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Blu-Ray on PC

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Davegod

Platinum Member
I'm thinking of treating myself to a Bluray drive around Christmas. Anyone had any general problems with bluray movies on their PC?

I ask because DVD's can be fussy on my PC, I rent them and find maybe 10-15% just wont play on the PC but will on a standalone player. Yeah sometimes it's the scratches (PC cant cope with them while the standalone player just ignores them and continues), but half the time the disc is perfect but still PowerDVD locks up or the drive acts up - pretends it's lost power, or mysteriously just doesn't work and then on next boot Vista tells me it's installing drivers for it. I think it must be copy protection.


According to the powerdvd tester utility I'm set for HDCP, other than the video card which I'll also upgrade.

The alternative is to get a standalone bluray player for more than twice the price of the PC drive, and a nuiscance messing with cables (two ports on monitor, bluray would make a 3rd device).
 
somethings seriously wrong with your pc's dvd drive if that high a percentage won't play. i've had many different dvd drives and have rented a ton of movies..unless a movies cracked i've never had trouble reading discs. even ones lightly scratched.

blurays too much trouble right now. and well, the prices for films haven't come down yet. sales haven't gotten a bump after hddvds death. so i guess its best to wait while they learn their lesson. http://techdirt.com/articles/20080430/223148990.shtml sales actually dropped after they "won".

 
I agree bluray disks arent worth buying but I can get them on my rental subscription, the only extra cost is the hardware. I get through quite a lot of films & tv-series as I'm doing professional study after work so it's nice to watch something in late evening to wind down, and like a reward. I'm pretty much sold on it, it's just whether to go for pc bluray or a standalone unit.

I'd wondered if there was something wrong with the dvd player but I've not had a problem with any disks except video. I rent via internet and only get a protective slip, so I can't see if there's a connection with copy-protected notices on boxes. I've played a handful of my own dvd's (older movies) without problem, and a tv series I borrowed which does have a copy protected logo is one that refuses to play. I did have concerns over sticking the drive on the same psu wire as the 9800GTX, but it's very rare for a dvd to not play then work again after a reboot (or vice-versa). FWIW bluray upgrade includes a new psu...
 
Originally posted by: Davegod
I agree bluray disks arent worth buying but I can get them on my rental subscription, the only extra cost is the hardware. I get through quite a lot of films & tv-series as I'm doing professional study after work so it's nice to watch something in late evening to wind down, and like a reward. I'm pretty much sold on it, it's just whether to go for pc bluray or a standalone unit.

I'd wondered if there was something wrong with the dvd player but I've not had a problem with any disks except video. I rent via internet and only get a protective slip, so I can't see if there's a connection with copy-protected notices on boxes. I've played a handful of my own dvd's (older movies) without problem, and a tv series I borrowed which does have a copy protected logo is one that refuses to play. I did have concerns over sticking the drive on the same psu wire as the 9800GTX, but it's very rare for a dvd to not play then work again after a reboot (or vice-versa). FWIW bluray upgrade includes a new psu...
Click to expand...

its definitely your drive. i also use netflix, many discs are scratched, but unless a disc is cracked, i've always been able to play it. dvd is mature tech, a working drive should be able to tolerate quite a bit of imperfection.

all dvds have copy protection. but it shouldn't affect playback. and its very ineffective to say the least.
 
I watch Blu-Rays on my pc, which I chose over buying a standalone player. Acquiring the movies is easy through Netflix/Blockbuster. The drive itself works great. The 1080p monitor I have is fantastic. I spent less than $300 total on this investment. Oh and the movies look absolutely gorgeous. I doubt I will ever watch/rent a movie on regular DVD ever again.

The only problem you will encounter is software. The version of PowerDVD that comes with most drives is not current and will not play a lot of movies. You will need to get the most up-to-date version of PowerDVD. Also, if you plan to make any backups you will need to buy AnyDVD HD from Slysoft.

Also, if you plan to store Blu-Rays on your PC, you better start getting into the Terabytes as far as HDD's goes because you will fill them up quickly. There is a great deal on Newegg for a Western Digital Caviar Terabyte Hard drive for $109, free shipping. That is dirt cheap. I am about to buy a few of them as I already filled up my TB hard drive.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions, I would be happy to answer them, good luck 🙂
 
SlySoft AnyDVD

Even if you aren't backing them up, that just takes all the pain out of getting HDCP to function correctly.

Buy yourself a BluRay player that also has a DVD player/burner. Ditch the old drive and just use the new one.

Since you're at least somewhat of a gamer (I presume, from the 7800GTX listed in your rig) I'd suggest a 4850 or GTX 260. Either will be quite an upgrade from your current video card and will also handle HD viewing with no problems.

