Stand alone unit... ease of use. I tried jacking with installing a BD player in my HTPC, but found I needed some fairly expensive software to get it to work 100% Instead, I swapped optical drives... put the BD player in my desktop and just rip the BD disk to an MKV/MP4 file and view it that way.
I still have my $89 LG standalone BD player plugged into the TV for the odd occurrence we get a BD to watch, and as a backup to stream Netflix should the HTPC be down for some reason.
I don't know what the guy above is talking about "expensive software". TMNT is all you need for BluRay and 3D BluRay playback.
A standalone unit costs more (or equal to) than a license for TMNT
I have XBMC set to play BluRays with TMNT as the backend. It works like a charm.
Not going to clutter my entertainment system with a standalone player.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles do BD3D?I don't know what the guy above is talking about "expensive software". TMNT is all you need for BluRay and 3D BluRay playback.
A standalone unit costs more (or equal to) than a license for TMNT
I have XBMC set to play BluRays with TMNT as the backend. It works like a charm.
Not going to clutter my entertainment system with a standalone player.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles do BD3D?
OP, playing Blu-ray 3D in a PC doesn't require a special 3D Blu-ray drive. All that's required is a regular Blu-ray optical drive and the right playback software (along with a GPU that is Blu-ray capable). Both TotalMedia Theater (TMT - which is what SheHateMe is actually talking about) or PowerDVD can both do BD3D.
The version of PowerDVD that came with the burner is unlikely to do 3D. Usually those are either trial or gimped versions of the app where you need to purchase an upgrade to get the full capabilities.Hmm..
The specs on his HTPC are
AMD Opteron 170 Stock
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe
4GB DDR500
Radeon 4890 has HDMI out
LG Blu Ray player
Silverstone Lascala LC20
I do believe the burner came with a version of PowerDVD I will have to look for that disc.
Looking at it now it looks like the GPU will have to be upgraded as that wouldn't support 3d playback based on its age.
The version of PowerDVD that came with the burner is unlikely to do 3D. Usually those are either trial or gimped versions of the app where you need to purchase an upgrade to get the full capabilities.
I'm pretty sure the 4K series of Radeons didn't do 3D. iirc, the 5 series had at least partial support and the 6 series has full 3D support.
I'm pretty sure the 4K series of Radeons didn't do 3D. iirc, the 5 series had at least partial support and the 6 series has full 3D support.
I'm thinking of going to a haswell rig for this machine maybe sometime in january of 2014 possibly.
I don't know what the guy above is talking about "expensive software". TMNT is all you need for BluRay and 3D BluRay playback.
A standalone unit costs more (or equal to) than a license for TMNT
I have XBMC set to play BluRays with TMNT as the backend. It works like a charm.
Not going to clutter my entertainment system with a standalone player.
Ugh... the thought of building another HTPC that depends on Intel's sad excuse for graphics drivers makes me ill. My i3-3225-based HTPC is such a pain that it's nearly unusable. I'm tempted to just throw a low-end, passive Radeon card into it.
Intel's iGPU's are fine... within their limitations, in much the same way AMD's APU's are. I put a passive HD6450 in my HTPC... it didn't improve playback much, if at all, for 99% of what I'm streaming over the Pentium's iGPU. Further, I used my 2500K's iGPU to run MW4 & 2 at first until I got a discreet card in my desktop system... it worked very well for what it was. No, it wasn't 60fps, but it was playable... a pretty tall order for a 'nearly unusable' iGPU.
I'm talking about the drivers not the hardware. Dealing with Intel's drivers is an exercise in frustration.
The 5000-series Radeons have 1.3b, which means they cannot do 3D via Frame Packing, which is what you'd want for Blu-Rays. The 6000-series Radeons do have 3D support as I recall it mentioning it on my old 6950's box.
So, yeah... what you said. Also, you can usually just upgrade the crappy PowerDVD software to a more feature-rich version. Do keep in mind that you'll need PowerDVD Ultra for 3D (or just ArcSoft's TMT). It took awhile, but I was eventually able to get TMT for $50 on sale.
EDIT:
Ugh... the thought of building another HTPC that depends on Intel's sad excuse for graphics drivers makes me ill. My i3-3225-based HTPC is such a pain that it's nearly unusable. I'm tempted to just throw a low-end, passive Radeon card into it.
