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Couple blu-ray questions

Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 6:37 am
by KnightRid
I was wondering if the blu-ray players for the computer are updatable to the newest formats they bring out, like the PS3 is, or if they are like standalones, where some of those are still on the older blu-ray specs (they dont do the internet stuff and such).

I was also wondering if anyone has used a blu-ray player on the computer with a 9600GSO video card. I am curious as to how well it works if f@h is running at the same time.

These questions are leading to me putting this Vista64 computer in my living room for playing blu-ray movies on my 720p plasma. I have been seriously considering buying a PS3 to play the blu-ray stuff, but with the players being so cheap for a computer, i figure I could say a couple hundred bucks.

I would be using a dvi-->HDMI cable and I have an optical connector on the MB for sound which I would run to my surround system (my surround system is an older Onkyo and does not have HDMI on it :( ).

Any help, suggestions, or rants are always appreciated!

Mike

Re: Couple blu-ray questions

Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 7:08 am
by Apoptosis
might want to think about getting a new receiver...

"decent' HDMI 7.1 receivers can be had for under $200 and might be the better route as you'll need to spend less on the cables as you can find 3 foot HDMI cables for under $1. Since most sub $1500 don't do Dobly TrueHD or DTS-HD they just serve as a pass through anyway. A local store by my house sells these for $199 - http://www.sherwoodusa.com/prod_rd7502.html I picked one up and it does fine for Blu-Ray in a room with 7.1

As for the GeForce 9600 GSO... I've run Blu-Ray on them and it's fine.... As for F@H and Blu-Ray playback... I'm not sure.

Re: Couple blu-ray questions

Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 11:50 am
by InspectahACE
mostly just the software you use to play them needs to be updated to play some movies..one movie wouldn't work then PowerDVD would be like"hey..you need to update this program to play this movie" (maybe not exact words but the drift is there) I've had my Blu-Ray drive for almost a year now and thats all ive ever had to update was POwerDVD to play the movies..hell my pops couldn't play any on his 73 incher and i just told him to use a real version of PowerDVD(he had the OEM which is crap for blu-ray) and that worked. ALso, I wouldn't run F@H at the same time watchin movies. even on my 280GTX it would stutter. Mainly movies and games would suffer from f@h in the background..As far as your sounds..it looks liek you're in the right direction..though i do agree with Apop on the new receiver.my dad ran his rig to his tv(the 73 incher) with hdmi and the optical connector to his receiver and works great.now he did buy that receiver brand new when he did that(as a side note)..i would use straight hdmi or spend the money on a damn good dvi-hdmi cable..those dvi-hdmi cables can be worthless if the money isn't spent..i had one that came with my screen and the thing wouldnt even work at all..felt cheap as $h*t so i knew that was the issue..i just used the hdmi dongle and cable that came with my vid card all was happy in WonderLand..so in short....no f@h while watchin movies(unless you like skipping) and keep the software updated should keep that video front good.far as sounds..like APop said..a new receiver will probably be your best bet to get that 7.1


almost forgot..my pops was using his Asus Xonar sound card to do that..just remembered i only saw you were using on board sound i think

Re: Couple blu-ray questions

Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 12:02 pm
by Skippman
I'd recommend asking this question on www.avsforums.com . Those guys there know pretty much everything there is to know about HTPC's and the Blue Ray drives as it's a frequent haunt of industry insiders and enthusiasts alike.

Re: Couple blu-ray questions

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 6:09 am
by KnightRid
I have been watching for 7.1 receivers for a while now. I have 6.1 now, so I would need one more rear surround speaker and the receiver. I REALLY like the Onkyo I have, but I might have to do some research on the Sherwood. My living room is around 22 feet in length, so the Onkyo can really throw the power well for the distance. Yes, I should have a bigger tv for the distance, but the money tree lost all its leaves :finga: .

Only other thing is that most of the low cost receivers only do pass-through video and no audio, but as long as the optical or coax can do the true HD sound, I should be fine.

