PC's are basically ready for 4K

[Oniros]

Originally Posted by prerich

P.S. You can get a BDXL capable drive for $44 dollars right now (and that's a burner)!

With Black Friday coming soon, I'm looking to buy a BD drive that will (hopefully) allow me to play 4K without hassle. Any particular suggestions?

[prerich]

Originally Posted by Oniros

With Black Friday coming soon, I'm looking to buy a BD drive that will (hopefully) allow me to play 4K without hassle. Any particular suggestions?

This one can handle 128gb disc. Hopefully it will allow you to play 4K disc.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136269

You will need a HDCP 2.2 compliant card (Nvidia 960 and 950 for sure).

[Oniros]

Originally Posted by prerich

This one can handle 128gb disc. Hopefully it will allow you to play 4K disc.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136269

You will need a HDCP 2.2 compliant card (Nvidia 960 and 950 for sure).

Damn, my GTX 970 does not support it. Nvidia dropping the ball big time when cheaper cards do! Looks like for 4K gaming everything is ok, but if publishers use HDCP 2.2 as a standard for protection enforcing then I guess I'm screwed.

I found this really good thread at the Nvidia Geforce forums talking about cards that are currently HDCP 2.2 compliant and other discussion surrounding 4K. I thought I'd share it here.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by Oniros

Damn, my GTX 970 does not support it. Nvidia dropping the ball big time when cheaper cards do! Looks like for 4K gaming everything is ok, but if publishers use HDCP 2.2 as a standard for protection enforcing then I guess I'm screwed.

I found this really good thread at the Nvidia Geforce forums talking about cards that are currently HDCP 2.2 compliant and other discussion surrounding 4K. I thought I'd share it here.

10-4...a good read indeed.

[CuriousGamer]

Originally Posted by Oniros

Damn, my GTX 970 does not support it. Nvidia dropping the ball big time when cheaper cards do! Looks like for 4K gaming everything is ok, but if publishers use HDCP 2.2 as a standard for protection enforcing then I guess I'm screwed.

It's only because the 970/980 came out first, more than likely all nvidia cards from now on will have support for HDCP 2.2.
Graphics cards have lagged behind stand alone devices in the past, it took many years before graphics cards had full bitstream audio output via HDMI.
My first HTPC had an old Sound Blaster in it to output optical audio just so I could at least get some form of surround.
I would worry more about HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2 when more content and devices support the full specifications, then we will see what falls short.

[WBMakeVMarsMovieNOW]

HDCP 2.2 is such garbage
lots of 4k displays don't support it (and of course most graphics cards don't)
and I'm sure they will have the 1000000000000x more absurd PAP still

hopefully the discs will use the same audio format as blu-ray since there are ways to use old decoders from TME combined with MPC and some other stuff to get around that nonsense

only hope is of AnyDVDUHD comes out, I'd buy tons of 4k discs if this makes it workable, otherwise forget it!

studio shoot themselves in the foot

[BLindsay]

So now that UHD discs are out in the wild. Do I need a new Blu-ray drive in my PC for 4k discs?


This is the drive I have for reference: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136269

[phantomiceman]

Originally Posted by BLindsay

So now that UHD discs are out in the wild. Do I need a new Blu-ray drive in my PC for 4k discs?


This is the drive I have for reference: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136269

Hi I have the generation before that which is a bdxl drive also and it cannot read it at all.. However I have read elsewhere that some people else where that have got that drive are able to view the files on that disc but not play any files due to some encryption on the disc

[merkman]

Good morning all. Having just bought a new laptop, I was curious about playing UHD Blu-Ray movies via my PC. I'll explain why...

I hadn't bought a gaming laptop in a while. I'd usually bought brand new, with ASUS ROG Gaming rigs giving me the best bang for my buck. But I knew I couldn't really afford a $2000+ laptop, and so I chose to look at what I could accomplish with a used equipment, and adding parts on my own if it would reduce the overall cost.

Knowing video cards are one of the biggest reasons I'd need to upgrade a laptop, I wanted one with the "external graphics card" option. While MSI and Razer are promising products, Alienware is the only manufacturer I found that has released a product and has good reviews. So I knew I wanted an Alienware 17 R3. I started shopping for deals, but missed out on a decent markdown on the corporate site. As a result, I was shopping on Amazon Warehouse Deals and Ebay. Lots of them for sale, with different specs, making it hard to choose the best deal. In the end, an auction was ending on Ebay with good specs, a few scratches, and only seconds to make a decision. I jumped, and here is what I ended up with.

Intel i7-6700 Quad Core CPU, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB SATA and 128GB m.2 SSD, Nvidia 970M video card w/ DDR5 memory. The system was listed as having Full HD graphics, but when it arrived two days ago and I loaded up the OS, it was a 4K screen. The graphics are gorgeous, and while The Division on High quality settings only runs at 31 fps, it's gorgeous. I then bought a Samsung 850 m.2 500GB SSD from a guy on Amazon for $130, and got a brand new Alienware Graphics Adapter (the exteral video card solution) for $150 shipped. So I got all of the above for less than $1400. Assembled and imaged, it's probably worth at least $2k, and maybe more since it's all working flawlessly.

