Warm? GGC-H20L at BestBuy.com for $240 + ship + tax

[imported_chewy2314]

Cheapest so far:

LG's GGC-H20L Blu-Ray and HD-DVD Internal SATA drive for $239.99 + ship + tax.

Online Only.

Link

 

[mjreddy]

hmm.. seems these have been dropping in price lately...

 

[ncage]

wow thats cheap especially since it plays both HD-DVD & Blu-Ray. Ive never seen one this cheap that is a combo player. Hopefully they have standalone players this cheap soon.

 

[erwos]

That's definitely the lowest I've seen it anywhere - a full $60 less than Newegg, too. Still waiting for it to hit $150-$200, but I've got to admit, it's tempting at $240.

 

[chizow]

Great drive, I picked it up a few weeks ago at NCIX. That's the cheapest you'll find it outside of these BB sales. It has been cheaper in the past at BB when all LG drives were 25% off one week. Keep in mind, this deal is only good for this week as its a published 20% off sale in their weekly flyer. Deal isn't as hot as before now that HD-DVD players are selling for the same price as an expensive upscaler, but its still much cheaper than an A3+PS3 or whatever. This drive will not burn any HD media, but its a very capable DVD burner.

As for the drive itself, it works great but still has some quirks. Also requires additional hardware, like HDCP video card with some kind of hardware decoder OR a very powerful CPU. Newer GPUs will offload 100% of the decoding (UVD and PureVideoHD parts from ATI and NV). Older GPUs like the G80 8800s and 2900XT will offload some but still eat up pretty significant CPU cycles.

Included version of PowerDVD only allows for 2 channel sound or s/pdif passthrough to a decoding receiver. There's some newer Blu-Ray discs that have broken menus atm, but CyberLink is working on a fix. I haven't had or heard of any problems with playing HD-DVDs though. I've watched about 15 titles so far on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD so far and only 3:10 to Yuma has had problems. Its not a hardware problem thankfully, its a software DVD player issue with menu interactions.

Great buy and great price for those with the necessary hardware and want to enjoy HD movies without waiting out the format war.

 

[proroc]

Hey Chizow,

What current Nvidia GPU's can hardware decode Blueray and HD-DVD 100%? I have a e6700 c2d in my HTPC which is decent, but I would like the video card to handle all of the decoding if possible. I am currently using a passive 7950GT but im sure it cant HW decode that great.

Thanks!

 

[yuppiejr]

I'm running an e4300 (1.8 ghz dual core, 800 mhz bus) at stock speeds paired with an ATI 2600XT 256 meg card and have no issues with BluRay playback on my Vista MCE box using the Arcsoft TotalTheater player. I had been using an Nvidia 7600gs with the same setup and ran into some issues with performance, the ATI card's raw performance advantage and more robust video decode offload capability made all the difference in the world.

 

[yuppiejr]

Also, with tax plus freight this drive came out to $265 shipped from Best Buy. You can save a few bucks by purchasing at XPCGear where it comes out to $253 shipped (assuming you're not in an area they tax).

http://www.xpcgear.com/lgggch20l.html

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: proroc
Hey Chizow,

What current Nvidia GPU's can hardware decode Blueray and HD-DVD 100%? I have a e6700 c2d in my HTPC which is decent, but I would like the video card to handle all of the decoding if possible. I am currently using a passive 7950GT but im sure it cant HW decode that great.

Thanks!

In your case the only real upgrade would be a G92-based card (8800GS, 8800GT, 512MB 8800GTS). The 8400/8600s would probably result in decreased performance in games. I'd try the 7950GT first if you're satisfied with its performance in games, as it may be fast enough with a fast CPU like your E6700.

 

[Binky]

Originally posted by: proroc
What current Nvidia GPU's can hardware decode Blueray and HD-DVD 100%? I have a e6700 c2d in my HTPC which is decent, but I would like the video card to handle all of the decoding if possible. I am currently using a passive 7950GT but im sure it cant HW decode that great.
Thanks!

For a non-gaming HTPC, an 8600GT will work perfectly. You might want to try the new ATI 3450 that just came out for $50, or a 3650 for about $100. An 8800 is overkill unless you play games on that machine.

 

[proroc]

Yeah i dont game on it at all. So an EVGA 8600GT can fully hardware decode HD DVD, Blueray and h.264? Also, can i just use Purevideo HD and MCE2005 or do i need Cyberlink Power Dvd Ultra?

Thanks guys!

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: proroc
Yeah i dont game on it at all. So an EVGA 8600GT can fully hardware decode HD DVD, Blueray and h.264? Also, can i just use Purevideo HD and MCE2005 or do i need Cyberlink Power Dvd Ultra?

Thanks guys!

Ya they handle all the VC-1/H.264/Mpeg-4 decoding, but if you don't game on it at all I'd even look at something even cheaper or passively cooled. I'd also look at one of the newer ATI HD 3k series cards since they have HDMI and *potentially* support audio via HDMI. I don't know for sure how well this works in practice, but its the only chance you have on a PC to get some of the higher-end audio formats like Linear PCM, TrueHD, DTS-MA etc.

You will need some kind of software player, PureVideo HD and UVD are just the name given to the hardware decoding capabilities of the cards. Support for them is included in AT/NV's drivers. PowerDVD comes bundled for free but it only supports 2 channel decoding or passthrough and doesn't integrate into MCE. MCE also doesn't support HD-DVD/Blu-Ray decoding as of now. Yuppiejr mentioned Arcsoft's Home Theatre integrates well into MCE, and I've been meaning to check out myself. It must've just released and will probably cost money for the full license, similar to AnyDVD or WinDVD etc.