I'm running i3 3225 CPUs on three different machines and it took me all of 45 seconds to find the updated drivers for HD4000 and I didn't even have to run Java at all (though I do have JRE on my main workstation since I do a fair amount of Java programming). BTW, if you are just doing normal HTPC things, WMC cable card TV and Internet streaming video HD4000 is just fine and dandy.First of all, good luck finding your drivers on Intel's site.
I'm running i3 3225 CPUs on three different machines and it took me all of 45 seconds to find the updated drivers for HD4000...
I'm running i3 3225 CPUs on three different machines and it took me all of 45 seconds to find the updated drivers for HD4000 and I didn't even have to run Java at all (though I do have JRE on my main workstation since I do a fair amount of Java programming). BTW, if you are just doing normal HTPC things, WMC cable card TV and Internet streaming video HD4000 is just fine and dandy.
Product family
Graphics
Product line
Laptop graphics drivers
Product name
3rd Generation Intel® Core™ Processors with Intel® HD Graphics 2500
I don't know what the guy above is talking about "expensive software". TMNT is all you need for BluRay and 3D BluRay playback.
A standalone unit costs more (or equal to) than a license for TMNT
I have XBMC set to play BluRays with TMNT as the backend. It works like a charm.
Not going to clutter my entertainment system with a standalone player.
Sorry to hear that you had problems correcting the overscan. It only took me a couple of minutes to correct this for my two builds. I got my information straight from the Intel website: http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-033418.htm?wapkw=hd+4000+overscanHowever, none of that changes the fact that the drivers have issues that directly affect HTPC usage. Well, unless you're fine with not being able to see the task bar or the top of all of your windows, because overscan correction doesn't work. Although, it hasn't worked well in the past either as it would never reduce the resolution past a certain point. Fortunately, I was able to see enough that it it didn't cause a problem. My other HTPC uses a NVIDIA discrete card, which I must say, I've always liked their two corner method for setting the resolution. It's pretty much the same as the XBMC setup.
"TMNT" :awe:
I know you mean ArcSoft TMT. It's almost $90! ($87.99)
BD players can cost far less. I have a lot of gripes with BD software too (no time to go into it).
It looks like they've changed the site since I looked about a month ago. Honestly, it still isn't very good. The first page gives you an option to use their automated ActiveX/Java tool, or manually find it. However, when I select my options, they send me to a page that says to use their automated driver tool! :| Intel, if I wanted to use that, I would have selected that from the start. You have to then click on another link on that page, choose the correct generation, and then they finally send you to the page you should have gotten from the start. To at least give them some credit, at least you don't get directed to "Page Not Found" pages anymore. However, if you look at the search settings on the link result, you'll see that it still isn't an obvious category:Why would I be searching under laptop graphics drivers for my desktop CPU? If I remember correctly, that was the option I had to select to find my drivers in the past. Every other logical Family + Line + Name combination returned that "Page Not Found" result. :\Code:Product family Graphics Product line Laptop graphics drivers Product name 3rd Generation Intel® Core Processors with Intel® HD Graphics 2500
However, none of that changes the fact that the drivers have issues that directly affect HTPC usage. Well, unless you're fine with not being able to see the task bar or the top of all of your windows, because overscan correction doesn't work. Although, it hasn't worked well in the past either as it would never reduce the resolution past a certain point. Fortunately, I was able to see enough that it it didn't cause a problem. My other HTPC uses a NVIDIA discrete card, which I must say, I've always liked their two corner method for setting the resolution. It's pretty much the same as the XBMC setup.
Yes, the preferred method is to set to 'full pixel' but lots of older TVs don't have that feature. My 32 inch Sony Bravia (seven years old) does not so I had to use the Intel Utility to correct the overscan.
No it's a flat panel but the lower end of the line I think and the connection is 1080p. There is no control to do 1:1 pixel mapping with this one so you have to do it with the Intel utility. It wasn't a big deal once I figured out what the issue was.It's a CRT (glass tube) television, right? Overwhelmingly, most HTPCs are connected to a 1080p flat panel.
Sorry to hear that you had problems correcting the overscan. It only took me a couple of minutes to correct this for my two builds. I got my information straight from the Intel website: http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-033418.htm?wapkw=hd+4000+overscan
Most modern TVs do slight overscan simulation that can be disabled if you dig deep in the TV settings. I had to set my old Sony 1080p TV to "full pixel." The option is worded differently on Samsung and other brands. I did encounter a cheap Insignia TV at a friend's house with no option to disable it.