UHD Bluray drives for PC?
- Thread starter WatchTower
- Start date
Pointless waiting physical media is dying now Samsung pulled the plug on their 4k UHD player. Just buy an Xbox1X or change your PC to make it 4K compatible otherwise you will be left with streaming only in future. It may take a little time but give it 2 years or so 4k discs will be scarce.
Streaming is not the future but too many people were happy to accept it so its going to be the new standard eventually.
Streaming is not the future but too many people were happy to accept it so its going to be the new standard eventually.
I think its more like they never invested in furthering their 4k range. The K8500 was an early offering and the ones that came after never really improved and my K8500 is still going strong. Physical media will never die DVD is arguably still going strong and everyone said Bluray would kill it off. I imagine the 4k market in the US is not doing so well because US Streaming is very popular but it will take a lot longer than here and its mainly due to the Streaming Services sticking to the US market, eg DC Streaming is US only, HBO is US only, Disney will be US only at first. Talking mainstream consumer too not via dodgy VPN to US.
Playing normal Blu-Rays is a pain in the bum so I never bothered with a 4K UHD player on my HTPC's.
Every few Blu-Rays releases requires an software update which usually means paying for another version of Cyberlink's software or mess around trying to rip it then play.
I use my Xbox One X or S for 4K discs as it just works.
Every few Blu-Rays releases requires an software update which usually means paying for another version of Cyberlink's software or mess around trying to rip it then play.
I use my Xbox One X or S for 4K discs as it just works.
Caporegime
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I pay for PowerDVD Live and I've never really had any issues, hell it even works on my 21:9 these days.
Caporegime
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Streaming has issues with how there's no "One size fits all" solution. This is getting worse due to an increase in platforms.
That's the subscription based model, so you are going to get the latest version.
Caporegime
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Yeah, that's more my point. Although frankly their should be built in support for Blu-ray on W10, just paying for the powerdvd subscription live is pretty simple with it updating etc.
But then it's an extra cost a year some people may not want.
It is gradually dying though 4K UHD needs an active internet connection to work to update the DRM scheme every few titles. Streaming even though sub standard AFAIC quality wise is able to deliver a DVD level picture to many with weak internet connections. Hollywood seems more interested in building their own streaming platforms than investing in physical media. 4K Discs will still be here for a few more years but the writing is on the wall its going to go away forever once the mainstream can handle higher bandwidth without data caps.Physical media can't be dying because there are many, actually the larger areas on the Earth surface do not have internet coverage, or have weak internet coverage.
I don't know what samsung are thinking - I have never liked that company...
The reason MS took away built in support for Bluray was the Hollywood studios wanted an MPEG2 codec licence fee for every copy of Windows 7 sold I think it was $5 or something silly. Same reason W10 does not support 4K UHD without additional software is the licensing fees for the 4K codecs Hollywood wants their cut
When its a streaming only model in years to come watch the prices skyrocket they will try to charge per each viewing stream. This happened once before in the late 1990s a disposable DIVX disc format (not the same company as the codec) which never took off with discs which only work once & require a fee to watch via a constant internet connection
this is one of many reasons why the rush to a streaming only future is going to be very bad news for consumers 
buy all the physical media you can before its too late 
Soldato
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The reason MS took away built in support for Bluray was the Hollywood studios wanted an MPEG2 codec licence fee for every copy of Windows 7 sold I think it was $5 or something silly. Same reason W10 does not support 4K UHD without additional software is the licensing fees for the 4K codecs Hollywood wants their cut
No it not the Hollywood studios who wanted a MPEG2 codec licence fee for every copy of Windows 7 sold. Actually it is MPEG LA who hold MPEG2 patents wanted a MPEG2 codec $2.50 license fee for every copy of Windows 7 sold from Microsoft. All cable TV operators, Hollywood and TV studios will need to pay MPEG2 codec license fee to MPEG LA for every MPEG2 encoded DVD movie and TV transmission.
https://www.mpegla.com/
Found MPEG2 license fee for each unit from MPEG LA website:
MPEG2 decoder and encoder
Before 1 Jan 2002: $4.00
After 1 Jan 2002: $2.50
After 1 Jan 2010: $2.00
After 1 Jan 2016: $0.50
After 1 Jan 2018: $0.35
MPEG2 Consumer products
Before 1 Jan 2002: $6.00
After 1 Jan 2002: $2.50
After 1 Jan 2010: $2.00
After 1 Jan 2016: $0.50
After 1 Jan 2018: $0.35
MPEG2 DVD Packaged Medium
After 1 Jan 2010: $0.016 or $0.01 for 12 mins for less
MPEG LA also hold EVS (Enhanced Voice Services), HEVC/H.265 codec, DASH (Dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP), DisplayPort, ATSC, AVC/H.264, MVC, VC-1, MPEG-4 Visual, Increscent Therapeutics, MPEG2, MPEG2 Systems, 1394 and Librassay patents.
I cant imagine how much money MPEG LA made every year from royalty fee from all patents grabbed fees from every companies and everybody too. Disgraceful.
MPEG LA asked $0.20 for each GPU sold with DisplayPort, $25M for hardware HEVC, up to $2.50 for each GPU with hardware MPEG2, up to $3.75M for hardware MPEG4, up to $9.75M for hardware AVC/H.264 from AMD, Nvidia and Intel every year! Wow absolutely disgraceful.
MPEG LA is asked far too much money and HEVC was the final straw, $25M maximum fee every year is outraged then Intel, Nvidia, Microsoft, Netflix, Google and others decided enough is enough and they all founded Alliance for Open Media to created AV1 codec which is free and has no royalty fee.
