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HTPC as Blu-Ray player - what are the downsides?

8867 Views 110 Replies 45 Participants Last post by -=RedTide=-, Aug 29, 2009

DrewLCD

Discussion Starter · Jul 27, 2009

I'm looking at skipping the standalone Blu-Ray player and going straight to a more versatile HTPC setup (ZOTAC IONITX or E5200/9300 setup).

What is the downside of a HTPC for Blu-Ray playback? I assume the startup is slower. Is there a compromise with the menus or extras? Has anyone ended up buying a stand alone player after setting up an HTPC?

1 - 20 of 111 Posts

zryder

· #2 · Jul 27, 2009

I had a BRD drive in my HTPC for a while, and ended up with a console player..

there are a few advantages and a few downsides to using a HTPC as a blu-ray player.

It depends on your reciever and how picky you are, to be honest.

I was always bothered by the fact that I could not get unmolested audio off the disk and into my AVR.

Now there are ways to get it, but you sure do have to pay out the nose for it, and I just didnt feel the need to spend another $200 on a sound card.

But.. If you have a good video card, and If you have a xonar sound card, I belive you can have smiliar if not better preformance. I never felt like i was waiting for load times..

But, you will never find a HTPC for anywhere close to even double the cost of a console player. You had better be building a HTPC for other reasons, and BRD is a benefit, or you will drive yourself nuts.

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ArtosDracon

· #3 · Jul 27, 2009

To be completley honest, at this point the only real downsides are software and audio, there is minimal blu-ray player integration with VMC or 7MC if that's the way you're looking to go, if you're looking to set up Media Portal, then it can be integrated decently, to the best of my knowledge, and there are currently three options if you're ok with lossy audio and one option if you want semi-lossless audio. WinDVD, PowerDVD and TMT are the only softwares for playing bluray at the moment and TMT is currently the only one, when combined with an ASUS Xonar HDAV card(either the slim, standard or deluxe) that can offer semi-lossless audio. I say semi-lossless because as best I can tell no one has been able to 100% confirm that it will pass through 192/24 directly as read from the disk without down-converting then up-converting.

IMHO unless you have stellar ears and high end audio equipment, you'll never know the difference between lossless and lossy audio. You can still send 8 channel audio over HDMI in PCM form with any compatible chipset(the 9300 is among them and a good option at that) and software, though from what I've read TMT is quite good, and a good option even if not using a HDAV card for bitstreaming(assumedly lossless) audio.

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IAM4UK

· #4 · Jul 27, 2009

I integrated bD into my existing HTPC a couple of years ago. I get lossless audio via analog outs to my receiver, and it sounds phenomenal. The image quality via an nVidia adapter is also great. It was much cheaper to thus upgrade my HTPC than to buy a standalone player that would have comparable performance.

The main downside to HTPC use for bD is that certain studios keep changing their mastering "standards" to try to render your playback impossible. Fox is worst at this. They really don't want us to be able to play bD on a computer, because they are convinced we must want to do so for nefarious reasons.

rockytt

· #5 · Jul 27, 2009

HTPC = hobby = time

If all you want to is play BD movies - get the standalone player. MUCH simpler/easier-you just plug it in and go.

IMHO, you need other more compelling reasons to go the HPTC route-the BD playback should be ONE of the features, not THE feature.

Tulli

· #6 · Jul 27, 2009

Quote:
Originally Posted by ArtosDracon /forum/post/16894094

WinDVD, PowerDVD and TMT are the only softwares for playing bluray at the moment and TMT is currently the only one, when combined with an ASUS Xonar HDAV card(either the slim, standard or deluxe) that can offer semi-lossless audio. I say semi-lossless because as best I can tell no one has been able to 100% confirm that it will pass through 192/24 directly as read from the disk without down-converting then up-converting.

.

Where did you get that 192/24 issue with the HDAV1.3 from? How can you even prove it anyway?

realtight

· #7 · Jul 27, 2009

HTPC for Blu-ray = dog crap! Buy the standalone, save the headaches...

There isn't one thing an HTPC can do with Blu-ray (other then ripping them to the hard drive which is a pain....) that is as good as a standalone. The picture quality is worse, forget full res audio unless you want to spend way too much and they simply don't work!

example of why HTPC's suck for Blu-ray, and stuff like this will happen ALL the time if you get one: I had a bunch of guests over this weekend to watch Watchmen. I downloaded all the Slysoft updates to make sure it would play and also tested it out before guests came over... (seriously, you have to test multiple times to make sure something will even play, how stupid is that?) No problems at all, great! Then halfway through the movie we decided to take a small break... bad idea, I guess 5 minute break means software will self destruct and break until you restart the computer and start over...