Okay, bottom line, I figured I probably needed a new Optical drive to watch 4K movies. My LG 4x external Blu-ray Burners with HD-DVD playback have served me well, and while I have one plugged into my USB hub, and connected to the Alienware, I don't have any expectation it will play 4K discs. But when looking at drives on Newegg I didn't see anything. That's when I came here and expected SOMEONE had the right drive and software to play the discs on their PC. The beauty of my setup is my 4K display is built into the laptop, so I don't need to use HDMI 2.2 out to an external display. I just need the parts in the laptop to be compliant and play back to the screen (or so I hope).

Hasn't any company started selling drives with included software to make this quick and easy?

[prerich]

Originally Posted by merkman

Good morning all. Having just bought a new laptop, I was curious about playing UHD Blu-Ray movies via my PC. I'll explain why...

I hadn't bought a gaming laptop in a while. I'd usually bought brand new, with ASUS ROG Gaming rigs giving me the best bang for my buck. But I knew I couldn't really afford a $2000+ laptop, and so I chose to look at what I could accomplish with a used equipment, and adding parts on my own if it would reduce the overall cost.

Knowing video cards are one of the biggest reasons I'd need to upgrade a laptop, I wanted one with the "external graphics card" option. While MSI and Razer are promising products, Alienware is the only manufacturer I found that has released a product and has good reviews. So I knew I wanted an Alienware 17 R3. I started shopping for deals, but missed out on a decent markdown on the corporate site. As a result, I was shopping on Amazon Warehouse Deals and Ebay. Lots of them for sale, with different specs, making it hard to choose the best deal. In the end, an auction was ending on Ebay with good specs, a few scratches, and only seconds to make a decision. I jumped, and here is what I ended up with.

Intel i7-6700 Quad Core CPU, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB SATA and 128GB m.2 SSD, Nvidia 970M video card w/ DDR5 memory. The system was listed as having Full HD graphics, but when it arrived two days ago and I loaded up the OS, it was a 4K screen. The graphics are gorgeous, and while The Division on High quality settings only runs at 31 fps, it's gorgeous. I then bought a Samsung 850 m.2 500GB SSD from a guy on Amazon for $130, and got a brand new Alienware Graphics Adapter (the exteral video card solution) for $150 shipped. So I got all of the above for less than $1400. Assembled and imaged, it's probably worth at least $2k, and maybe more since it's all working flawlessly.

Okay, bottom line, I figured I probably needed a new Optical drive to watch 4K movies. My LG 4x external Blu-ray Burners with HD-DVD playback have served me well, and while I have one plugged into my USB hub, and connected to the Alienware, I don't have any expectation it will play 4K discs. But when looking at drives on Newegg I didn't see anything. That's when I came here and expected SOMEONE had the right drive and software to play the discs on their PC. The beauty of my setup is my 4K display is built into the laptop, so I don't need to use HDMI 2.2 out to an external display. I just need the parts in the laptop to be compliant and play back to the screen (or so I hope).

Hasn't any company started selling drives with included software to make this quick and easy?

Here's the deal - Several drives will read the file structure for 4K (I actually have one such drive). However - no one has made the player that will play UHD BD disc. I hear that Cyberlink is testing it , but didn't include it in its latest release of PowerDVD...PDVD16. Also, the only HDCP 2.2 compliant video cards remain to be the Nvidia 950 and 960.

[DVD Phreak]

Originally Posted by prerich

Here's the deal - Several drives will read the file structure for 4K (I actually have one such drive). However - no one has made the player that will play UHD BD disc. I hear that Cyberlink is testing it , but didn't include it in its latest release of PowerDVD...PDVD16. Also, the only HDCP 2.2 compliant video cards remain to be the Nvidia 950 and 960.

Does the 980 Ti support HDCP 2.2? Here is someone who said Nvidia had told him that it did. And 980 Ti, unlike 980, came out around the same time as 960 and 950. I read through all 6 pages of that thread and it seems no one could say definitely. No surprise, since no one can play UHD BD on a PC yet, which would be the only way for us confirm HDCP 2.2-compliance. Even the Geforce official spec pages only show "HDCP: Yes" and don't show the version number. Probably even the Nvidia people don't know the HDCP version themselves. Don't you just get the tingling sensation of being reminded constantly that watching physical discs is a second-rate activity nowadays?? If this were streaming, there would be constant TV commercials, Internet ads, marketing, etc., to keep us well-informed.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by DVD Phreak

Does the 980 Ti support HDCP 2.2? Here is someone who said Nvidia had told him that it did. And 980 Ti, unlike 980, came out around the same time as 960 and 950. I read through all 6 pages of that thread and it seems no one could say definitely. No surprise, since no one can play UHD BD on a PC yet, which would be the only way for us confirm HDCP 2.2-compliance. Even the Geforce official spec pages only show "HDCP: Yes" and don't show the version number. Probably even the Nvidia people don't know the HDCP version themselves. Don't you just get the tingling sensation of being reminded constantly that watching physical discs is a second-rate activity nowadays?? If this were streaming, there would be constant TV commercials, Internet ads, marketing, etc., to keep us well-informed.

