The Official LG HD-DVD/Blu-ray Combo Drive Owner's Thread (threads merged) - Page 4

I think I'll wait one more month. They may hit the $199 range by the time they hit Newegg and others. Then this whole "format war" BS will be over for me. I'll start renting HD / BR discs.

I dont know about that they are listed for about $70 everywhere else. The price may go up a few bucks before it goes down.

I decided not to mess with shipping it to an alternate location and left it alone. Even than after I ordered I got a phone call with a 4 digit PIN that I had to type into the browser to verify my order. That's a first for any online retailer I've dealt with.

I'm not so sure about that. The MSRP on this drive is $400. As a point of reference Newegg has the Pioneer BD-Rom / DVD burner drive for $260 and it's MSRP is $300.

I'm interested if there is any software included with the drive. Could someone that gets one confirm?
Thanks

This thread and the links within it suggest very strongly (including statements) that PowerDVD Ultra is included.

Cancelled my NCIX order for the LG. Found it listed cheaper in town (PCCyber Ottawa), but their stock that was suppose to be in Friday hasn't arrive so it will be next week. The NCIX order wouldn't arrive till next week anyway. Sales rep will put one aside for me when they arrive.

Will this drive play CD, SACD, DVD, and DVD-A as well as HD-DVD and BD?

It won't play SACD, should play the others (with appropriate software).

Thanks. Newbi to all this but which software? and I wonder why not SACD. Any reason?

Sweet.. I came just in time to figure out if I wanted to buy a standalone HD player or build a HTPC. Looks like I'll be building a HTPC that plays both formats!

Just ordered (This is the first time I ever used Paypal for other than eBay) and now to start researching on Video Cards!

I think I'm going to enjoy this site!

pameredith,

The reason it won't play or read SACD is because that would be ILLEGAL.

The Sony SACD license forbids making the digital DSD datastream on an SACD
available to computers - because then that data could be copied. It's meant to prevent
piracy.

If someone tells you that they copied an SACD - then they copied a "hybrid" disc that
has both DSD and ordinary Redbook on it - and they only copied the Redbook.

Sorry for the newbie question...can someone tell me (or point me to some links with the proper info) what the hardware requirements are for playing Blu-ray and HD DVD movies? Also, is it feasible to stream a raw ripped Blu-ray or HD-DVD movie across a home network?

FWIW, my current PC has an AMD 3800+ 2GHz dual-core CPU w/1GB of RAM (expandable to 2GB) and on-board NVIDIA 6150LE graphics chipset. Could I add one of these drives and be good to go or would I need to upgrade my graphics card and/or memory?

srauly,

The LG Blu-Ray ships with PowerDVD software from Cyberlink:

http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/produ...n_112_ENU.html

System Requirements:

http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/produ...e_112_ENU.html

You would need to upgrade your video subsystem by adding in a PCI-E graphics card with some hardware acceleration, like the nVidia 8600GT.

Sony never allowed SACD playback to occur on the PC to prevent privacy.

I didn't know that sacd was a sony license thing. I guess I will just get some dvd-A's instead. Why does sony insist on killing themselves. History tends to repeat itself. Betamax, Minidisk, SACD and now Blu-ray. They keep waiting to corner a market that appeals to the masses and it keeps bitting them in the butt. Apple tried that for a while and it almost killed em off completely.

An ATI HD2600 would be even better for a HTPC, as it fully accelerates H264 and VC-1 (with which the majority of your discs will likely be encoded). The Nvidia cards with PureVideo HD don't fully accelerate VC-1, and your CPU would be borderline for the processing it would have to do. See here someone who has an AMD 3200+ w/ Nvidia 8600GTS, whose CPU is at 75-100% on King Kong HD DVD with hardware acceleration.

I have an AMD 3400+ w/ ATI HD2600, and I have no problems with VC-1.

Which 2600HD would you recommend for an HTPC? I have an mATX case, so size is a bit of an issue, but not terrible. I was looking at this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102703

by the way, NCIXUSA now lists the drive as OOS.

I still have no shipping info yet, though. My order was processed, which is the last step before shipment. Here's hoping!

I ordered last night and mine shows the same thing. Also no shipping info yet.

I ordered a couple days ago, got a shipping notification this morning. Should be here on Tues. I'll be glad to get rid of that ugly X-Box 360 drive and pick up Blu-Ray capability.

Got my drive today! It includes Cyberlink Highdef suite 1.0. Power dvd is included as part of that, haven't installed yet, but a quick check of the disc setup files indicates:

Ver=7.3.2911c.0
Utility=2903
UI=2925

My sales rep confirmed they sold out of the first shipment in just over a day, glad I had preordered, although I had wanted to pick up a second one Apparently they were the only retailer that got stock on the first shipment for Canada. Lots of other retailers listed it but none of them got any stock, or at least the ones I tried (tried to get a second drive for my projector setup, no dice...doh!). A second shipment should be coming in November some time although a post on their forum indicates they may get a small amount in next week. I'll have to rip apart my HTPC setup as I also picked up a CW02 case to go with the drive. Time to kick my Toshiba HD-DVD player to the curb where it belongs. Soooo glad I didn't cave into buying an Xbox drive or one of those overpriced Toshiba HD-DVD rom drives that pop up on ebay every now and then when someone rips apart their HP Desktop.

I want one of these. Just what I have been waiting for. When I check stok they said they were out so I'll keep checking back. I wonder when the other big computer parts suppliers are gonna get these, newegg, tigerdirect, or mwave.

Can someone please post how long it takes for a Blu-ray disc and HD-DVD to boot up and start playing? I hope this drive is a lot faster than what is available in the market!

Just ordered it from NCIX Canada. Got a premier account so 247.xx CDN... what's scary is that's 241.xx USD today, dang.

If you use anyDVD in addition to PowerDVD, do you still need a HDCP-compliant video card for full HD digital output (1920 x 1080p) ?
According to SlySoft you don't, but I would be more comfortable if somebody could confirm from direct experience.
Sorry if the answer is obvious, but I am not familiar with HTPC and am looking at them only to get a region-free HD-DVD+BD reader, since none is currently available as standalone.

Running AnyDVD and outputing your video over DVI but without HDCP will work. The only problem you may have is that AnyDVD may be incompatible with the latest titles.

Wow... just ordered this last night and got an email it was already shipped out! These guys are fast!

I ordered thursday night and got a ship notification late last night. Unfortunately, the tracking number is not in the system for FedX. Hmmm.

- Rich