[markymarknz]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking at setting up my first HTPC and have a question around Blu-ray playback.
Is it better to use XBMC with a BD drive or get a standalone BD player?

I would prefer to use the one device i.e. XBMC but have seen mixed views on the forums about blu-ray disc playback.

I know I could rip the disc, however if I hire a blu-ray disc I would prefer to just put it in and watch it. Also I would prefer being able to view the menus and the extra features on the discs e.g. BD Live.

Also is Windows the only option for XBMC for blu-ray playback?

Cheers

[wicky]

As far as I am aware, and according to the wiki here, XBMC contains no native ability to playback bluray dvds internally. The only way to do it is to utilize an external media player, and you can find guides in the help section for windows and linux. But generally, the best approach would probably be to just rip them, provided you have the space and are comfortable with reduced bitrates required to make them reasonable size.

So in many regards you may be better off with a dedicated BD player on your shelf as any other route will require a fair bit of tinkering or storage expansion. Especially if you are renting a bluray movie, as ripping those is flat out illegal, unlike the questionable status of ripping movies you actually buy.

Hope that helps.

[teaguecl]

Also is Windows the only option for XBMC for blu-ray playback?
Cheers

Yes, no blu-ray on Linux/Live in the current release. On Windows you can play BD by having XBMC launch an external player. I've never done this, sounds like a clunky solution to me - maybe someone else can comment on it's usability. I hate having two devices but it seems like a good solution (in the US) is XBMC for playback of most videos and a Netflix enabled blu-ray player for movies.

[SpectreX]

Playback of disk using Total Media Theater 5 works just fine. The app launches on top of XBMC (and thus you never see the desktop ) works well, i ditched my standalone BD player even before using XBMC as a frontend (when i was using 7MC)

[markymarknz]

Thanks everyone for your fast replies.
Looking at the links it sounds like it may be reasonably usable with Windows & TMT.
SpectreX - Are you using the playercorefactory.xml script and reclock application? Also what remote are you using? Is it easy to navigate with your remote and close TMT5 back into XBMC once you are done.

Cheers