whats needed for blu ray?

Sniper82

Lifer
Feb 6, 2000
16,517
0
76
I have a spare system:

Celeron 3.2Ghz
2gb DDR2
7900GT
120gb HDD
ect
ect


I was thinking about dropping a blu ray drive in this and having a somewhat of a cheap player but is this fast enough?
 

BassBomb

Diamond Member
Nov 25, 2005
8,390
1
81
HDCP Video card (dont think the 7900GT is)
HDCP Monitor/TV

Obviously the bluray drive and a player such as PowerDVD. You are going to want to use hardware decoding via PDVD to avoid getting lagged by your cpu
 

jtvang125

Diamond Member
Nov 10, 2004
5,399
51
91
If you can't get a video card that helps with hardware decoding then you'll need atleast a dual core cpu.
 

BassBomb

Diamond Member
Nov 25, 2005
8,390
1
81
Originally posted by: Sniper82
whats the cheapest HDCP video card? Whats the cheapest budget blu ray drive.

Grab one of the ATI 3xxx series cards and you will be able to do hardware decoding and have HDCP , means you wont need a better CPU

Audio however you will have to pass over something other than hdmi
 

Sniper82

Lifer
Feb 6, 2000
16,517
0
76
I do I have pentium dual core I can drop in it if it will allow me to get cheaper parts.
 

Dari

Lifer
Oct 25, 2002
17,133
38
91
Or you can save yourself the trouble and just get a PS3. I'm sure all those costs will start to creep up.
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,081
136
This might scream ignorance but dont you also need Vista installed and agree to a lot of DRM and EULA bullshit before you can get HD movie decoding to work?
 

spacejamz

Lifer
Mar 31, 2003
10,969
1,675
126
Text

download this utility from Cyberlink...it will tell you if your system can support blu ray playback...

from their System Requirements for blu ray playback:

To play Blu-ray Discs
Operating System

* Windows XP or Windows Vista

Screen Resolution

* 1920 x 1080

Screen Ratio

* 16:9 widescreen recommended

Processor

* Intel

Minimum: Pentium 4 541 (3.2 GHz), Pentium D 840 (3.2 GHz), Pentium D 930 (3.0 GHz), 935 3.2GHz or 940 (3.2 GHz), Core Duo T2400 (1.83 GHz), Pentium M 755 (2.0 GHz), Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8 GHz or T5600 1.83 GHz

Recommended: Pentium EE 840 (3.2 GHz) or 955 (3.4 GHz) or 965 3.73 GHz, Pentium D 945 (3.4 GHz), 950 (3.4 GHz) or 960 (3.6 GHz), Core Duo T2500 (2 GHz), T2600 (2.16 GHz) or T2700 (2.33 GHz), Core 2 Duo E6300 (1.8 GHz), E6400 (2.13 GHz), E6600 (2.4 GHz), E6700 (2.66 GHz) or X6800 (2.93 GHz), T7200 (2.00 GHz), T7400 (2.16 GHz), T7600 (2.33GHz) Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 GHz, Core 2 Extreme QX6700 2.66 GHz, or X6800 2.93 GHz
* AMD

Minimum: Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (2 GHz) or 4000+ (2 GHz), Turion 64 X2 TL-50 (1.6 GHz), TL-52 (1.6 GHz) or TL-56 (1.8 GHz)

Recommended: Athlon 64-FX, FX-60 (2.6 GHz) or FX-62 (2.8 GHz), Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2.2 GHz), 4400+ (2.2 GHz), 4600+ (2.4 GHz), 4800+ (2.4 GHz) or 5000+ (2.6 GHz), Turion 64 X2 TL-60 (2.0 GHz)

Memory

* XP: 512 MB
* Vista: 1 GB

Hard Disk Space

* 150 MB

Graphics Card

Intel:
* 965G graphics software decoding (with Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.66GHz) processor or AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 (2.8GHz) processor or above recommended)
* Recommended driver version: 15.8 or later
* Video RAM: 256 MB or above.

nVidia:
* GeForce 7600 GT, GeForce 7800 GTX 512, GeForce 7900 GX2, GeForce 7900 GTX, GeForce 7950 GX2, GeForce 8400 series, GeForce 8500 series, GeForce 8600 series, GeForce 8800 series
* Recommended driver version: 174.53 or later
* Video RAM: 256MB or above.

ATI:
* Minimum: ATI Radeon X1600 series, X1800 series, X1900 series
* Recommended: ATI Radeon HD 2400, 2600, 2900 series, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400, 3600, 3800 Series
* Recommended driver version: 8.44 or later
* Video RAM: 256 MB or above.

Sound Card

* PCI sound card or on-board audio

Optical Drive

* Blu-ray Disc drive for playing Blu-ray Discs and DVDs

Internet Connection

* Internet connection required for product activation and some upload/download features.