Advice on buying a blu ray drive for HTPC

[aberthol]

So I am going to make a HTPC instead of buying a standalone blu ray player. It seems this is the best way to be able to get everything I wanted out of a standalone blu ray player.

It seems like I will get this for the motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394

and this for the case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121027

unless someone has some reason to advise me otherwise.

So I have the hardware picked out for the most part, but I am not sure which blu ray drive to get, I am thinking sometime n the future I would like it to be able to burn, but most importantly I want one that is highly supported buy the guys who make the aftermarket firmware updates. I want the drive to be fully region free for dvds and blu ray discs.

I have always been a NEC guy for my dvd burners, I am completely new when it comes to blu ray drives, so any advice from people who have experience with this will be very much appreciated.

Thank you very much.

[Kerry56]

Pioneer and LG are the two main players right now for blu ray burners. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129051

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136164

The Pioneer is getting slightly better user reviews over at cdfreaks these days.

You won't get a modified firmware that gives you region free blu ray. Blu ray region codes are verified by the player software, not the drive.

[redwudz]

Looks OK for a low end HTPC. You might look into a AMD Propus CPU as it should give you good performance for a reasonable price, along with fairly low power consumption: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103704 If you use a 32bit OS like W7, 4GB RAM would be about right, DDR2 1066.

I have a Pioneer BD burner, works great. If you wanted to save a few $$, you could just use a BD ROM for now. BD burners are a bit expensive and so is the BD media. Looks like that case can use a second HDD in the external 3.5 bay. A couple of 500GB WD drives would give you a fair amount of storage. I convert most of my BDs to MKV for compact playback from my HTPC and they retain quite a bit of quality, even at 8GB filesize.

I've used that same MB and it plays BDs through HDMI with no problems to my projector. You do need a software player, TMT3 works well for me. It interfaces easily with Windows Media Center if you like to use that.

If you plan on backing up your BDs to DL or BD media, you will also need a decrypter program like AnyDVD HD. I'm using W7 for a OS on a couple of my PCs and like it well enough.

[usually_quiet]

I would recommend you buy a case that takes a standard PSU, if you possibly can. I looked at that case and several other slim cases when I was putting together a new system earlier this year, and found that flex power supplies top out at 350W, and dimensions vary a little, so it may be hard to use any PSU but the one that comes with the case.

Gigabyte recommends a 500W power supply for that motherboard for "future expansion" That seems excessive for an HTPC, but I have a very similar MATX motherboard from MSI and the requirements for it say a 300W PSU is the minimum. The case you picked comes with a 270W PSU, which is close, but if it isn't quite powerful enough for stability, it may be hard to find a better one that has the correct dimensions to fit the case.

[redwudz]

I'd agree the PS is a bit on the small side. I wouldn't recommend a add on video card or much of any add on cards as you may exceed the PS output ratings. I would consider adding a small exhaust fan. One intake fan may not give you good enough cooling. And that isn't a case suitable for overclocking the CPU, and the stock CPU cooler isn't much good for that anyway. But it should be fine at stock settings. An extra fan and a extra HDD don't use much power, so not much of a extra PS load.

If you want a larger PS, choose a different case. I use a Lian Li HTPC case, but the cost is closer to $200US. Since you linked to NewEgg, I expect you do read the reviews and realize they may not all be representative of the device. With more inexpensive cases, you always take a chance. But spend a bit of time deciding on the case and you should end up with a good HTPC.

[aberthol]

ok, I have problems upgrading my cpu, the AMD Propus CPU was just a little bit more than the one I was looking at anyway.

Yeah I guess, for a while at least I have no real need for a burner so I guess just getting a BD ROM for now is a good way to save a couple of bucks.

I have been told that I will need AnyDVD HD, that will make it so I can play any disc from anywhere in the world, correct?

I have a Lian Li for my desk top case, and I love it. It is a full tower size that can hold more than the 6 hard drives I have in it. I went for the case I linked before kind of because it came with the PSU. How can I tell what PSU’s fit into this case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112186
The important thing is, you can install a standard ATX power supply for system stability. - i found it

So if I just get a ROM drive, which drive should I go with? Like I said before I want the drive to be able to play region free for dvds and blu ray discs, but I was told in this thread that I need something like AnyDVD to make it region free for blu ray.

Thanks for all the help

[ocgw]

ok, I have problems upgrading my cpu, the AMD Propus CPU was just a little bit more than the one I was looking at anyway.

Yeah I guess, for a while at least I have no real need for a burner so I guess just getting a BD ROM for now is a good way to save a couple of bucks.

I have been told that I will need AnyDVD HD, that will make it so I can play any disc from anywhere in the world, correct?

I have a Lian Li for my desk top case, and I love it. It is a full tower size that can hold more than the 6 hard drives I have in it. I went for the case I linked before kind of because it came with the PSU. How can I tell what PSU’s fit into this case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112186
The important thing is, you can install a standard ATX power supply for system stability. - i found it

So if I just get a ROM drive, which drive should I go with? Like I said before I want the drive to be able to play region free for dvds and blu ray discs, but I was told in this thread that I need something like AnyDVD to make it region free for blu ray.

Thanks for all the help

Purchase Slysoft AnyDVD HD before Dec. 31, 2009 and get a 20% discount and lifetime updates instead of the standard 2-yr subscription

ocgw

peace

[bbanderic]

ocgw is right....get AnyDVD HD now, you'll never get it for a better price, $93 american with lifetime updates and worth every cent.

I would get a Blu-ray burner, rather than the BD-ROM. I HIGHLY recommend the Pioneer:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129051

For the extra $100 or so you'll be glad you did, it does everything, plus BD-R's are coming down in price fast. Verbatim SL BD-R 10 pack for $28.00:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817130047&cm_re=bd-r-_-17-130-047-_-Product