I am very impressed with AV1 on Windows 10, you can get AV1 video extension from Microsoft Store and it let you watch youtube AV1 videos on Edge, latest Chrome and Firefox also has AV1 enabled. AV1 did not worked in Android Pie yet but next version Android Q will have AV1 enabled later in 2019. YouTube, Netflix and others are now in progress to convert all existed and new videos to AV1 codec to avoid paying MPEG2, AVC/H.264, MPEG4 and HEVC/H.265 royalty fee to MPEG LA.
After 1 Jan 2002: $2.50
After 1 Jan 2010: $2.00
After 1 Jan 2016: $0.50
After 1 Jan 2018: $0.35
MPEG2 DVD Packaged Medium
After 1 Jan 2010: $0.016 or $0.01 for 12 mins for less
MPEG LA also hold EVS (Enhanced Voice Services), HEVC/H.265 codec, DASH (Dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP), DisplayPort, ATSC, AVC/H.264, MVC, VC-1, MPEG-4 Visual, Increscent Therapeutics, MPEG2, MPEG2 Systems, 1394 and Librassay patents.
I cant imagine how much money MPEG LA made every year from royalty fee from all patents grabbed fees from every companies and everybody too. Disgraceful.
MPEG LA asked $0.20 for each GPU sold with DisplayPort, $25M for hardware HEVC, up to $2.50 for each GPU with hardware MPEG2, up to $3.75M for hardware MPEG4, up to $9.75M for hardware AVC/H.264 from AMD, Nvidia and Intel every year! Wow absolutely disgraceful.
MPEG LA is asked far too much money and HEVC was the final straw, $25M maximum fee every year is outraged then Intel, Nvidia, Microsoft, Netflix, Google and others decided enough is enough and they all founded Alliance for Open Media to created AV1 codec which is free and has no royalty fee.
I am very impressed with AV1 on Windows 10, you can get AV1 video extension from Microsoft Store and it let you watch youtube AV1 videos on Edge, latest Chrome and Firefox also has AV1 enabled. AV1 did not worked in Android Pie yet but next version Android Q will have AV1 enabled later in 2019. YouTube, Netflix and others are now in progress to convert all existed and new videos to AV1 codec to avoid paying MPEG2, AVC/H.264, MPEG4 and HEVC/H.265 royalty fee to MPEG LA.
When its a streaming only model in years to come watch the prices skyrocket they will try to charge per each viewing stream. This happened once before in the late 1990s a disposable DIVX disc format (not the same company as the codec) which never took off with discs which only work once & require a fee to watch via a constant internet connection
Ah yes I remembered DIVX.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIVX
I think in 2020 all All cable TV operators, Hollywood and TV studios cant wait to encode in AV1 codec with new set top hardware or new firmware updates so they will be no longer pay royalty fee to MPEG LA for used MPEG2, MPEG4 or HEVC codec since when MPEG LA was founded in 1996 and they all can finally make lots of money from AV1 codec, see every TV channels finally move to 4K resolution and new updated Ultra HD Blu-ray spec will probably use AV1 codec.
When has streaming media ever overtaken technology? You can not stream real 4K UHD HDR with the same quality. Bluray 1080p alone has 35mb for video and another 6mb for the audio sometimes. This is without the mention of the size being 50gb minimum.
Now we are four times ahead with 150gb films restored to 4k HDR who can stream 150gb per night? And more importabt who wants to host that? I tried Netflix too what Netflix and people who condone streaming never mention is 4k streams and equal to 1080p physical media in quality. Its pretty simple what size is Outlaw King?
I personally will never stream i prefer now to collect 4k UHD Blurays as it will be ten years before you can stream a 150gb movie. And by then there will be 8k physical media to surpass that. Streaming is rubbish just like Steam it will take away true ownership of what you pay for and that will never happen with Blurays. They are mine now until i die and i have a backup option too.
Soldato
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Is it true that there is no UHD drive for the pc on the horizon that is compatible with Ryzen and AM4 motherboards?
If so, that sucks.
If so, that sucks.
Very much so i had high hopes for SGX on AMD/Nvidia. It would have allowed 21.9 aspect ratio 4k UHD with Powerdvd 17+ on steam for me it works really good on normal Bluray.
Not to mention the ability to use high ohm headphones too into a Xonar this is all lost currently on UHD. And UHD deserves better only UHD represents the resolution of 35mm film which is 6k or so they say.
Soldato
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Yeah I am using my pc and a Xonar stx for blu rays with headphones, and it's a great combination I must say. It's disappointing that I can't use UHD drive with my Ryzen as I did toy with the idea of getting a 4K monitor for watching movies on the pc and also for playing console games. I guess 4k streaming is the only other option now, but it won't have the same benefits as you mention as playing a movie through Powerdvd.
Streaming has the poor compressed audio as well. Really people need to put demand on AMS and Nvidia start a forum poll or something. But people are stupid they want the convenience of streams but are pushing themselves into rental of a product.
Goodluck with no internet with your movies! If they wake up and buy more UHD discs it will come like Bluray did or someone will crack it.
Goodluck with no internet with your movies! If they wake up and buy more UHD discs it will come like Bluray did or someone will crack it.
yes this is true - for direct playback.
There are ways to rip 4k discs just using the data on the disc (via a few specific pc drives) so your valid technological issue is no longer applicable (ie the data is read directly as a data sream rather than per se as a video, so cpu etc doesn't care)- latest versions of makemkv have dealt with this for last few months
(their forums have long discussions about this new method)
Soldato
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Cheers - I will do some research on this.
So any reccomendations? I am considering a new drive my old pioneer drive tray is jammed shut and i am pretty mad about it. But i would need to rip UHD discs to watch them. I have never done it and also am concerned about the time it would take.
I mean damm just let me watch UHD on Nvidia already, As my old 4770k will not be good enough and i am never going to use IGP. Basically were not far off 2020 and were not allowed to play our discs.