Mike

Til the money tree gets some fertilizer, i might have to just run the hdmi to the tv and the optical to the receiver - I know the receiver wont do hd audio, but if I do this soon at least it would work till I can get another receiver.

Re: Couple blu-ray questions

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 6:10 am
by KnightRid
Skippman wrote:I'd recommend asking this question on http://www.avsforums.com . Those guys there know pretty much everything there is to know about HTPC's and the Blue Ray drives as it's a frequent haunt of industry insiders and enthusiasts alike.
I might have to do that, I just hate how big their forums are. Questions get lost in the flood of posts :(

Mike

Re: Couple blu-ray questions

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 6:55 am
by Skippman
KnightRid wrote: Only other thing is that most of the low cost receivers only do pass-through video and no audio, but as long as the optical or coax can do the true HD sound, I should be fine.

Mike

Til the money tree gets some fertilizer, i might have to just run the hdmi to the tv and the optical to the receiver - I know the receiver wont do hd audio, but if I do this soon at least it would work till I can get another receiver.
SPDIF, the TOS/LINK and COAX standard of transmitting audio doesn't support the HD formats. This is for two reasons, one being a microprocessor limitation in the transmission equipment. The other being a lack of HDCP or HD Copy Protection, a digital flag on the signal to allow a compatable device to decode the audio.

To do true HD audio you have to use a HDMI cable. Anything greater than HDMI 1.1 sould suffice as long as your player (in this case a PC I assume) can transcode the Dolby HD, TrueHD, and DTS-MA into a format known as LPCM. The receiver doesn't need to have the ability to decode the audio internally (a proces known as BitStreaming) if it has HDMI 1.1 or greater. It will simply take the LPCM/PCM signal and output it to the appropriate channel. This is a common work around for early receivers as well as the PS3 (which cannout output in BitStream).

I'm not going to go into the whole BitStream vs PCM argument here as it's a moot point. If you do enough reading on the topic you'll find people who are insistant that there is an audio diffrence between decoding on the player, and decoding on the reciever. This is false. It's like saying that a zip file opened on one computer will be diffrent than the same file opened on another computer then copied over a network. The data's the same. It's just who's unpacking it. There's a great article on it on Home Theater Mag's website as well as on AVS Forum.



On the subject of players, the PS3 is still the overall BEST BluRay player on the market. It supports BluRay Live, is constantly firmware updated to fix the BluRay Java glitches, and has by far the fastest load times. The only downside is Sony's moronic decision to use Bluetooth only as thier input signal. That means people with Harmony and other high end universal remotes cannot control the PS3 without either buying an BlueTooth to IR adapter or using the PS3's controller. If you're wanting a stand alone player, wait for the new Oppo Digital BluRay player that's rumored to be out before the end of the year. I know I am. :mrgreen:

Re: Couple blu-ray questions

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:54 pm
by alister
KnightRid wrote:I was wondering if the blu-ray players for the computer are updatable to the newest formats they bring out, like the PS3 is, or if they are like standalones, where some of those are still on the older blu-ray specs (they dont do the internet stuff and such).

I was also wondering if anyone has used a blu-ray player on the computer with a 9600GSO video card. I am curious as to how well it works if f@h is running at the same time.

These questions are leading to me putting this Vista64 computer in my living room for playing blu-ray movies on my 720p plasma. I have been seriously considering buying a PS3 to play the blu-ray stuff, but with the players being so cheap for a computer, i figure I could say a couple hundred bucks.

I would be using a dvi-->HDMI cable and I have an optical connector on the MB for sound which I would run to my surround system (my surround system is an older Onkyo and does not have HDMI on it :( ).

Any help, suggestions, or rants are always appreciated!

Mike
I would think yes because it would be the software that determines the specs not the hardware. If I am not mistaken, one of the factors for 2.0 spec is a network connection so all the old players will never be able to support it because they do not have network ports. The PS3 is going to be able to support 2.0 spec because it has a network connection and they will be able to update the software on the PS3 to support it. A blu-ray drive in a PC should be able to support the new specs in blu-ray with software updates also.....