HTPC - Blu-Ray

yes.

Your setup will work, but bear in mind that some day blu-ray discs might come with HDCP enabled, in which case you won't be able to watch those blu-rays above 480p.

yes, use an optical out and anydvd.
done and done

It is possible that your DVI display is HDCP compliant and therefore you will get 1080p (assuming your display supports that resolution). DVI only does not mean no HDCP.

Unless you buy codec's to get around it (assuming your DVI isn't HDCP compliant)

Is it a CRT or DLP?

Mike

I'd assume no HDCP.

That actually is a CRT, it has 3 tubes & much better black levels than a DLP, it should also have an RGBHV (VGA) input. You will need to setup a custom resoluton to use it....What video card are you using? The video card must have HDCP support. To be honest if all you want to do is play blu-ray's a stand alone player is probably a better choice.

Mike

I too have a Mits CRT (3 tube) set, WS65513. The VGA only supports 640x480 so it's basically worthless. The DVI port is HDCP compliant, although I got a better picture by using the video card component output instead. Keep in mind the TV is natively component 1080i, everything else is converted to this before going to the video IC. The TV does have RGBHV input through the DTV jacks but even that is converted to component before going to the video processor.

These "old" Mits TV's can have an excellent picture when set up properly. Just cleaning the lenses/mirror and setting the convergence will improve the picture dramatically. Reducing over-scan and calibrating gray scale helps too, but this is an advanced function requiring service mode access.

You will need to buy a $80 program to play the BluRays, there aren't any free programs that I know of. Your looking at $70 or so for a drive to play Blu-ray. Once Blu-Ray for HTPC becomes economically feasible I'll bite. Right now it's for early adopters.

I have a really old TV (nearly ten years old) which I am using with an HTPC.

Video card is an ATI 4550, connected via component. Blu-ray drive is an LG, and it came with a fully functional copy of PowerDVD 7.3. Audio is coax 5.1, sent via the S/PDIF on the mainboard. (I didn't use optical because the receiver doesn't support it.)

Image quality is excellent; recently I bought a Toshiba set-top Blu-ray player, but its image quality is inferior to the HTPC, at least where SDVD deinterlacing is concerned.

Did you buy the "oem" drive or did you have to get a full retail version?

I bought several; some were OEM and some were retail. All came with 5.1-capable PowerDVD software. And it works under Windows 7.

AACS is mandatory with Blu-ray. Most commercial DVDs will be protected with CSS.

I'd suggest an ATI 4550 or 4650; I've been using the former for a year now with excellent results.