What hardware/software do I actually need to play blu-ray movies on my pc?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › What hardware/software do I actually need to play blu-ray movies on my pc?

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Nety

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#190382 18-Jan-2009 15:23

psk20:
Hmm, I took the somewhat ill-advised route and got the 575.

Apparently there actually isn't a way to convert a 3.5" minijack to a coaxial connection? At least, that's what the dudes at jaycar and dragonpc said - they insisted I get a 3.5" to RCA connection.

This will depend on your soundcard. My sound blaster supports this with the top 3.5mm plug. At the other end the digital in plug is the same size as a RCA plug.

psk20:

1) I can use software to decode the digital signal and output it as an analogue signal using 3 (front l/r, center/woofer, rear l/r) minijack to RCA cablesfor 5.1 or 4 (as before plus surround l/r)minijack to RCA cables for 7.1 audio. This probably isn't that good for audio fidelity I'm guessing.

This in fact may be the best way to do it if you don't mind the clutter. Your PC may have more decoding options then your AV. I was going to set mine up like this but currently the Soundblaster drivers are still not working properly so I am stuck with option 1

psk20:
2) I can buy an spdif coaxial/optical bracket that my motherboard supports from gigabyte. Then I can just plug a single coaxial cable into the receiver. Probably a better option - higher fidelity, less clutter.

As above.

psk20:
If I want true HD, I imagine that my only option at the moment will be to make sure my computer is capable of decoding the 7.1 signal. I guess one option would be to output this using the 4 analogue cables, though I don't think there'd be much point, as those minijack connections tend to be pretty bad, correct?

I have been told that this works quite well as above however keep in mind that currently you cannot get HD unless you purchase one of the very new and very beta sound cards that support HD.

psk20:
The other option would be to output the 7.1 channel connection as a 7.1 lpcm stream. Would this work? There are several areas where my knowledge is shakey where I can imagine things getting in the way. Does coaxial have the necessary bandwidth? Is my receiver capable of processing the signal (I know it can't process tru-hd, but lpcm is already decoded, correct?)

This is a no go.. It requires high bandwidth that you PC cannot supply and you AV reciever still needs to understand it which as it is not HD it will not.

Good luck.

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psk20

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Master Geek

#190442 18-Jan-2009 22:32

"This will depend on your soundcard. My sound blaster supports this with the top 3.5mm plug. At the other end the digital in plug is the same size as a RCA plug."

Hmm, I think my motherboard is supposed to be able to do that - I have an audio device on my system called "digital output device (SPDIF)". When I hit properties I get:

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v333/skeletoro/Capture.png[/IMG]

So, I'm guessing that I should be able to do it... but I'm not sure which cord I need - all I have is a regular stereo 3.5" to L/R stereo RCA, and a mono one that just terminates in a single RCA cable. Do I need a cord subtley different to either? My motherboard manual doesn't appear to mention anything about a "combo jack" though.

Doesn't matter too much, I ordered the spdif I/O bracket already anyway, which is only $20. But now I'm curious : ) Thanks for the advice again!

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#190515 19-Jan-2009 12:48

OK looking at your mobo specs it has

1 coaxial S/PDIF Out port

So all you need is a mono RCA to RCA lead. Something like

Go to http://www.cablesdirect.co.nz/ and search for the part No. below
Cheap = CA-RCA-MM2
Better quality still not to expensive = CB-RCA-1

psk20

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Master Geek

#190524 19-Jan-2009 13:21

Oh man, I'm so confused now... I swear I couldn't see a coaxial or optical connection on the back there :O But you're right, it does say that on the specs. I wonder if I accidentally listed the wrong motherboard on my profile? Dying to go home and check now!

1gkar

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Ultimate Geek

#190574 19-Jan-2009 17:48

If you don't have an orange-yellow ring standard-looking RCA plug sticking out of your mobo's I/O shield then it probably uses a separate SPDif bracket which plugs into a header pinset on your mobo & fastens to the case over one of your PCI slots. Depending on the manufacturer, you may have to purchase it separately. Asus used to be real good at that particular budgeting.

That's why it is imperative you know what you want a system to do before procuring the components. You can still get caught out, but at least you are minimising your chances of being caught with inappropriate parts. And chances are it is easier to have the parts replaced.

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psk20

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Master Geek

#190605 19-Jan-2009 20:19

Thanks a lot for the advice.

Hmm yeah, I checked my back panel and it doesn't have either digital output! Pretty weird - it doesn't mention it in my manual but the spec list on the net clearly says it should have one. I'm guessing that the specs on the net must assume that you have opted to get the optional I/O bracket that the bracket mentions.

it probably uses a separate SPDif bracket which plugs into a header pinset on your mobo & fastens to the case over one of your PCI slots. Depending on the manufacturer, you may have to purchase it separately.