I knew from the jump that the 980 and 970 were HDMI 2.0 only - but the 960 and 950 included HDCP 2.2. However, I'll give you a point, due to the fact that the hold up for Netflix 4K on PC is one thing - there's currently no browser that supports 4K video at this time. So yes its still a mystery, but if it comes back false - anyone hear of topclassaction.com?

[DVD Phreak]

Originally Posted by prerich

I knew from the jump that the 980 and 970 were HDMI 2.0 only - but the 960 and 950 included HDCP 2.2. However, I'll give you a point, due to the fact that the hold up for Netflix 4K on PC is one thing - there's currently no browser that supports 4K video at this time. So yes its still a mystery, but if it comes back false - anyone hear of topclassaction.com?

I said in my last post that if this were streaming, there would be no hassle. Actually, there *is* hassle if you want 4K streaming on a PC (or Mac), because as of now, major streaming services like Netflix and Amazon still don't offer it on PC/Mac because of, you guessed it, HDCP.

[merkman]

So does anyone know what the minimum broadband speed necessary is for 4K? I've got Comcast 25MB service, and it generally gets 24-30mb down when I run speedtest.

I'm a Vudu guy, and while I haven't paid for a 4K movie yet, I'm thinking of checking out how it works / looks.

[HDTV1080P]

Some companies recommend a minimum of 50Mbps download for 4K streaming. However if you are the only one using the Internet at your location then 15Mbps download is suppose to work for VUDU under ideal conditions.

[sarthakjain141199]

MSI Kombustor is a powerful benchmarking software intended to test the very limits of your graphics card and provide you with valuable insights about the state of your GPU, it’s peak capabilities and other various statistics.

[Movieaddict34]

Originally Posted by prerich

I've been informed that PC's will not require new Blu-ray drives to playback 4k media/bluray. PC's will only need software that supports 4K (PowerDVD 14 already does this). So we have it then.....

HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.2 check (thanks Nvidia),
BD drive - check,
4k software support - check.

All we need to do is output video to a 4K compatible display and we are set (and we're ahead of the game there also...we have 5K monitors available from Dell just to name one).

This is one of the reasons I went totally PC folks - I figured the only thing I would need to upgrade was my display and video card!!! Software gets upgraded all the time so that's a wash.

The big thing is immersive audio and how that will be handled - will we have a softdecoder emerge? I think so. Loving the HTPC

I would like to comment on this topic because it has been a long time since someone has done it. Nowadays you dont need a Blu-ray drive or any type of driver or exterbal hardware to reproduce 4K content. Actually you can now reproduce 4Kcontent in everyday laptops without any problem, well you just need a decent internet connection for it to be reproduced.

Most computer displays and monitors are equipped with software to repoduce 4K content and some even have 5K resolution capabilities. 8K is also existen, but at the moment it is not quite available and it is very expensive.

[merkman]

It's interesting. Out of the blue I noticed my copy of Cowboys & Aliens on the shelf the other day, and I didn't have it on my NAS or know where I could "just pull it up and watch it". Went to put it in the external optical drive connected to my desktop with USB... and the drive wouldn't open. Seems it hadn't been used in so long, one half of the power cable had come detached from the brick, and I hadn't even noticed.

So as I was trying to figure out how to rip the disc, I did some Google searches, and one of them talked about how you could buy drives, change the firmware, and rip 4K discs into the PC. It wasn't surprising to me it was possible, I was more surprised that the posts were from 2019, and I guess I'd missed all that talk all together. Granted, maybe like most people, I've finally broken down and rather than buying discs for EVERYTHING, I'm using Disney+ and other options, and you do train yourself to get away from using discs and players with how easy it is to use your "remote" and watch just about anything you like.

That said, I was a HUGE fan of Media Center, and I still have 2 of Sony's 200-disc DVD players that I could select movies from a "menu" and watch, before Netflix and other streaming services made that look like a dinosaur. I'd very much enjoy being able to get a newer optical drive, replace my old LG Blu/HD-DVD external with that, and be able to watch most (not HD-DVD obviously) of my movies on my 4K monitor, or the 4K TV in front of my racing rig.

Is it necessary? No. Am I running out to do it? No. But there was a time, I would have just to do it myself and see it work. Sometimes I miss those days.