This was a random problem... but with Blu-ray, random sh!t happens all the time and it's not worth it at this point...

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K-Spaz

· #8 · Jul 27, 2009

I can't remember the last time I had an issue playing a BR on my system, but then, I would NEVER go download updates before inviting guests. Why not just ask for something to break. If it works, don't fix it.

That said, I think the downside now is cost. HTPC when it didn't work well was a very viable solution cost wise cause the prices on standalones were perverse. Now that standalone prices are down out of the clouds, the cost of the drive and software for a pc about equals the price of the SA. Then you still need the computer and I think you need a pretty nice one at that.

I wouldnt' give mine up for love-ner-money, but they are no longer a wash as far as cost goes. If the benefits outweight the effort for you, then do it. If they don't then save money and get a player that just works when you put a disk in.

As an aside, standalones are by no means without troubles with playback. Just go to the BR Player forum and look around there. This isn't an exact science regardless of the hardware you have. DRM makes it all a nightmare at one time or another.

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Jackal55

· #9 · Jul 27, 2009

Get the stand alone player and save your sanity.

I haven't had many issues myself with PowerDVD 9 Ultra. Sound levels is my problem but then again, I'm only using the TV. I can't say how things will go once I get a receiver.

Playback issues have been weird. If I hit pause on the remote the volume auto mutes upon resuming play. If I try to change the volume level with the remote while a movie is playing it will stop the movie and go back the the PDVD screen. So I guess my issues are remote control related.

And then there's always the occasional pop up window. "Upgrade to AVG PRO!" Stuff like that. Right now, I have 2 ways to play BR movies: PlayStation 3 and a BR optical drive. But in the end, I think I'll end up with a stand alone player since that was the plan all along. The cost of the BR drive and the full version of the software to use it properly is going to be as much as a decent stand alone player. So weigh your options well.

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realtight

· #10 · Jul 27, 2009

Quote:
Originally Posted by K-Spaz /forum/post/16894501

I can't remember the last time I had an issue playing a BR on my system, but then, I would NEVER go download updates before inviting guests. Why not just ask for something to break. If it works, don't fix it.

As an aside, standalones are by no means without troubles with playback. Just go to the BR Player forum and look around there. This isn't an exact science regardless of the hardware you have. DRM makes it all a nightmare at one time or another.

As for updating Slysoft, I updated it the night before because there were issues getting it to play before, so how is this asking for trouble? As far as I know having Slysoft is the the only reason half of my Blu-rays play at all!

You must not watch a lot of Blu-rays or you are a very lucky/rare person to not have any issues with playback... I honestly don't believe you and most on here when they say this. Most of the time people on here are willing to put up with random malfunctions regarding Blu-ray or defend it. Fact is MOST people have issues with Blu-ray playback on PC's and most people don't have issues when using a standalone...

The fact is, Cybersuck, Total Rip-off Theater and the rest of the Blu-ray software are horrible and flat out don't work properly... I shouldn't have to buy the perfect hardware combination to get Blu-ray working perfectly. My system is more then powerful. Pushing pause shouldn't require restarting my computer...

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jszei

· #11 · Jul 27, 2009

Unless you want the total package: blu-ray and/or SD DVD storage and playback, music storage and playback, picture storage and playback, home video storage and playback then don't bother. I emphasize storage because if you're going to load a dvd or cd every time you want to play it then don't bother with an HTPC. I believe it's main benefit is that you can keep all of your media on one device and play whatever you want at will.

Wiz33

· #12 · Jul 27, 2009

I have a BD player in my Work and Hiome PC, plus I just got an external BD for use with a Acer Aspire Revo Atom/Ion. I have watch quite a bit of BD on my PCs. Sure my collector of disc is not particularly large but I would say that I have watch at least 30-40 disc at varies times.

The only problem I have ever had is that once in a while, PowerDVD will require an update before playing a brand new disc and I would have to wait while it download and update. Usually if that happens, you're better off updating AnyDVD HD at the same time as that would probably be needed. Once that is done, I have not really have any problem with playback.

I just got the BD external to try with the Revo last Friday so I have not had a lot of time with it (it's setup at the office). I did watch Quantum of Solace on it and it did stutter a bit at one point. But the Revo I'm using is an Engineering sample provide for early reviewers (since the unit have not launch in the U.S. yet). It probably have outdated firmware and driver. Other than that one stutter, the rest of the movie played fine and looks great on the Samsung 40" at the office. As for load time, it does take longer on the Revo vs my PS3 but not too bad, I would see within 30 seconds.

