What Blue Ray Player for a PC is reliable

[lacywest]

In relationship to the post >>> http://forum.videohelp.com/topic370001.html

What Blue Ray Player for a PC is reliable ... I've looked at them in NewEgg ... lots of bad reviews.

Any body here have any good input on a decent and reliable Blue Ray Player.

I'm thinking of putting one in my HTPC ... in my bedroom setup.

This one looks good ... good reviews too

LITE-ON Black 4X BD-ROM 12X DVD-ROM 32X CD-ROM SATA Internal 4X Blu-ray DVD ROM Model DH-4O1S-08 - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106225

Uses SATA connection ... oh my gawd ... how am I going to use it .... he he he ... just kidding.

[jman98]

I can't make a recommendation as I don't have one, but you need to be aware of something BEFORE you buy ANY BluRay drive for the PC...

http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=29820

To put this in simple terms, at least 19 BluRay discs are available in various parts of the world that CANNOT be ripped OR played on PCs at this time. Basically either through stupidity or what I call the "evil genius method" (which means it's not stupidity but done according to plan) some recent releases cannot be ripped or played on PCs because the BD+ code was botched. Standalone players seem to not have problems with this. As to whether the BD+ was botched on purpose to prevent ripping or this is just a lucky circumstance that benefits (for now) Hollywood, nobody knows. However, if this catches on and becomes the standard, you may find a lot of new releases simply cannot be played on your PC. And according to one article I read (I think it may be the one linked to above), Hollywood can theoretically revoke PC playback of BluRay discs. It may just be a matter of time before this happens so you might consider whether or not you want to spend the money on something that might theoretically not work very well for you in the future.

[lacywest]

Looking at the posts at the Slysoft webpage ... doesn't look like too many are botched up ...


I've got a monthly membership at Blockbuster and my wife is always looking at the movies to rent and we both walk by the wall with the Blue Ray videos ... and it isn't until a moment later we realize we're looking at Blue Ray editions.

[redwudz]

I have both a Sony BR-5100S (2X read) and a LG GGC-H20L (6X read) BD ROMs. I got the LG as it listed read speeds of 6X for BD discs. But it appears to read at the same speed as the Sony. Both of the drives have had no problems reading any of the 30 or so BD discs I have tried. And AnyDVD HD has had no problem decrypting any of them. I have found a couple of discs that were very difficult to convert to MKV, due to oddities in the disc structure itself. I also have a Pioneer BDR-203 BD burner, though I don't use it for reading BDs.

I would probably go with one of the Sony BDs mainly because of the price. The Sony BR-5100S is about $87US at NewEgg at present. I did see some poor reviews of the Lite-On BD ROMS, so I passed on them.

But a lot of the reviews on NE may be complaining more about decryption and software playback. AnyDVD HD seems to keep up fairly well with the decryption of new releases. It's too bad it's still about the only solid choice for decryption. But I purchased it before the price change and I do have the lifetime updates. I use PowerDVD 8 mostly for playback. I find it slow to initialize and awkward to use. I have tried ArcSoft 3 and it seems a much better player. It seems like they made BD as difficult as possible to play back on a computer.

[jman98]

Looking at the posts at the Slysoft webpage ... doesn't look like too many are botched up ...

You are right. And it may not get worse, but I felt like I had to warn you about a worst case scenario. If you believe that the situation is likely to improve, and it well may improve, that's fine. The more informed you are about potential problems the better.

[lordsmurf]

Revoking BD playback on all computers would unleash the class-action lawsuit from hell on them. I doubt that would happen.

[BozQ]

I have both a Sony BR-5100S (2X read) and a LG GGC-H20L (6X read) BD ROMs. I got the LG as it listed read speeds of 6X for BD discs. But it appears to read at the same speed as the Sony. Both of the drives have had no problems reading any of the 30 or so BD discs I have tried. And AnyDVD HD has had no problem decrypting any of them. I have found a couple of discs that were very difficult to convert to MKV, due to oddities in the disc structure itself. I also have a Pioneer BDR-203 BD burner, though I don't use it for reading BDs.

I would probably go with one of the Sony BDs mainly because of the price. The Sony BR-5100S is about $87US at NewEgg at present. I did see some poor reviews of the Lite-On BD ROMS, so I passed on them.

But a lot of the reviews on NE may be complaining more about decryption and software playback. AnyDVD HD seems to keep up fairly well with the decryption of new releases. It's too bad it's still about the only solid choice for decryption. But I purchased it before the price change and I do have the lifetime updates. I use PowerDVD 8 mostly for playback. I find it slow to initialize and awkward to use. I have tried ArcSoft 3 and it seems a much better player. It seems like they made BD as difficult as possible to play back on a computer.

Thank you. I've been considering to sell away my PS3 and buy the LG drive for quite some time now. Looks like I shall stick with my PS3 for now.

[lacywest]

I guess the reviews at Newegg are one place to check out the Blue Ray players ... Amazon is also a place I go ... to check the reviews from other folks ... I haven't done it yet for the Blue Ray PC players.

My wife saw the prices at Walmart for a BlueRay table top player ... she said ... GEEZ !!! ... or was it ... GAWD !!!! ... I told her to dont freak to bad now ... a PC Blue Ray player only costs 80 dollars.

But I dont want to spend 80 bucks on something that will konk out ... 4 months later.

[budz]

Why not just buy a standalone blu-ray player? I'm not buying a blu-ray drive for the pc just yet since it's still pricey in terms of having to buy ANYDVD HD software. If you take into consideration the cost of ANYDVD HD & buying a blu-ray drive, you might as well buy a standalone player. Panasonic makes good standalone blu-ray players. Check out the AVS Forum on Blu-ray players. Just my 2 cents!

[Eugene157]

I have the LG h20l, works fine with HD DVD and BD. Was trying to move the player to a new computer and to my horror cannot find the POWER DVD 7 ULTRA SW. Tried to buy a used version but no luck. I have the original receipts from New EGG to prove that I bought the SW. Tried New EGG, LG and cyberlink , no help there. hate to buy a second player just for the software.
Any thoughts ?

Gene

[stiltman]

Maybe?

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...ovember12.mspx

[lacywest]

I have the LG h20l, works fine with HD DVD and BD. Was trying to move the player to a new computer and to my horror cannot find the POWER DVD 7 ULTRA SW. Tried to buy a used version but no luck. I have the original receipts from New EGG to prove that I bought the SW. Tried New EGG, LG and cyberlink , no help there. hate to buy a second player just for the software.
Any thoughts ?

Gene

I sent you a PM message.