What does a retail Blu-ray player have over a pc system? - Blu-ray Forum

jbobst · 10-08-2009, 05:09 PM

I just put together a computer systems from a spare computer I had laying around, in order to get a home computer system that I could watch Blu-ray movies on with my 42" LCD TV. (I figured that I could buy an internal blu-ray player SATA drive for around $60 and not have to spend around $100 for a regular "set-top" player). I have a decent video card (an ATI X1950), but the computer is only running a Celeron 2.8gHZ with 1GB of DDR2 RAM. So, I bought the cheap internal blu-ray drive for around $60 and bought a DVI to HDMI adapter for my video card. I plugged in my TV to the computer and everything looked great, as far as playing a video game, the desktop resolution, etc. I even downloaded a sample 1080p video from the internet and played it in Windows media player (displaying it on my 42" HDTV) and it looked great! So, I then put a Blu-ray movie in the blu-ray drive an use the Cyberlink software to play it, and the movie is just awful and choppy. Very un-watchable. So, after reading a few threads on this forum, it's apparent that my celeron computer system just doesn't have nearly the horsepower that I need to play blu-ray movies.

So my question is this...if you need at least a dual core processor, a really good video card, and probably at least 2GB of RAM, what in the world does a regular "set-top" blu-ray player (like you would buy at Walmart that just plugs directly into your HDTV) have inside it??? I mean, you can buy a set-top blu-ray player for close to $100 these days. Do these skinny little players have a dual core processor with a high end video card built into them? I am sure they don't, and I know that they aren't a "computer", but rather, just a "player", but how are they able to output smooth HD video from a blu-ray disc to a TV perfectly fine, yet if I want my computer to do this, I have to make sure I have some high end components too to get even close to the quality of a ~$100 set-top player.

I am sure that if a set-top player only costs around $100 these days, I would guess that the "components" in the player are not even close to even my lowly celeron 2.8ghz processor and ATI video card combination...so how can it play so much better???

At this point, it doesn't really make sense to spend a bunch more money on new motherboard, processor and RAM, when I can just get a player for around $100, so that is probably what I am going to end up doing. It is nice to be able to plug my computer into my LCD TV, but I really just want to watch blu-ray movies on my TV and that's about it.

Thanks for any help.

HDTV1080P · 10-08-2009, 08:15 PM

I use my computer for mostly everyday computer use and only once and a while for BLU-RAY movie watching (I really like the fast load time and BD-LIVE speed on computers). I perfer the reliablity and ease of use of a standalone player. The standalone players use a dedicated software operating system that is made to play optical discs very well. They do not need as much memory and CPU power as a computer since they use a linux or other operating system dedicated for a few tasks. Windows does a lot more then just being able to watch BLU-RAY's. Computers are made to do multitasking and are universal tools that are more complicated. As software and hardware improves on computers, BLU-RAY playback will also improve. Windows Vista and other operating systems require a lot of memory and processor power and then if one adds to that a BLU-RAY drive you need more memory and CPU power to decode the high bit rate video and audio of 1080P HD. This is a complicated question you asked and I gave you a very basic simple answer. There are pages of details that can be written why there are sometimes so many problems with using computers to play BLU-RAY discs.

The two BLU-RAY standalone players I would recommend are:

1. OPPO BDP-83 $499

2. Panasonic (any current model) Around $200. Not as fast as the OPPO and not as good as the OPPO, but for $200 the video processor outperforms all other low cost players.

The modern Sony standalone BLU-RAY players are also very reliable in my experience.

Seeking_Alpha · 10-09-2009, 06:23 PM

Nowadays everything has a microprocessor with memory. So your $100 bluray player would actually be a very sophisticated computer if you showed it to say the scientists in the Apollo 11 mission.

That said, and while I am not 100% sure, the processor you'll most likely find in a cheap blu-ray or dvd player is a very simple processor that is only capable of executing a very very limited amount of instructions (think of instructions as types of math problems). And yet it was designed and born to run those instructions very well. Couple that with an operating system like the above poster said that is dedicated to play blu-rays then you have something that can do only one thing (play discs) but do it very very well.

Now if you tried to take that same processor and make it run Windows, it just won't be possible. The x86 processor (what your computer is running) is extremely diverse in the types of instructions it can run. That however makes it expensive, but also allows us to do a tremendous amount of things on out computer, all at the same time even.