Ahh yep, that's what I thought might be the case - I actually ordered such a part on sunday, hoping to see it arrive by the end of the week.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/AccessoryList.aspx

the spidf in/out cable appears to perfectly match the pin assignment for the spdif in/out on my mobo, and my manual lists it as an optional extra. Dragon PC said that they can order it in for me, so here's hoping it actually works :P

One thing I've been wondering, is: what do audio devices usually do when you've got 2 formats of audio playing at once? For example, what if you are playing a dvd, dolby digital, through coaxial/spdif. and you get, say... a message through MSN. Does the device somehow add the windows stereo sound to the spdif signal? Or... does it send 2 seperate signals at once? Is it an issue for the receiver to make sense of? I realise this may be a really retarded question, but it's something I've been curious about for a while now, heh :P

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MrAlan

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#190639 19-Jan-2009 21:40

psk20:
One thing I've been wondering, is: what do audio devices usually do when you've got 2 formats of audio playing at once? For example, what if you are playing a dvd, dolby digital, through coaxial/spdif. and you get, say... a message through MSN. Does the device somehow add the windows stereo sound to the spdif signal? Or... does it send 2 seperate signals at once? Is it an issue for the receiver to make sense of? I realise this may be a really retarded question, but it's something I've been curious about for a while now, heh :P

It can work like that, it's all dependent on how you have configured windows/applications to use your devices. MSN will output through the default sound device whether that be set to your analogue output or spdif.

jgi213

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#190711 20-Jan-2009 09:22

Well i actually have tryed watching 1080p blutay on my computer and frames skipped and it chopped alil but it still played i used vlc media player which supports blu ray media doesnt seem like there is too much thought of software for the pc there is hardly anyout. However i have built in audio realtek which claims to be hd audio sound up to 5.1 or 7.1 but i dont see a digi out port and i dont use onboard audio i have an soundblaster audigy2 advanced hd card which i know can and will put out hd audio at 24 bit i have a digi out on that card i also only have a geforce 7300 gs which will support 1080p but barly all u need to do is buy a vga cable and run it from your monitor port in your video card to your hdtv pc input port on your tv belive it or not vga supports higher res and looks much better then s-video or composite cables. i belive im getting crappy playback of 1080p blu ray either because my monitor only does 1792x1344 which is 720p or because my video card is very basic and not brand brand new the gpu aint fast enough or 2 my system ram isnt high enough i only have 1gig on vista ultimate i would recommend 2gigs or above. 3 my processer is only a single core i recommend a 2.2 dualcore intel or above with amd go with a 2.5 or above. i actually have no idea if my soundblaster puts out true hd like it claims. The highest res i was able to get to play on blue ray with my specs was 720p and it was fairly smooth however i felt at the highest res i could get i was pushin my video and mem and cpu to the max the first thing i would do to try and get blu ray to play better on my computer is upgrade my video like dude said 8800gs or above even though gs are usaully the lower end models of geforce gt and gts are much better if u can afford

psk20

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Master Geek

#190716 20-Jan-2009 09:39

Thanks for the advice jgi (and welcome to the forums! ^^).

Sounds like your onboard audio is very similar to my own. I've been tempted to get an audigy or similar, but to be honest, I'd really prefer to just do it with the motherboard and save the cost at this stage, especially seeing as my receiver can't process hd audio.

I'm pretty sure my system will be powerful enough to play blu-rays, it's quad core and the hd4870 is a very decent card. Probably the biggest limitation of my sytem at the moment is how noisy it is. :O My corsair PSU died in a power surge on boxing day, and the replacement that global pc installed is horribly, horribly noisy :O.

Unfortunately I can't send a 1080p signal to my tv screen using vga. My tv only supports 1080p through hdmi - it can only do lower resolutions through vga. That's even though I'm sure vga does support the higher resolutions. But yeah, at this stage, it looks like the video is fine. I'm just hoping that when I get the blu ray drive and software, I don't get compliance or driver issues.

psk20

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Master Geek

#190720 20-Jan-2009 09:47

It can work like that, it's all dependent on how you have configured windows/applications to use your devices. MSN will output through the default sound device whether that be set to your analogue output or spdif.

I see... sounds like it won't be too much of a problem then!

Nety

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#190721 20-Jan-2009 09:53

dji213, welcome to Geekzone! However please use punctuation, your post was very very hard to read with no paragraphs or punctuation.
Your video card will be what is causing payback issues plus not sure if VLC supports hardware decoding. Better to use something like Totalmedia theatre or Power DVD.
You dont need a high end video card to play blu ray but you do need a fairly new one. Anything from a Geforce 8400GS will do although I would go with a 8500GT just to give a little bit of head room. If you want to play games as well then the requirements are much higher.

psk20 just use a DVI to HDMI cable. You will then be able to feed the TV 1080p.

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psk20

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Master Geek

#190746 20-Jan-2009 11:13

psk20 just use a DVI to HDMI cable. You will then be able to feed the TV 1080p.

Yep, that's what I am doing - I'm planning on going DVI->hdmi to my tv from my graphics card (1080p). I was just replying to jgi's suggestion that I use a vga connection. Luckily my second hand tv came with an hdmi cable - otherwise I would have learnt the hard way that the tv can only take 1080p input through one of its two hdmi connections.

psk20

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Master Geek

#191759 24-Jan-2009 10:13

Right, the bracket arrived, and now I'm sending an spdif coaxial signal to my fancy new receiver. It sounds great!

And to be honest, I'm happy that I've avoided a whole raft of issues associated with the hdmi audio out on my video card. Through the hdmi connection, at least when sending the signal straight to the TV, sounds have the first half a second truncated off. Which is just a pain. Doesn't matter for movies or music but it does matter for windows alerts and stuff. Also, cruising the net suggests that I'm likely to have a really really hard time actually getting the card to output the signal I want it to. So yeah, happy to skip that rubbish : )

I watched hellboy II (only dvd- I have still to purchase a blu-ray driver, and am holding off buying the dark knight until I do : P ) and it sounded so much nicer. And I don't even have a subwoofer. I'm happy it sounded so good without one - I can't really buy myself one at least until we move out of the small apartment.

So all I have to do is get a blu-ray drive and get a few kinks sorted out with my TV signal and I'm set. Yay!

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