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Blu-Ray playback on a PC

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lompocus:
Thanks, everyone, for the responses!

I built the PC around 2006/7-ish (2.4ghz E6600 (dual core thing from the stone age :P) & an upper-end mobo, with other comparable components), so compatibility and computing capacity are not problems. I was thinking of buying blu-rays but, as kit brought up, I could just find copies of the rips of most movies. Beyond that, I wanted to use blu-rays for backup purposes (no desire to have suitcases of floppies  ;)). (In fact, the way the pc will be set up, the only purpose of the blu-ray burner will be for making backups, so... heh.) And like the rest of you said, I could just obtain either of those software solutions for bluray playback if I ever need to deal with hdcp.

Alrighty, I guess there won't be problems with just buying the drive, a few discs as needed, and getting that software. How do your software packages compare with the free codecs I mentioned & their own renderers? (Is that just a matter of adjusting some setting in one thing or other? I notice everything playing through VLC is dullish compared with cccp's player.)

rostheferret:
VLC won't play a Blu-Ray disc.
CCCP won't have the codec to play a Blu-Ray disc.
Ripping Blu-Ray discs is still fraught with difficulties and is painful to do. Read this.

Sony have the only 'fully functional' codec, the rest are all 'close but no cigar' copies worked out; they'll probably play the disc but not without glitches. I honestly have no idea how AnyDVD managed to figure it out, and as far as I know they're the only ones to do so.

Assuming you plan on playing Blu-Ray discs and not just Blu-Ray rips you've downloaded, you'll either need AnyDVD or PowerDVD. PowerDVD sucks major ass; its slow, unresponsive and on occasion does things that it shouldn't. But it works. And in my case came with the Blu-Ray burner; they'd be assholes to sell a Blu-Ray drive without giving you the software to actually play a Blu-Ray disc. This is the method I use until someone who can write playback software worth a damn gets their hands on the codec. I'm currently using PowerDVD 11, so of what wizi says is true then apparently they've improved somewhat significantly.

But since this all isn't the case, get an external HDD instead. It'll last longer, cost less, and the information will be transferred quicker. You can even get USB3 if you want to mock morons who got a Blu-Ray burner instead. Myself included :( You can get 1080p x264 rips at <10gig usually that are almost indistinguishable from the original. For these, VLC and CCCP WILL work without a hitch.

lompocus:
Thanks for the heads up on ripping  blurays. :D. I tend to loan out dvds to family and friends (different things), so I was looking for a portable solution with the greatest storage capacity. But, yeah, an external HDD might work as well for my own backup purposes. any particular recommendations?

kitamesume:
WD black for breaking your pocket or samsung?(i think this is the cheapest HDD manufacturer) for... i just mentioned it lol.

rostheferret:

--- Quote from: lompocus on June 30, 2011, 08:42:59 PM ---Thanks for the heads up on ripping  blurays. :D. I tend to loan out dvds to family and friends (different things), so I was looking for a portable solution with the greatest storage capacity. But, yeah, an external HDD might work as well for my own backup purposes. any particular recommendations?

--- End quote ---

The other option for loaning to people is to try to get 720p rips. The quality is still excellent and the new size means it can happily fit on a DVD. What I do for family is I've set up the PC as an ad-hoc server; whenever my pc is on, people on our wifi network can read files in my film folder.

Since this is always handy, it basically points out to notice any difference between 720p and 1080p, you need to be sitting 8ft away from a 37" screen as an example. Anything less, nada.


As for manufacturers, WD Black always seemed the most reliable long term, though I got nothing against Samsung or Hitachi either.

EDIT: Actually, the cost of 25GB Blu-Ray discs has dropped significantly - ~£2 a disc - though I still wouldn't consider it a first choice for backing things up, but might be worthwhile if you wanted to lend them to friends.

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