BluRay drive for HTPC or a boxed BluRay player?

[Texun]

I've got a 780 board, 3 gigs of ram, Vista Home Premium and an X2-4600 that does video pretty well on my 42" Sony. I'm thinking about replacing the DVD drive with a BR drive but have a couple of questions....

1. Would I get the same video quality with a BR drive as with an off the shelf BR player? It would seem that the standards would be the same. I know I would need to upgrade my DVD software.

2. Does anyone make a short profile BR drive? I have a mATX case and drives with a deep profile get pretty cramped in there.

This of course is assuming that my 780G board, 3 gigs of ram and the X2 will handle it. At the time I bought the board the reviews said it handled BR pretty well with minimal CPU usage.

Thanks.

 

[Shawn]

get a standalone player

 

[sivart]

Is your video card HDCP compliant? If so and you have the software, dropping in a BD drive should not be a problem. Does your case use a laptop optical drive? I've never seen a 'short profile' drive as they are the same size as a DVD player (laptop or desktop)

 

[Texun]

Originally posted by: sivart
Is your video card HDCP compliant? If so and you have the software, dropping in a BD drive should not be a problem. Does your case use a laptop optical drive? I've never seen a 'short profile' drive as they are the same size as a DVD player (laptop or desktop)

All reviews I read on the 780G before I bought the board said the ATI3200 was HDCP compliant and did a good job handling BR video. Here's the board.

It's not a laptop drive - just a standard 5.25 bay. I probably should have said shallow instead of short when I referenced the profile. LiteOn DVD drives for example are not as long as some of the LG drives I've had and they fit easily in my Q-pack case. I'm using a standard Antec ATX PS which doesn't leave a lot of room for longer drives. I was curious to know if those using the 780G with a BR drive noticed any problems with the picture quality compared to an off the shelf unit.

Thanks.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: Shawn
get a standalone player

:thumbsup:

I used an HTPC BD drive for months and I finally quit pulling my hair out and bought a standalone. The standalone has been a much better experience. I no longer have to whisper sweet nothings at my player just to get the menu to pop up. With a standalone, I just pop in the disc and hit play. HD audio works like a charm too unlike my HTPC.


The BD player software is still in it's infancy and has some issues to work out. I would stay far away from PC BD players for now.

 

[Texun]

Originally posted by: Elfear

Originally posted by: Shawn
get a standalone player

:thumbsup:

I used an HTPC BD drive for months and I finally quit pulling my hair out and bought a standalone. The standalone has been a much better experience. I no longer have to whisper sweet nothings at my player just to get the menu to pop up. With a standalone, I just pop in the disc and hit play. HD audio works like a charm too unlike my HTPC.


The BD player software is still in it's infancy and has some issues to work out. I would stay far away from PC BD players for now.

Can I ask for some detail with regard to the problems you encountered? Was it mostly software, OS, graphics, CPU, RAM, Power DVD? The main reason I ask is because I already have a 780G chipset with the ATI 3200 graphics running HDMI to my Sony 42, and I'm now using Power DVD Ultra which says it will do BluRay. If that all works the only think I need to add is the BR drive, if they output the same quality

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

I'd say HTPC vs. standalone hands down. I have a BR drive in my HTPC and it works perfectly for me. Yes, PowerDVD is a flaming pile of garbage but it does always work in my experience. It might be slow, but it works. I also like to backup my movies and store them on my HTPC so I can watch any movie in my library in VMC without having to put in a disc. Can't do that with a stand alone player.

 

[sportage]

No no no.
You'll have so many issues with a BR htpc.
First, many LG drives are picky with the MB they will operate with.
I had to switch boards from nvidia chipset to AMD just so the LG br drive would even function. very picky. The lg br drive would not even play audio cd's under nvidia based MB.
No firmware helped. LG tech was clueless, but a lot of lg br drive owners come across this nvidia issue - pain in the A...

Then you need BR player software, like powerdvd @ around $100.
Cyberlink claims as of 2009 they will no longer offer free updates, but rather
a fee based future update policy. A change from their 2008 policy of free lifetime updates.

IF you go htpc, be prepared to treat it as an investment/experiment to get it all to go.
You'll no doubt run into something that needs updating at a cost.

One plus. You could purchase anydvd and rip your br dvd library to a large htpc hard drive.
Then use something like powerdvd or my favorite totalmedia theater, to play stored br files off your drive. No need to keep popping in the disc's.

But again, a lot of cost involved in that little BR htpc experiment.
(if you like a challenge, have no wife or kids or life, and unlimited funds)

 

[BornStar]

I got a BR drive for Christmas and I had it installed and working in my HTPC in less than 30 minutes. It's a refurbished Sony drive that came with PowerDVD 7.3 which is definitely slow but has worked with The Dark Knight and Band of Brothers on Blu-Ray. The biggest problem I've got is for some reason the drive won't play DVDs but I've got a DVD drive in my computer too so I'm not too worried about it. I'd guess that's why this drive is refurbished but I'm not really interested in going through the hassle of exchanging it.

I'm using a X-QPack with an Antec power supply but I don't remember which one. I believe it's got a 120mm fan in it. I'm using a G35 MB with a E6750 neither of which seems to have broken a sweat. My biggest annoyance with using this drive in a HTPC is that I have to use a mouse to access PowerDVD instead of having it part of the Media Center interface so I could use my remote. Once in PowerDVD the remote works fine. If you plan on using the software that comes with the drive and you want to get more than two channels, you'll have to use a digital audio connection. Mine uses optical and my receiver says the audio it's decoding is DTS.

I have no experience with standalone players so I can't compare to that.

edit: I should mention that the drive fits in the case but it's a little tight. If I had a right angle connection on the SATA cable I wouldn't have any problems at all. Now I want to replace my PATA DVD burner with a SATA one so I can get that ribbon cable out of my case.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Originally posted by: sportage
No no no.
You'll have so many issues with a BR htpc.
First, many LG drives are picky with the MB they will operate with.
I had to switch boards from nvidia chipset to AMD just so the LG br drive would even function. very picky. The lg br drive would not even play audio cd's under nvidia based MB.
No firmware helped. LG tech was clueless, but a lot of lg br drive owners come across this nvidia issue - pain in the A...

Then you need BR player software, like powerdvd @ around $100.
Cyberlink claims as of 2009 they will no longer offer free updates, but rather
a fee based future update policy. A change from their 2008 policy of free lifetime updates.

You know that LG isn't the only company making BR drives right? And my Lite-On drive came with PowerDVD so that solves your other problem.

 

[Texun]

Originally posted by: sportage
No no no.
You'll have so many issues with a BR htpc.
<edit>

One plus. You could purchase anydvd and rip your br dvd library to a large htpc hard drive.
Then use something like powerdvd or my favorite totalmedia theater, to play stored br files off your drive. No need to keep popping in the disc's.

But again, a lot of cost involved in that little BR htpc experiment.
(if you like a challenge, have no wife or kids or life, and unlimited funds)

Well I have 2 out of 3. Funds are not unlimited but I do enjoy a challenge. I already picked up Power DVD which says it is ready for BR. My reason for starting this thread was to ask about any problems since I figure with what I already have I might be $100 away from BR as opposed to $200 or more for a stand alone player. I like the idea of backing up BR discs to the HD since I already do that with my DVDs. If I can rip and play that would be a good start.

Thanks everyone for the info. I appreciate all replies.