10-08-2009, 05:09 PM	#1
jbobst New Member Member since:Oct 2009	What does a retail Blu-ray player have over a pc system? I just put together a computer systems from a spare computer I had laying around, in order to get a home computer system that I could watch Blu-ray movies on with my 42" LCD TV. (I figured that I could buy an internal blu-ray player SATA drive for around $60 and not have to spend around $100 for a regular "set-top" player). I have a decent video card (an ATI X1950), but the computer is only running a Celeron 2.8gHZ with 1GB of DDR2 RAM. So, I bought the cheap internal blu-ray drive for around $60 and bought a DVI to HDMI adapter for my video card. I plugged in my TV to the computer and everything looked great, as far as playing a video game, the desktop resolution, etc. I even downloaded a sample 1080p video from the internet and played it in Windows media player (displaying it on my 42" HDTV) and it looked great! So, I then put a Blu-ray movie in the blu-ray drive an use the Cyberlink software to play it, and the movie is just awful and choppy. Very un-watchable. So, after reading a few threads on this forum, it's apparent that my celeron computer system just doesn't have nearly the horsepower that I need to play blu-ray movies. So my question is this...if you need at least a dual core processor, a really good video card, and probably at least 2GB of RAM, what in the world does a regular "set-top" blu-ray player (like you would buy at Walmart that just plugs directly into your HDTV) have inside it??? I mean, you can buy a set-top blu-ray player for close to $100 these days. Do these skinny little players have a dual core processor with a high end video card built into them? I am sure they don't, and I know that they aren't a "computer", but rather, just a "player", but how are they able to output smooth HD video from a blu-ray disc to a TV perfectly fine, yet if I want my computer to do this, I have to make sure I have some high end components too to get even close to the quality of a ~$100 set-top player. I am sure that if a set-top player only costs around $100 these days, I would guess that the "components" in the player are not even close to even my lowly celeron 2.8ghz processor and ATI video card combination...so how can it play so much better??? At this point, it doesn't really make sense to spend a bunch more money on new motherboard, processor and RAM, when I can just get a player for around $100, so that is probably what I am going to end up doing. It is nice to be able to plug my computer into my LCD TV, but I really just want to watch blu-ray movies on my TV and that's about it. Thanks for any help.

10-08-2009, 08:15 PM	#2
HDTV1080P Blu-ray Champion Top contributor Member since:Jan 2007 Blu-ray reviews: 205	I use my computer for mostly everyday computer use and only once and a while for BLU-RAY movie watching (I really like the fast load time and BD-LIVE speed on computers). I perfer the reliablity and ease of use of a standalone player. The standalone players use a dedicated software operating system that is made to play optical discs very well. They do not need as much memory and CPU power as a computer since they use a linux or other operating system dedicated for a few tasks. Windows does a lot more then just being able to watch BLU-RAY's. Computers are made to do multitasking and are universal tools that are more complicated. As software and hardware improves on computers, BLU-RAY playback will also improve. Windows Vista and other operating systems require a lot of memory and processor power and then if one adds to that a BLU-RAY drive you need more memory and CPU power to decode the high bit rate video and audio of 1080P HD. This is a complicated question you asked and I gave you a very basic simple answer. There are pages of details that can be written why there are sometimes so many problems with using computers to play BLU-RAY discs. The two BLU-RAY standalone players I would recommend are: 1. OPPO BDP-83 $499 2. Panasonic (any current model) Around $200. Not as fast as the OPPO and not as good as the OPPO, but for $200 the video processor outperforms all other low cost players. The modern Sony standalone BLU-RAY players are also very reliable in my experience. Last edited by HDTV1080P; 10-08-2009 at 08:36 PM.

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10-09-2009, 06:23 PM	#3
Seeking_Alpha Active Member Member since:Jul 2008	Nowadays everything has a microprocessor with memory. So your $100 bluray player would actually be a very sophisticated computer if you showed it to say the scientists in the Apollo 11 mission. That said, and while I am not 100% sure, the processor you'll most likely find in a cheap blu-ray or dvd player is a very simple processor that is only capable of executing a very very limited amount of instructions (think of instructions as types of math problems). And yet it was designed and born to run those instructions very well. Couple that with an operating system like the above poster said that is dedicated to play blu-rays then you have something that can do only one thing (play discs) but do it very very well. Now if you tried to take that same processor and make it run Windows, it just won't be possible. The x86 processor (what your computer is running) is extremely diverse in the types of instructions it can run. That however makes it expensive, but also allows us to do a tremendous amount of things on out computer, all at the same time even.

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