Raz0r Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 So I am in the process of adding to the HT. I need to put a Blu-Ray player in as the HDX quality from VUDU is just not the same (good, but not great). With that, I am trying to decipher the world of blu-ray and what my options are. So, if I put in a PC that has a blu-ray drive and HDMI out, is that just as good as putting in a stand alone player? Or is the stand alone player a better option? Why would you suggest one over the other? I am ok either way, I just want the best solution. I do have to put in a PC anyway, so this is what got me thinking down this path. Thank you in advance for the help and support! Much appreciated!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbiey60 Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 (edited) I am interested in the answer also. I currently have a ps3 for Blu-ray duties but also have a decent pc hooked up. It has a dvd drive but I have been wondering if installing a blu-ray drive would be worth it? I no longer play the ps3 as I have moved on to pc gaming so if it would work I could take the ps3 out of the equation. One thing to note I currently cannot bitstream the hd audio to the receiver as mine is very old and bitstreaming results in horrible noises. I have got around this by using pcm and that works fine, is a pc blu-ray drive capable of decoding hd audio and sending multichannel pcm via hdmi? Edited April 2, 2015 by robbiey60 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tromprof Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Your PC will not play Blu-ray without a program to break the copy protection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbiey60 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Your PC will not play Blu-ray without a program to break the copy protection.I did not know this. I am runnong windows 8 and have vlc player installed, is there another program on top of that I need? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sancho Panza Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Have a Blu ray on my HTPC, but rarely use it; go with the stand-alone player with smart aps... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tromprof Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Your PC will not play Blu-ray without a program to break the copy protection.I did not know this. I am runnong windows 8 and have vlc player installed, is there another program on top of that I need? This article may help. http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/photo-video/3529691/how-play-blu-ray-discs-on-your-pc-or-laptop/ This is a popular program http://www.slysoft.com/en/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raz0r Posted April 3, 2015 Author Share Posted April 3, 2015 Your PC will not play Blu-ray without a program to break the copy protection. I have this part taken care of. More so my question is will blu-ray players in PC's have the same quality (audio and video) as a stand-alone player? If the PC is connected to the receiver via HDMI 1.4, what limits are there on PC based blu-ray drives that make them not as good for playing purposes? I can't really find any good articles on-line that speak to this so I was hoping some forum members may have had experience with this. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sancho Panza Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Mine won't pass more than 2.0 audio via HDMI or Optical. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raz0r Posted April 3, 2015 Author Share Posted April 3, 2015 Mine won't pass more than 2.0 audio via HDMI or Optical. Is this the case for all of your sound from the PC or only when playing blu-rays? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sancho Panza Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Yes, all through PC. Prolly a software issue, but, a smart br player is inexpensive... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 a smart br player is inexpensive... Dittto! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pite Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 (edited) I've a PC that's mainly built for gaming with high-end graphics card to provide good video via HDMI/Display Port/VGA and audio card to provide 7.1 audio providing multiple options e.g. analog 7.1, etc. with various format of DTS and Dolby. It also had the TV card to watch OTA and cable on PC. The dual video output on graphics card allowed us to connect to TV as well as the PC monitor. We used it for long 4-5 years before, I went with dedicated audio and video devices. I loved it, exercizing my geeky side enjoying music, TV, movie watching and gaming at the most cheapest but quite good from the audio/video quality aspect. That said, most current days BDPs have significantly lower time from standby to play with various "Smart" features and potentially wi-fi connectivity. Typically, the built in hardware in BDP decode various auido formats while high end video processing unit is dedicated to provide best picture. Let's say, compared to PC, the audio and video processing are optimized between dedicated hardware and software. This way it's not depedent on the software program used on the PC, driver of the audio/video card or the type of audio card and video card used. Sometimes, it's quite challenging to get everything sorted. Assuming minimal technical challenges, in my opinion, the major downside of using a PC is the comfort as well as getting all family members to get used to it. Not to mention, now a dyas brand named BDPs are pretty cheap in $100 range. Edited April 3, 2015 by pite 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldred Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 I too have both bluray in a HTPC and a stand alone....i agree with everything pite says. (too big to quote). With all the new players having network connections and WIFI and apps like netfiix. Some guys even use them as a network hub where you can bring your music folders/video files. I love how my OPPO makes Netflix streaming look awsome. As of now I have 2 dedicated HTPC's one of which I pulled the bluray player out of just last week....never used it. I think in the future both of them will eventually be replaced by something called an Intel NUC So ....stand alone player ....a definite Yes 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boxerjake Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 power DVD is a free download and it will allow your PC's Blu-ray player to play the disc ....VLC has limitations , i don't care for it 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
violetgrey Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Mine won't pass more than 2.0 audio via HDMI or Optical. This is by design. A PC will not pass compressed audio over HDMI. You will need to set your sound card to decompress all the audio streams before transmission. This is assuming you have the proper codecs installed. In my opinion it is much better to use dedicated devices for their individual functions. When you by a stand lone player you can be assured that all the equipment and processing is being dedicated towards only what you need it to do. They are also far less power hungry and usually easier to integrate into your HT environment. This is not to say that installing an HTPC cannot be done. It is, however, far more time consuming to set up and maintain and will come with all the problems that usually accompany any computer set up.This can be great if you also intend to game with this set up but it is not suitable for much else as text will not have the same ease of reading on a television or projector without modifying the output settings, which will not guarantee the same application of settings across all your applications. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arominus Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Mine won't pass more than 2.0 audio via HDMI or Optical. This is by design. A PC will not pass compressed audio over HDMI. You will need to set your sound card to decompress all the audio streams before transmission. This is assuming you have the proper codecs installed. In my opinion it is much better to use dedicated devices for their individual functions. When you by a stand lone player you can be assured that all the equipment and processing is being dedicated towards only what you need it to do. They are also far less power hungry and usually easier to integrate into your HT environment. This is not to say that installing an HTPC cannot be done. It is, however, far more time consuming to set up and maintain and will come with all the problems that usually accompany any computer set up.This can be great if you also intend to game with this set up but it is not suitable for much else as text will not have the same ease of reading on a television or projector without modifying the output settings, which will not guarantee the same application of settings across all your applications. I must disagree, I run 5.1 over HDMI for everything (pc audio, games, stored videos) All you need to remember to do is to go into the configuration section of the windows audio control panel and set your speaker setup to 5.1 or 7.1. It defaults to stereo unless you set it correctly. The video card will output what you set it to as long as its new enough. Nvidia 400 series or AMD 3000 series or newer should have no issues doing this, earlier cards will have had technical limitations that prevented output in anything besides stereo. Intel 2000 series or newer video should do it too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arominus Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Mine won't pass more than 2.0 audio via HDMI or Optical. Set your speakers on the HDMI audio out to 5.1 or whatever your using in the sound app in the control panel. Optical is limited to 2.0 on PC's unless you are passing through already encoded DD tracks or if your sound card supports dolby digital live or DTS Connect. IF it supports those (my old X-FI did it) you will get 5.1 out of everything. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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