EDIT: BTW, ew1075, I wouldn't brag about filling up 1TB drives with pirated BluRays. That kind of thing is highly frowned upon around here and can get you banned in a hurry.
 
BTW, ew1075, I wouldn't brag about filling up 1TB drives with pirated BluRays. That kind of thing is highly frowned upon around here and can get you banned in a hurry.
Click to expand...

Firstly, I wasn't bragging.

Secondly, I never said I was pirating. I simply mentioned netflix/blockbuster as an option in case price was an issue (as others had already pointed out).

Thirdly, what I said was true. You need multiple TB hard drives to keep digital copies of your blu-rays.

I personally don't like having to go through my collection to pick a movie. It is more convenient to have them all on the computer and I see a nice neat list right on my screen. I also don't like messing with the discs, taking them in and out of the drive and in and out of the case. And since I'm watching the movies on my computer anyway, it is much more convenient to store them on a hard drive.

Thank you for your concern Denithor.

Have a nice day.
 
Sorry if I jumped to the wrong conclusion there.

It's just that saying
Acquiring the movies is easy through Netflix/Blockbuster.
Click to expand...
in the same post as
Also, if you plan to store Blu-Rays on your PC
Click to expand...
and
I am about to buy a few of them as I already filled up my TB hard drive.
Click to expand...
didn't sound like routine backing up of "owned" disks.

BTW, what version of PowerDVD do you use? I've got 7.3 Deluxe which has support for HD DVD & Bluray and haven't had any problems with any of the HD disks I've played so far. However, I haven't yet tried any BR disks, is that likely to be a problem?
 
yeah I'd read on the site I'll be buying from a lot of comments saying powerdvd needed to be updated for quite a lot of bluray movies, but not HD-DVD. I think it's because they keep messing with the BR spec and encryption (apparently many of the reports of BR disks taking several minutes to load is that they are updating the firmware on the player!).

4850 is what I'm getting 🙂.
 
Originally posted by: Davegod
I'm thinking of treating myself to a Bluray drive around Christmas. Anyone had any general problems with bluray movies on their PC?

I ask because DVD's can be fussy on my PC, I rent them and find maybe 10-15% just wont play on the PC but will on a standalone player. Yeah sometimes it's the scratches (PC cant cope with them while the standalone player just ignores them and continues), but half the time the disc is perfect but still PowerDVD locks up or the drive acts up - pretends it's lost power, or mysteriously just doesn't work and then on next boot Vista tells me it's installing drivers for it. I think it must be copy protection.


According to the powerdvd tester utility I'm set for HDCP, other than the video card which I'll also upgrade.

The alternative is to get a standalone bluray player for more than twice the price of the PC drive, and a nuiscance messing with cables (two ports on monitor, bluray would make a 3rd device).
Click to expand...

powerdvd has known issues with vista and blu-ray, but not so much with XP.
i have a blu-ray in my pc with powerdvd that came with the drive.
you need to upgrade to one of the 56443452 builds that poweredvd keeps releasing, or you wont be able to play anything new that comes out. notably the hulk, which i STILL cant play/watch because of conflicts with powerdvd. installing powerdvd 8 didnt help either, as that version wouldnt play the hulk either. cyberlink released a patch to specifically FIX the conflict with the hulk movie but after the patch was installed, my drive no longer sees ANY movie, and doesnt even recognize that there is a disk in the drive with the infamous error, "no disk in drive D". never removing the disk (iron man) from the drive and firing up powerdvd 7.3 plays any disk but the hulk just fine.

nice.

be aware that if you "upgrade" to powerdvd 8 then you WILL NOT be able to watch HD DVD movies as cyberlink has officially killed support for that format.

cyberlink says dont uninstall poweredvd 7.3 if you still want to watch HD DVD format.
 
Originally posted by: lamere
cyberlink says dont uninstall poweredvd 7.3 if you still want to watch HD DVD format.
Click to expand...

So you can have both 7.3 & 8.xxx installed together?

That's what I will have to do if my 7.3 won't play BR properly (and I have my first 2-3 disks on the way right now so I'll know this week). Are there any other good players out there?
 
I have PowerDVD 7 and 8 installed on the same machine.
PDVD 7 is the only one that works with HD-DVD. But it won't properly display Blu-Ray. Version 8 has issues as well.

Honestly, I think WinDVD 9 is much better... it plays anything I throw at it.
 
I use PowerDVD 8 Ultra on Vista x64 SP1, and have never had any issues with Blu Rays. Have great 5.1 sound, Hardware acceleration for video. I've never had any issues

that being said, I've never used or owned a HD DVD.
 
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