Blu-ray Computer

[Beta-guy]

I'm looking into building a BD player computer I've come up with a prototype and I was wondering if this would work...

Lg Super Multi Blue Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM
Intel Pentium® Dual-Core E2140 1.60 GHz
ValueRAM 1GB PC2-6400(2 x 512MB)
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L w/ DualDDR2 1066
Diamond Stealth Radeon HD 2400PRO 256MB PCI-E
SEAGATE 320GB Barracuda 7200.10 SATA II
X-Jupiter Jr. G-Type Case, Metallic Grey
Microsoft Windows XP Professional OEM

[DrinkMore]

Originally Posted by Beta-guy

I'm looking into building a BD player computer I've come up with a prototype and I was wondering if this would work...

Lg Super Multi Blue Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM
Intel Pentium® Dual-Core E2140 1.60 GHz
ValueRAM 1GB PC2-6400(2 x 512MB)
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L w/ DualDDR2 1066
Diamond Stealth Radeon HD 2400PRO 256MB PCI-E
SEAGATE 320GB Barracuda 7200.10 SATA II
X-Jupiter Jr. G-Type Case, Metallic Grey
Microsoft Windows XP Professional OEM

Only thing that really matters is the following:

1 - How DARE YOU buy a bd & hd-dvd drive! You should be ashamed!
2 - Your video card needs to be HDCP compliant/capable
3 - Your monitor needs to be HDCP complian/capable

Without that, there is no computer that plays blu! I recently did a computer purchase through dell. The system is quite a bit beefier than the one listed here. It has an Dual Core 2 Duo 2.33, 4 gig ram, 256 Nividia 8600GT or something, 24" Flat panel (both are HDCP compliant), blu-ray burner/player and another dvd drive for burning and what not. It's a really kick butt system.

If I were you, I would bump up the ram to 2 gig minimum (this is the standard now). 1 gig is ok, but stick with two. Last thing to mention is bumping up your CPU as well.

Then again, if your on a budget, get what you can afford I suppose.

[bdrex28]

There is a new video card out that is apparently great for the money;

8800GT built on a 65nm platform, it's about $250

Great reviews of it, not sure if it would work though for what you're looking for:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140&p=1

[DrinkMore]

Originally Posted by bdrex28

There is a new video card out that is apparently great for the money;

8800GT built on a 65nm platform, it's about $250

Great reviews of it, not sure if it would work though for what you're looking for:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140&p=1

I read about that card. It is "all the rage" right now and last I heard, hard to get a hold of or you had to pay a little more than MSRP to get it.

A solid performer!

[ESUNintel]

You should go with an Nvidia 8-series card, it works better. I would recommend going with Vista too, that way you don't have the headache of upgrading later.

[DrinkMore]

Originally Posted by ESUNintel

You should go with an Nvidia 8-series card, it works better. I would recommend going with Vista too, that way you don't have the headache of upgrading later.

Bite your tongue on the Vista comment! :P

[miro]

yah i know a ton of people that are actually downgrading to xp pro. if you could consider it going down if anything vista was a step down.

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by DrinkMore

Only thing that really matters is the following:

1 - How DARE YOU buy a bd & hd-dvd drive! You should be ashamed!

Agree 100%... still, if the guy really wants to drop that kinda money...

Originally Posted by DrinkMore

2 - Your video card needs to be HDCP compliant/capable
3 - Your monitor needs to be HDCP complian/capable

Actually, your monitor does not need to be HDCP compliant so long as you use VGA cabling to connect the monitor. Now, if they ever use ICT on a title, then you're screwed, but in the meantime you can definitely use a monitor connected through an analog connection (VGA).

As far as the Nvidia 8 series recommendation from another member...

The ATI HD2400 and HD2600 series actually offload the most from the CPU in terms of video decoding, followed by the Nvidia 8400, 8500, and 8600. (They're actually very similar for MPEG-2 and AVC, but only the ATI cards can offload VC-1 processing). The higher end ATI (HD2900) and Nvidia (8800) parts and previous lines all offload far less. But, if all you really care about is decoding Blu-ray video, the HD2400 or 2600 are the best option. If you ever want to game, the Nvidia options will be almost the same for video and may be better for your gaming needs... depending on your needs.

[Beta-guy]

the video card I've chosen is HDCP complant and only costs $75, the BD drive is cheap $285 if I wanted a BD only drive it'd be a burner and would cost $500+
As for Vista I chose XP for a reason I've used vista and know it to be unreliable, I watch alot of short movies trailers and the such, With Vista Ultimate X64 edition, on a fresh install latested update and drivers, it still bluescreened after 5 - 20 videos, I had enough of it and reformatted and install XP X64

[DrinkMore]

Originally Posted by miro

yah i know a ton of people that are actually downgrading to xp pro. if you could consider it going down if anything vista was a step down.

It has it's good points, but there are just too many crap points to even consider the good. Problem after problem. I think a retard designed Vista to be honest.

