Articles - > Is Your PC High Definition DVD Ready?

Title:	Is Your PC High Definition DVD Ready?
Description:	Use this guide to see if your computer is high definition DVD (HD DVD/Blu-ray) ready
Author/Publisher:	DVDGuy
Ease of use:	Not Rated
Latest Version:	1.0 (details)
OS Support:
Software Used:	Arcsoft Totalmedia Theatre, CyberLink BD (HD) Advisor, PowerDVD Ultra, WinDVD, WinDVD High-Definition Advisor Tool
Date Added:	Jun 8, 2007
Last Updated:	Jun 8, 2007
Page Viewed:	118698 times

Printer Friendly Version

User Rating:

Details / Vote Now

User Comments:
Charles Etheridge: Hi, I’ll give you some specs; Gateway...
More / Post Your Comments

1 2 3

Categories:

Main Categories: High Definition (Blu-ray, HD DVD, HDTV), Play
Sub Categories:
Blu-ray/HD DVD -> Blu-ray
Blu-ray/HD DVD -> HD DVD
Playing Videos -> Blu-ray Playback
Playing Videos -> HD DVD Playback

Page 1 of 3: Introduction

Last year, I wrote the guide Is your computer fast enough for high definition DVD playback? trying to see, at that time with the limited information back then, what kind of computer can play back high definition DVD content. That article concentrated more on the theoretical CPU/performance side of things based on H.264 playback, but this article will concentrate on real world requirements now that more information is available.

This article will go through the hardware and software requirements to achieve Blu-ray and HD DVD playback on your (Windows XP) PC. With the state of things as they are, there is a good chance that even if you match or exceed all the requirements listed, you might still not achieve Blu-ray/HD DVD playback or at least perfect playback. A lot of this is due to early adopter issues, such as software incompatibility/efficiency, and a lot of it has to do with the confusing state of the various layers of copy protection that has been forced upon the high definition formats. It is wise to keep this in mind when reading this article.

Since it is still relatively early days for Blu-ray and HD DVD playback on PCs, the first version of this guide will not be very complete in any sense of the word. Instead, it will be updated in time and more and more information will be added as it is made available.

Software you'll need:

Hardware you'll need:

HD DVD or Blu-ray reader drive

1 2 3

Article Navigation:

Page 1: Introduction <--
Page 2: Hardware Requirements
Page 3: Software Requirements

Revision History:

Version 1.0:

Date Updated: Jun 8, 2007
First public version

User Rating:

	Average Rating:	Your Rating:
Registered Users:
Non-Registered Users:	(29 votes)

User Comments:

Hi, I’ll give you some specs; Gateway FX530XV running Vista Ultimate SP1, 4Gb RAM, video card is an Nvidia 8600 GTS (SLI), Gateway FPD2485W monitor (that’s 24” LCD) , both video card and monitor use DVI-D connections and are HDCP Certified. The Processor is an Intel E6400, and yes, it is a Core 2 Duo, running at 2.13GHz. There’s also a Toshiba SD-H802A drive for HD DVD and a Sony BWU-200S for Blu-Ray, both mounted in the computer case. Just for the record there's also a Pinnacle Digital HD TV Tuner card being fed by a Comcast HDTV digital box. The Comcast remote handles volume, muting and channel selection. The sound card is a Soundblaster X-Fi feeding a Logitech Z5300e externally powered 5.1 speaker system rated at 280 watts RMS, and the sound really is quite good, and this eliminates the need for an HDMI connection. Interestingly on Cyberlink’s evaluation card everything comes up green. Over the last six or seven months, however, I've had PowerDVD 8 Ultra, and PowerDVD 7 Ultra. With both all I can get is a black monitor with the HD DVD and Blu-Ray, though both drives play conventional DVDs quite well. During this time I wrote at least twice a week to one of their tech support people and things never did get any better. I very recently uninstalled all the Cyberlink programs and wrote them demanding my money back. As it happens the last time I tried to send a comment to tech support I was not able to log in. Their password people said that I had used the wrong one and sent me a confirmation of what they said it should be. It was exactly what I had been using all along, and that was the last that I heard from them. No word yet on the refund. The next thing I tried was Corel WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-Ray. So with that I'm getting very high resolution video but no audio. Again conventional DVDs work just fine from both drives. I'm talking to them about things, but this time I'm sure not going to give them anything like 7 months. Their evaluation program also showed all good. You seem to be in favor of Cyberlink, but do you happen to know of any other software producers that can accommodate these two formats in a form that actually works? I would really appreciate whatever feedback you may have. I really would suggest being very careful of having anything to do with Cyberlink. Good luck,

Thank you for providing this nice guide :D Note that i am able to play both provided "Pirates 2" HD video test files (as well as Apple HD trailers) on the following system: Athlon AMD3200+ [@2.3ghz], 1024MB DDR400, Geforce 6200TC, BenQ V2400W 1920*1200px. Software: mplayer and VLC on a 64-bit Mandriva Linux with GNOME desktop. - 720p plays perfectly with both players, CPU @ 40-55%, - 1080i is shining but there are some dropped frames (mplayer better than VLC), CPU usage up to 98%. Regards, kozaki