.

I already have a Wii/PC for games & a Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive hooked into my PC. So, guess I dont need the combo drive. Same boat as OP really :)
 
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Right well i ordered the Samsung LE40M87BD and should be here next week sometime. I was wondering, i have a pretty old DVD player (Toshiba SD-110E) and got it when DVD's started to come about. I noticed on the back of it that it has component connections, but i highly doubt that it would upscale DVD's to 1080i/p let alone 720p. Will the TV itself be enough to upscale SD DVD's ok?
 
Oxy said:
Does Blu-ray play Dolby Digital through SPDIF using powerdvd ultra 7.3 ok? DD works fine in vista for HD-DVD but doesnt seem to work at all in XP.
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I have XP with PDVD 7.3 and it works perfectly fine. I use a 8500GT(?) passive card and SPDIF to my amp and have no issues.
 
badbob said:
Yeah but it won't pass HD-Audio.
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I run my HD-DVD's via SPDIF and get 5.1 DD fine, audio sounds great to me! :)

Getting Blu-ray Friday - still gonna use SPDIF and get 5.1 DD. I would'nt worry to much about audio.

Ain't humans 95% visual creatures anyway :p. (Dont quote me)

All joking aside HDaudio would be nice but im not prepared to spend £400 on an amp after not having my budget one for that long (2 yrs).

Is HDAudio leaps and bounds better that DD?
 
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