Originally Posted by JadedRaverLA

Agree 100%... still, if the guy really wants to drop that kinda money...



Actually, your monitor does not need to be HDCP compliant so long as you use VGA cabling to connect the monitor. Now, if they ever use ICT on a title, then you're screwed, but in the meantime you can definitely use a monitor connected through an analog connection (VGA).

As far as the Nvidia 8 series recommendation from another member...

The ATI HD2400 and HD2600 series actually offload the most from the CPU in terms of video decoding, followed by the Nvidia 8400, 8500, and 8600. (They're actually very similar for MPEG-2 and AVC, but only the ATI cards can offload VC-1 processing). The higher end ATI (HD2900) and Nvidia (8800) parts and previous lines all offload far less. But, if all you really care about is decoding Blu-ray video, the HD2400 or 2600 are the best option. If you ever want to game, the Nvidia options will be almost the same for video and may be better for your gaming needs... depending on your needs.

I thought I heard something about VGA working. However I never found anything definitive on it and still have not. I don't doubt you, but everything I have heard said an HDCP compliant monitor was required. Do you have any links I can read? (again, not doubting you - just want to read more about it).

Also, your saying the 8800GT cards do NOT offload the work of decoding to them and continue to use the CPU of the system?

Originally Posted by Beta-guy

the video card I've chosen is HDCP complant and only costs $75, the BD drive is cheap $285 if I wanted a BD only drive it'd be a burner and would cost $500+
As for Vista I chose XP for a reason I've used vista and know it to be unreliable, I watch alot of short movies trailers and the such, With Vista Ultimate X64 edition, on a fresh install latested update and drivers, it still bluescreened after 5 - 20 videos, I had enough of it and reformatted and install XP X64

I know, just giving you a hard time. That drive is a good price and as long as you don't use the DUD side, were good

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by DrinkMore

It has it's good points, but there are just too many crap points to even consider the good. Problem after problem. I think a retard designed Vista to be honest.

FWIW, I really like using Vista... but then, I was a beta tester and have been using it as my primary OS since beta 1, so I'm somewhat biased. It definitely has it's issues, though, so I understand why some people don't like it. If you've got the system to run it, though, it gets a lot more right than it gets wrong... and SP1 should fix a lot of the issues that remain.

Originally Posted by DrinkMore

I thought I heard something about VGA working. However I never found anything definitive on it and still have not. I don't doubt you, but everything I have heard said an HDCP compliant monitor was required. Do you have any links I can read? (again, not doubting you - just want to read more about it).

I've set up systems using VGA and they work fine. Also, you can check the official PowerDVD system requirements for playing back Blu-ray/HD DVD here. It's the same as using component on a standalone player. As long as there's no ICT flag enabled, you can play just fine over any analog connection.

Originally Posted by DrinkMore

Also, your saying the 8800GT cards do NOT offload the work of decoding to them and continue to use the CPU of the system?

For VC-1 and AVC codecs that is correct. Xbit labs did a test on all the new ATI and Nvidia graphics cards in BD/HD DVD playback here. If you go through it, you'll see on the CPU utilization, the 8800 series runs almost 40% average CPU utilization when playing back 1080p AVC, while the 8600 series averages only 11% CPU utilization for the same material. The logic (from both ATI and NVIDIA) is that people paying for the 8800 series (or the HD2900 series) are paying for gaming graphics and don't care as much about video decoding. Also, they're likely to have faster processors in their system so offloading video decoding isn't as important.

[jdc115]

A question for those of you that have used a Blu-ray equipped computer, how do you output the audio? Is there any card outputs Dolby TrueHD or 5.1 PCM over HDMI?

Or is HDMI used to output just the video and a sound card used to for optical output (Dolby Digital, but not TrueHD)?

Thanks

[w_tanoto]

seems to me you're on tight budget. I would suggest to use 2GB ram instead. also, nvidia 8xxx.

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by jdc115

A question for those of you that have used a Blu-ray equipped computer, how do you output the audio? Is there any card outputs Dolby TrueHD or 5.1 PCM over HDMI?

Or is HDMI used to output just the video and a sound card used to for optical output (Dolby Digital, but not TrueHD)?

Thanks

There are video cards that have HDMI outputs that can pass audio, but I don't think there's any that can do high-res audio. They just pass the same audio as they would over optical... just through the HDMI port.



EDIT: I misspoke before, BTW. The newer 8800GT video card has the same video decoding capabilities of the 8600 series, but the 8800GTS, 8800GTX, and 8800Ultra cards all still use the older decoding which doesn't offload as much of the processing.

[Yakyb]

the 2400 is an excellent choice image quality is way up on the 8### series you will just not be able to do much else with it hence why a 38## or 8800gt may be a better option

evrything looks fine from where i stand

[jorg]

also unless your over clocking your cpu get a faster one id suggest a amd 5400 dule core the cheap and thell be good (do not use vista use xp pro sevice pack 3 makes it even better)