What equipment do I need to play blu-ray/hd dvd's on my PC?

Question

I already know that my PC is poweful enough, and it has pleanty of memory. All I need to know is what equipment is needed for the PC.

Answer 1

You can purchase a Blu-ray reader which costs around 500 dollars AUD. To also get the best image you should purchase a monitor with the capabilities of producing a 1920x1080 resolution. Hope that helps.

Answer 2

blu-ray player but for the money I'd buy a PS3.

GAME ON!

Answer 3

It needs to be a blu-ray dvd drive, a normal dvd drive won't do it no matter how powerful your pc is.

Answer 4

If you're saying your computer is powerful enough using the Cyberlink Advisor, ignore it, Blu-ray Discs, especially and HD DVD's can't be played using Pentium 4's and using low graphics cards, there are a lot of issues rather than just buying a screen, and attempting to play Blu-ray using single core CPU.

Firstly, even though you think it is powerful enough, check again, you will need one of these CPU's to play Blu-ray discs with the reccomended graphics cards that I'll specify below (NOTE I AM STATING THIS BY EXPERIENCE, AS I HAVE A BLU DRIVE, AND I ENCOUNTED A LOT OF PROBLEMS

Intel(R) Pentium(R) D 945 3.4GHz or higher

NO EXCEPTIONS

Intel(R) Pentium(R) Extreme Edition at 3.4GHz or higher 9XX series.

Intel(R) Core 2 Duo e6300 at 1.8GHz or higher

AMD Athlon X2 4400+ or higher

Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual Core at 2GHz or higher

Intel(R) Core(R) Duo at 2.16GHz or higher

These CPU's can play Blu-ray Discs slutter free using any of these graphics cards:

ATi Radeon HD 2400 XT (Pro edition can play at 720P, XT reccomended)

ATi Radeon HD 2600

Nvidia 8500 series or Nvidia 8600 series

ATi Radeon HD 3400 and 3600 seriies

Also possible with these GPU's with high CPU % and minimal frame dropping:

ATi Radeon HD 2900

Nvidia 8800 series

Nvidia 7950 X2

(Possible with the above CPU's but high CPU percentages will be present unlike above cards)

If you use one of these CPU's you can use any of these the below specified graphics cards to play Blu-ray Discs, although high CPU usages will be present (in the 80- 99%).

Intel(R) Core 2 Duo at 2.4GHz (frame dropping might occur at some points in H.264 films lke X MEN 3)

Intel(R) Core 2 Duo at 2.66GHz (reccommended)

AMD Athlon X2 5800+

With these CPU's you can use any of the graphics cards mentioned below:

ATi Radeon X1600 series (Not Reccommended, 720P limitation, frames may drop at higher resolutions)

ATi Radeon x1800

ATi Radeon X1950

Nvidia 7600 or higher supporting PureVideo Technology

If you plan on using no graphics accelerator, (aka sticking with intregated graphics) one of these will be required:

Intel(R) Core 2 Duo at 3GHz or higher (high CPU percentages will be present sometimes reaching the high 90's)

Intel(R) Core 2 Quad

Intel(R) Core 2 Extreme

AMD Athlon X2 6000+

Now, check, does you system meet does requirements.

Now for you monitor, generally a monitor with a resolution above 1280 x 1024 will be sufficiant for a 720P resolution. Since computer screens are small, there is no need to buy an expensive 1080P monitor, as the difference will be barely noticiable.

Now, the sticky DRM issues. Your monitor must be HDCP COMPLIANT (not compatible), and your graphics card must also be HDCP COMPLIANT to watch it over a digital (DVI) connection.Some graphics cards may be compatible with HDCP, but it is up to the manufacturer to put the expensive CRYPTO ROM into the graphics card. If one of it's not you'll have to watch it over it over an analogue VGA or Component connection. These connections will be fine until 2010, or 2012 at the latest, as there is a reported agreement to hold of the Image Constraint Token of Blu ray and HD DVD discs until the following dates. It is illegal in Japan until 2011, so it's not a huge issue, as this is a long time for hardware. Anyway Fox, Sony Pictures, Disney, Paramount, and Universal have announched they have no plans to use it.  No discs have been made using it, except a few German discs, where it was revieled it was accidently turned on.

So that's it, for memory actually 512MB is enough, it's not a huge worry. Now check wheither you computer is actually does meet these requirements - these aren't from the top of my head, I did a lot of research, and I read from Annadteck, that not even a Core 2 at 2.4GHz could decode a H.264 a high bitrade movie with out hitting 100% most of the time (the movie was X MEN 3). Also on my setup, on my Pentium D at 3.6Ghz couldn't play a high bitrate H.264 movie without a bit of sluttering at a few places. When I upgraded to a HD 2400XT it played at the 20% mark!!!! Don't even bother with the Pentium 4's , even with the ATi HD 2400/2600 which have a dedicated decoder for VC1 and H.264 they won't handle the high bit rate MPEG 2 movies. Celeron's are just OUT OF THE QUESTION!!!!

Do your research, before buying a Blu-ray drive, hope this helps, and good luck.