I know this is the section for Blu-ray software, but I couldn't find a section for "hardware" or a more appropriate section for my question. Please relocate it to wherever it should better go.


My burner is the Sony BWU-100A burner.

In the operating instructions under "System requirements", it says. .

- A graphics card supporting UXGA(1600 x 1200) resolution computer display.

Ok, first of all, this doesn't make sense, because as far as I know, every Blu-ray movie has a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Can anyone explain why the burners' manual sais this?

And, second of all, which Video card to be installed in my computer should I get so that I can utilize the full video quality of my Blu-ray burner?

P.S. At the moment, I have an Optoma EP910 projector. It has a native resolution of 1400 x 1050, but has a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080. (Im planning to upgrade my projector to a native 1920 x 1080 projector soon, but for the immediate present, I just want to get the appropriate video/graphics card capable of producing the full video quality that the Blu-ray is capable of.

Can anyone tell me what features to consider when deciding on a video card? or which video card(s) will work? Obviously the less money I have to spend the better. Thank you for any help.

a 1600x1200 card is requirment, it's all u need to play the content, tho not at full res. it's basically saying with a lesser video card u can't even run the blu-ray content.

the best bet currently for a video card to view hi-def content is the nvidia geforce 8600 or 8500 series. these cards are designed to offload the processing to the gpu. currently there are 8500gt, 8600gt, and 8600gts in order of increasing performance. i believe all are below $200 other than possibly the gts.

currently there are no such cards with hdmi as those are still in the works and should be available within the next 2 months. i dont currently know how we would get uncompressed audio going through a home theater pc since there are no sounds with hdmi. that's something i still have to look into. video wise the video cards have dvi ports u can plug a hdmi to dvi adapter to for connecting to a hdmi display. and use optical out for sound.

Yes, HDMI. I have had a little bit of an obsession with that, since I read that only with HDMI are you able to get the full 1080p resolution.

Also I dont understand how you can say that the video card with HDMI does not exist yet. I googled "video card with HDMI" and I got a few articles that some cards with HDMI already exist. I cant post the link, because this forum says I need to have at least 5 posts before I can do that. Please correct my mistakes.


Also, I dont understand what you say about the audio. If HDMI can not carry the audio, then how will I hear the sound?

This is what it says about HDMi at wikipedia. " The High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is an all-digital audio/video interface capable of transmitting uncompressed streams.HDMI supports any TV or PC video format, including standard, enhanced, or high-definition video, plus multi-channel digital audio on a single cable."

So, can you explain how the literature I found conflicts with what you said?

There is no way for the audio to get into the video card to go out of the HDMI port with current video cards.

ATI is supposed to be developing a card with HDMI that will send audio out over HDMI, no soundcard required. I am sure nvidia wouldn't be far behind.

If you have a video card with HDMI that doesn't allow for audio to go out over HDMI then you will use Optical, Digital Coax, or Analog output to your receiver.

edit: The 1080p over HDMI is related to HDCP, DVI can be HDCP compliant but may not be. If your video card and monitor (display, whatever) are HDCP compliant then you will be able to display your BD movies at 1080p.

The main difference in HDMI and DVI is the audio portion.

That card is already out in the form of the HD 2900 XT. I would not recommend this for HTPC use though, the card is too loud and power hunger and is basically for gamers. There will be an HD 2400 and HD 2600 which I would recommend. The 2400 and 2600 cards have a UVD (unified video decoder) that offloads nearly 100% of the load during blu-ray or hd dvd playback. They also feature HDMI outputs that feature built in sound.




There is no way for the audio to get into the video card to go out of the HDMI port with current video cards.

ATI is supposed to be developing a card with HDMI that will send audio out over HDMI, no soundcard required. I am sure nvidia wouldn't be far behind.

That card is already out in the form of the HD 2900 XT. I would not recommend this for HTPC use though, the card is too loud and power hunger and is basically for gamers. There will be an HD 2400 and HD 2600 which I would recommend. The 2400 and 2600 cards have a UVD (unified video decoder) that offloads nearly 100% of the load during blu-ray or hd dvd playback. They also feature HDMI outputs that feature built in sound.

by this time the 8600 and 8500 from nvidia, which feature a similar UVD engine called PureVideo 2 HD, should also be shipping models with HDMI onboard. u'll have your choices which one to go with.

FYI, nobody's mentioned yet, the 8800 series cards do not have the hardware decoding of AVC titles that the 8600 series cards have.