hd-dvd/blu-ray via computer

[BenKenobi]

hey everybody

I was wondering if it is price-plausible to get an hd-dvd/blu-ray drive on our old computer that is in the TV room. Right now the video card is an ati x800 gto or an x850 gto? It's AGP. I know I'd have to get a better sound card in order to get optical audio out, but my main question is whether or not that card could handle a drive like this.

Thx in advance

[juneau]

I'm 99% sure that neither of those two cards will help when it comes to HD decoding. So your going to need a good dual core CPU which will do all of the work. Probably something around a e6600 and even then i think it won't play 1080p material problem free.

I upgraded my HTPC today,

http://www.cainslair.org/showthread.php?t=4846

The drive was ?85 and the Gfx card was ?30. I've only played Spiderman 3 so far. And with the ATI's brilliant HD decoding my CPU usage was still at 40-60% (C2D e2180).

You can get away with a old chip, say a AMD64 single core or Intel P4 3.2GHZ as long as you have a graphics card that the CPU can offload most of the work too.

If you're definitely interested in building a PC to play HD material then i suggest you prossibly build from scratch like me. My HTPC is possibly the cheapest PC i've ever built for myself.

C2D e2180 ?45
Gigabyte P31 DS3L ?50
Geil 2GB DDR2 ?25
ATI HD3450 ?30
LG BD/HDDVD ?85
Antec NSK4480B /w Earthwatts 380W ?50
And a spare HDD i had laying around ?Free

?285

[BenKenobi]

would it be more preferable to get a pci-e motherboard and a mid rangish cpu and graphics card like you did, or stay AGP and get a good cpu ? I'll get the specs for it in a bit for you

[Apache Warrior]

AGP is dead. You will pay more for a lower quality AGP Card than you will for a PCI-E.
Apache

[Hammy]

would it be more preferable to get a pci-e motherboard and a mid rangish cpu and graphics card like you did, or stay AGP and get a good cpu ? I'll get the specs for it in a bit for you

I think you question may be around cost effectiveness- that is - how high do we go before the return is nominal to nearly zero?

In truth I do not know, but what we did on a recent one at a friends' Home Theatre is that we bought the 3rd most expensive Intel CPU, a mobo that handles PCI-e 2.0, and (I think ) the Nvidia 8800GT (whichever one has the 1GB)

It's just beautiful.
We arrived at this by buying the card first. No Joyu
Replace Mobo- well there is some stutter and lag
Upgrade Memory- Close...but......
Upgrade CPU - THERE it is.

Our objective was to only spend what was necessary- and if we discovered it worked after we replaced something we didnt want to go any further.

[juneau]

would it be more preferable to get a pci-e motherboard and a mid rangish cpu and graphics card like you did, or stay AGP and get a good cpu ? I'll get the specs for it in a bit for you

You don't even need a midrange CPU. One you have a Gfx card that can do most of the work the CPU doesn't really do much.

My Gfx card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102724

My CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116052

All you need now is a cheap motherboard that fulfills all your needs. I chose the GB P31-DS3L as it came with Optical and Coaxial outputs.

[BenKenobi]

Thanks juneau and hammy

one last thing

1gb or 2?

[Hammy]

Thanks juneau and hammy

one last thing

1gb or 2?

More is always better

[BenKenobi]

This is what I'm looking at

Bluray/hd-dvd

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...R&Tpk=P31-DS3L
60

Graphics
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102724
39 – 15 MIR = 24

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116052
72

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145034
69 – 40 MIR = 29

HDDVD/Bluray
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136133
180

Re-use hard-drive, PSU @ 350watts

No need for extra cooling

Total

365 with rebates

Cheapest stand-alone player is 400, but that is only blu-ray and not hd-dvd

[Apache Warrior]

More is always better

Not in women.
Apache

[juneau]

This is what I'm looking at

Bluray/hd-dvd

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...R&Tpk=P31-DS3L
60

Graphics
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102724
39 ? 15 MIR = 24

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116052
72

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145034
69 ? 40 MIR = 29

HDDVD/Bluray
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136133
180

Re-use hard-drive, PSU @ 350watts

No need for extra cooling

Total

365 with rebates

Cheapest stand-alone player is 400, but that is only blu-ray and not hd-dvd

That'll work no problem. It's identical to mine apart from the RAM. I use Geil.

[juneau]

Just one more thing. The PowerDVD that comes with the drive will play Bluray discs. However it's the OEM version and that only allows 2 channel audio. Have to head over to Cyberlink.com and buy Powerdvd 8 Ultra to get everything you need. Even then you won't be able to play HDDVD's as Cyberlink nicely removed this function in PowerDVD 8. There is a way to enable HDDVD playback though with a few files and a file register.

http://www.digital-digest.com/articl...DVD_page1.html

[BenKenobi]

Are there any other options than spending another 100 on software ?

[juneau]

I'm pretty sure WinDVD plays both. Not sure how much it costs though. PowerDVD is the best software for playback at the moment.

[BenKenobi]

Well this is the problem. My dad wants a bluray player and he's paying for it, so as it stands the computer would be costing 365 + 100 for software. It would be cheaper to get a standalone player. Is there anywhere where I can cut cost?