[bobd76]

Hey gang. I have read a lot here, and I am in the process of building a new HTPC, mainly for XBMC. I'm a long-time XBMC on xbox user, but I see it is time to upgrade.

I've taken the advice of some members here, and am building the HTPC with the following:

GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H
C2Duo E8400

As I sold my PS3 to help make this happen, I wanted to include a Blu-Ray drive for BD playback. The little I have seen suggests this will be a pain in the ass.

Does anyone with a similar configuration have any advice on adding BD? I was planning on using XP because I have a free copy lying around, but it seems it will work better with Vista? WIll XBMC run as good/better on Vista than XP?

Any other hardware/software suggestions for BD?

Thanks..

[tcman47]

I don't think xp naturally supports blu-ray so in addition to adding a blu-ray drive in xp just make sure you have a decoder/software package on your computer that does support blu-ray.

Vista from what i understand will support blu-ray after service pack 2 is issued in the 1st half of 2009.

TC

[xanadu1979]

XBMC doesn't support Blu-Ray. You'll need to use an external player. There's a build of XBMC that supports this. It might be a pain to setup though.

[bobd76]

Thanks for the input so far, guys.

I know XBMC itself won't support Blu-Ray, I just wondered if I was barking up the right tree, trying to get BD playing on my new (probably XP-based) HTPC, or if I should just buy a cheaper stand-alone player.

[warwon]

Well LG makes decent blue-ray drives at best buy that are like $150 canadian.

I don't like XP compared to Vista for playback.

But you have 3 choices for software:

Powerdvd 8 ultra
Arcsoft Total Media
Windvd 9

Suggestions: Arcsoft can play both blue-ray and hd dvd
Cons: Arcsoft has a number of bugs that I won't get into, no upscaling on DVD, and it really hates ATI cards

Powerdvd 8 Ultra best player, quick updates and supports most of the newest movies, it does a good job using your video cards scaler for standard dvd, and it does not play HD DVD.

Bugs with powerdvd 8? There's enough, but it works.

Windvd 9 has a HD DVD and Blue-ray playback, plus upscaling for DVD. But no updates since Apirl of last year (the dec one doesn't count). Poor support and no access to BD live +

I recommend getting a nice LG drive for blue-ray playback, and getting a copy of powerdvd.

Also make sure everything you have support HDCP.

PM for more info

[o_dog]

well, that it hates ati cards is not really a bug, i would call it common sense...

[RDHoworth]

You could also use AnyDVD to Rip the films to the hard drive and play back the .ts file. There is plenty of info around about how to do this.

That is how I play BD disks, but you don't get any of the BD extras, and I have had some trouble with subtitles. XBMC handles the .ts files very well.

[matt_cyr]

I just threw together a new system, with the same processor as you, and an LG GGC-H20L BD/HD drive. I could not get it to load correctly in XP. That may have been due to my graphics processor (Intel 3100 i believe). After loading Vista, I got BD playback using the PowerDVD software provided with the player.
I picked mine up at DirectCanada.com ( http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sk...facture=LG ) for 139.99 and with 9.99 air shipping it got here at noon the day after ordering it.
Not sure where you're ordering from, but if you're in canada i would recommend them.
It's also an HD drive, so if you can find some nice cheap HD-DVD's on sale, usually for about $6-$7 each, then it's an added bonus.

[RockDawg]

You could also use AnyDVD to Rip the films to the hard drive and play back the .ts file. There is plenty of info around about how to do this.

That is how I play BD disks, but you don't get any of the BD extras, and I have had some trouble with subtitles. XBMC handles the .ts files very well.

Not to go off topic, but when you say no extras does that mean no menus either? Also, were your troubles with subtitles only on XBMC or was it a result of the rip and exhibited in all playback software?

[bobd76]

I guess it just seems it might be chaeaper and easier to simply buy a standalone BD player. I'm going to need AnyDVD HD because I highly doubt my several-year-old HD monitor television is HDCP. And I think I need to upgrade PowerDVD even if I get it with the drive so that I'd be able to get 5.1 sound, not just 2.0. And I may even need to get Vista. So it seems like I'm looking at about $400.

The BD drive: at least $100
AnyDVD HD: $100+
PowerDVD Ultra: $90+
Vista: $100+

I suppose I could just start out with the BD drive and ANyDVD HD, so I could rip the BD's to my hard drive and play them through XBMC. I think I'd rather like that. The only special features I usually care about are commentary tracks. Can I have multiple audio tracks in the .TS rips?

[salnajjar]

For Blu-ray rips you only need the m2ts file (it's usually the one that's about 40Gb).

This file contains all the different audio formats and subtitles all of which XBMC seems to support with no problems.

Hope this helps a little.

Seri