 

[shingletingle]

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: proroc
Yeah i dont game on it at all. So an EVGA 8600GT can fully hardware decode HD DVD, Blueray and h.264? Also, can i just use Purevideo HD and MCE2005 or do i need Cyberlink Power Dvd Ultra?

Thanks guys!

Ya they handle all the VC-1/H.264/Mpeg-4 decoding, but if you don't game on it at all I'd even look at something even cheaper or passively cooled. I'd also look at one of the newer ATI HD 3k series cards since they have HDMI and *potentially* support audio via HDMI. I don't know for sure how well this works in practice, but its the only chance you have on a PC to get some of the higher-end audio formats like Linear PCM, TrueHD, DTS-MA etc.

You will need some kind of software player, PureVideo HD and UVD are just the name given to the hardware decoding capabilities of the cards. Support for them is included in AT/NV's drivers. PowerDVD comes bundled for free but it only supports 2 channel decoding or passthrough and doesn't integrate into MCE. MCE also doesn't support HD-DVD/Blu-Ray decoding as of now. Yuppiejr mentioned Arcsoft's Home Theatre integrates well into MCE, and I've been meaning to check out myself. It must've just released and will probably cost money for the full license, similar to AnyDVD or WinDVD etc.

No, it's NOT the only chance. Run some analog cables from the PC soundcard into multi-channel inputs on a receiver or amp and you've got your HD audio.

 

[proroc]

Does it matter if I buy a 8600GT with 256MB or ram compared to one with 512 for just HTPC use?

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: shingletingle

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: proroc
Yeah i dont game on it at all. So an EVGA 8600GT can fully hardware decode HD DVD, Blueray and h.264? Also, can i just use Purevideo HD and MCE2005 or do i need Cyberlink Power Dvd Ultra?

Thanks guys!

Ya they handle all the VC-1/H.264/Mpeg-4 decoding, but if you don't game on it at all I'd even look at something even cheaper or passively cooled. I'd also look at one of the newer ATI HD 3k series cards since they have HDMI and *potentially* support audio via HDMI. I don't know for sure how well this works in practice, but its the only chance you have on a PC to get some of the higher-end audio formats like Linear PCM, TrueHD, DTS-MA etc.

You will need some kind of software player, PureVideo HD and UVD are just the name given to the hardware decoding capabilities of the cards. Support for them is included in AT/NV's drivers. PowerDVD comes bundled for free but it only supports 2 channel decoding or passthrough and doesn't integrate into MCE. MCE also doesn't support HD-DVD/Blu-Ray decoding as of now. Yuppiejr mentioned Arcsoft's Home Theatre integrates well into MCE, and I've been meaning to check out myself. It must've just released and will probably cost money for the full license, similar to AnyDVD or WinDVD etc.

No, it's NOT the only chance. Run some analog cables from the PC soundcard into multi-channel inputs on a receiver or amp and you've got your HD audio.

I was referring to passthrough options to a receiver. Running via multi-channel analog introduces two other variables, potential problems, and additional costs. 1) the software needs to support TrueHD/DTS-MA etc and 2) Your sound card needs to support those formats as well. If you go with 1) you'll need to pay an additional $80 for the PowerDVD Ultra full version (not sure if other software provides them, but they're probably not free either) and I'm not sure if any consumer level cards support option 2) atm. I know the X-Fi only says it supports DTS 24/96 and DDPlus, but it might be able to handle the higher bitrate formats without explicitly saying so.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: proroc
Does it matter if I buy a 8600GT with 256MB or ram compared to one with 512 for just HTPC use?

No it shouldn't.

 

[shingletingle]

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: shingletingle

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: proroc
Yeah i dont game on it at all. So an EVGA 8600GT can fully hardware decode HD DVD, Blueray and h.264? Also, can i just use Purevideo HD and MCE2005 or do i need Cyberlink Power Dvd Ultra?

Thanks guys!

Ya they handle all the VC-1/H.264/Mpeg-4 decoding, but if you don't game on it at all I'd even look at something even cheaper or passively cooled. I'd also look at one of the newer ATI HD 3k series cards since they have HDMI and *potentially* support audio via HDMI. I don't know for sure how well this works in practice, but its the only chance you have on a PC to get some of the higher-end audio formats like Linear PCM, TrueHD, DTS-MA etc.

You will need some kind of software player, PureVideo HD and UVD are just the name given to the hardware decoding capabilities of the cards. Support for them is included in AT/NV's drivers. PowerDVD comes bundled for free but it only supports 2 channel decoding or passthrough and doesn't integrate into MCE. MCE also doesn't support HD-DVD/Blu-Ray decoding as of now. Yuppiejr mentioned Arcsoft's Home Theatre integrates well into MCE, and I've been meaning to check out myself. It must've just released and will probably cost money for the full license, similar to AnyDVD or WinDVD etc.

No, it's NOT the only chance. Run some analog cables from the PC soundcard into multi-channel inputs on a receiver or amp and you've got your HD audio.

I was referring to passthrough options to a receiver. Running via multi-channel analog introduces two other variables, potential problems, and additional costs. 1) the software needs to support TrueHD/DTS-MA etc and 2) Your sound card needs to support those formats as well. If you go with 1) you'll need to pay an additional $80 for the PowerDVD Ultra full version (not sure if other software provides them, but they're probably not free either) and I'm not sure if any consumer level cards support option 2) atm. I know the X-Fi only says it supports DTS 24/96 and DDPlus, but it might be able to handle the higher bitrate formats without explicitly saying so.

The soundcard does not need to support the formats, but the software does. The software decodes the audio and the soundcard is simply acting as the DAC.