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Favelle

· #13 · Jul 27, 2009

Quote:
Originally Posted by realtight /forum/post/16894420

example of why HTPC's suck for Blu-ray, and stuff like this will happen ALL the time if you get one: I had a bunch of guests over this weekend to watch Watchmen. I downloaded all the Slysoft updates to make sure it would play and also tested it out before guests came over... (seriously, you have to test multiple times to make sure something will even play, how stupid is that?) No problems at all, great! Then halfway through the movie we decided to take a small break... bad idea, I guess 5 minute break means software will self destruct and break until you restart the computer and start over...

This was a random problem... but with Blu-ray, random sh!t happens all the time and it's not worth it at this point...

Example of why standalones, or any disc player for that matter suck for playback: random skipping or stuttering. No matter what disc or what player, eventually you'll get a stutter. And with the sound cranked, in the middle of a movie, it can be quite jarring. And with guests over, you're just sitting there, waiting for the next skip, totally taken out of the movie experience....

No thanks. BD to MKV, hard drive playback, smooth as butter. Nothing else will do.

DrewLCD

Discussion Starter · #14 · Jul 27, 2009

Thanks for the input. I would want to use it as a media server too - right now I am running XBMC on an old P4 desktop system. It is ancient but it does alright with SD DVDs, and I have full 5.1 through a TOSlink USB dongle.

Now I want to get Blu-Ray and the old system will never be able to handle it. So I could get a standalone player and leave the old system for DVDs, or do a big upgrade. I will skip the upgrade if I am going to end up wanting a stand alone player anyway.

rockytt

· #15 · Jul 27, 2009

I think it may come down to this:

If you've already got a functional HTPC and just want to add BD funtionality-fire away, as you've got little to lose and you're more aware than most what kind of time investment you're looking at.

If you're wondering whether to build a HTPC or just buy a standalone - get the standalone. Much less hassles/$$$/time. Neither solution is perfect, but ONLY go the HPTC route if you truly enjoy the process of tweaking + futzing with the system. To make it a simple plug and play operation (like a standalone) can be done, but only after spending a lot of time + $$$

jszei

· #16 · Jul 27, 2009

Quote:
Originally Posted by DrewLCD /forum/post/16895019

Thanks for the input. I would want to use it as a media server too - right now I am running XBMC on an old P4 desktop system. It is ancient but it does alright with SD DVDs, and I have full 5.1 through a TOSlink USB dongle.

Now I want to get Blu-Ray and the old system will never be able to handle it. So I could get a standalone player and leave the old system for DVDs, or do a big upgrade. I will skip the upgrade if I am going to end up wanting a stand alone player anyway.

I would wait a while for Blu-ray if you've already got something in place that will do the rest. It is still too young for HTPC.

realtight

· #17 · Jul 27, 2009

Quote:
Originally Posted by DrewLCD /forum/post/16895019

Thanks for the input. I would want to use it as a media server too - right now I am running XBMC on an old P4 desktop system. It is ancient but it does alright with SD DVDs, and I have full 5.1 through a TOSlink USB dongle.

Now I want to get Blu-Ray and the old system will never be able to handle it. So I could get a standalone player and leave the old system for DVDs, or do a big upgrade. I will skip the upgrade if I am going to end up wanting a stand alone player anyway.

HTPC's are great for just about everything else besides Blu-ray playback/hdtv-dvr'ing and since you already have that I wouldn't mess with it. Save yourself the headacheS and get the standalone.

Maybe things will change with win7 media center... but the way things are now, I doubt it.

whiteboy714

· #18 · Jul 27, 2009

Wow I thought a bd-rom drive was just like a dvd drive. Didnt realize you needed all this software just to hopefully get them to play.

hirent

· #19 · Jul 27, 2009

Quote:
Now I want to get Blu-Ray and the old system will never be able to handle it.

Not True.

I have two P4 systems with AGP HD2400 cards and they play Blu-Rays and HD-DVDs just fine.

It may be possible for you too if you have a decent config. in your current setup.

What do you have currently? CPU? AGP or PCIE? Ram?

If you want to do a trial setup, you can get a cheap HD video card and see how you like it. This way you don't spend the big bucks.

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DrewLCD

Discussion Starter · #20 · Jul 27, 2009

It is a Dell P4 2.2Ghz, I think it got it around 2002. It has AGP. It has 2GB RAM. It struggles even with upscaling SD to 720P so I assume real HD would be out of the question.

Quote:
Originally Posted by hirent /forum/post/16895319

Not True.

I have two P4 systems with AGP HD2400 cards and they play Blu-Rays and HD-DVDs just fine.

It may be possible for you too if you have a decent config. in your current setup.

What do you have currently? CPU? AGP or PCIE? Ram?

If you want to do a trial setup, you can get a cheap HD video card and see how you like it. This way you don't spend the big bucks.

1 - 20 of 111 Posts

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