Man of Honour
- Joined
- 15 Nov 2006
- Posts
- 2,071
- Location
- Hull
Yo fellers,
Just thought I'd get some advice on what was required to add Bluray capability to my existing HTPC setup. It's an older skt 939 system but it's running a 4400+ X2 chip with 2GB RAM and an ATI 3450 video card, all watched through Vista media centre. It's connected up to a 46" Samsung LCD.
It hasn't been without its problems. I was unable to get smooth video playback using a DVI to HDMI cable, but playback is fine with the VGA connection - the tradeoff being a comparitively washed out picture in comparison to digital (poor black levels in particular). Not really looking for a solution to those problem (unless someone has an epiphany!), but I want to get the best possible results with this upgrade.
So, with this in mind, any recommendations for a BluRay drive and upgraded video card? The system plays H264 encoded HD at the moment, but am I right in thinking Bluray relies much more on the video card for decoding and playback? Any new vid card would have to be passively cooled for noise, and hopefully would have native HDMI output (am I hoping for too much if I wonder whether this might 'fix' my digital playback problems with going directly from HDMI - HDMI?!)
Any comments appreciated.
Just thought I'd get some advice on what was required to add Bluray capability to my existing HTPC setup. It's an older skt 939 system but it's running a 4400+ X2 chip with 2GB RAM and an ATI 3450 video card, all watched through Vista media centre. It's connected up to a 46" Samsung LCD.
It hasn't been without its problems. I was unable to get smooth video playback using a DVI to HDMI cable, but playback is fine with the VGA connection - the tradeoff being a comparitively washed out picture in comparison to digital (poor black levels in particular). Not really looking for a solution to those problem (unless someone has an epiphany!), but I want to get the best possible results with this upgrade.
So, with this in mind, any recommendations for a BluRay drive and upgraded video card? The system plays H264 encoded HD at the moment, but am I right in thinking Bluray relies much more on the video card for decoding and playback? Any new vid card would have to be passively cooled for noise, and hopefully would have native HDMI output (am I hoping for too much if I wonder whether this might 'fix' my digital playback problems with going directly from HDMI - HDMI?!)
Any comments appreciated.
