Playing HD DVDs on my PC (Vista)

[ViRaL1]

I decided to hook my XBOX 360 HD DVD Player up to my Vista PC and it detects fine and it seems to be able to read the data, but I want to be able to playback HD DVD movies on my PC. I do have HDCP supported video and an HDCP supported monitor connected by DVI (they also both have HDMI). I believe PowerDVD and WinDVD can do the job, but I was hoping to find a lower cost alternative if possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

[yoda313]

Can't help you there on price.

Just be very careful you get a software version that SPECIFICALLY SUPPORTS HDDVD.

From what I understand the newest versions of both powerdvd and windvd no longer support hddvd. Be careful before you purchase.

[jman98]

yoda313 is quite correct about PowerDVD. PowerDVD dropped HD DVD support after the 7.3 release. I don't know about WinDVD.

Unfortunately, PowerDVD was horribly inconsistent about playing HD DVDs. Versions 6.5 through 7.3 were capable of playing HD DVD, but any HD DVD may or may not play on any random version of PowerDVD. For example, you might have an HD DVD that plays on all versions from 6.5 to 7.3, another might only play on version 7, still another might play on 6.5 and 7.3 but nothing in between and so on. It was pure madness.

I could be wrong about this, but I don't think so. It's my understanding that DVI does NOT support HDCP and without HDCP, no version of PowerDVD will play HD DVD in full 1080p mode. I'm not a big expert on DVI so if I'm wrong about it and it does support HDCP, my apologies. I remember that the guy who cracked HD DVD encryption did so specifically because he was pissed off that PowerDVD wouldn't play his videos in full 1080p because he couldn't get HDCP via DVI.

PowerDVD won't sell you the old versions that supported HD DVD. You're left to your own devices to find them. If you're clever, it's possible to find versions of PowerDVD from 6.5 through 7.3 through the magic of the internet.

[festmaster]

WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-Ray plays HD-DVD. I bought it with an e-mail coupon from Corel for about $70. In order to put aside all of the HDCP nonsense, you can rip the movie to your hard drive first, which will eliminate the HDCP constraints. DVD Fab free version rips HD-DVD's, and since it is an obsolete format there is no worry of new copy protections. DVD Fab should be able to rip every disk that was released.