Necessary Hardware for Playback

[dharris]

All,

So on the assumption (and its not an assumption since we know the product works) that I have AnyDVD running, which should free me from needing an hdcp compliant graphics card and/or hdcp capable monitor, and have also successfully ripped an HD DVD to my hard drive, what kind of hardware am I going to need to test to see if it actually plays back?

Right now, I have PowerDVD Ultra, a machine running a Pent. D 940, 2 gb of ram, but i only have onboard Intel GMA950 - and when i load PDVD and try to playback movie, i get an error "Incompatible Graphics Driver". Of course running the cyberlink advisor tells me my video is non-hdcp and so is the monitor.

Do I need an nvidia or ati card? If so, I assume I do not need one that has hdcp compliant? But for the drivers, do I need to download and pay for purevideo HD? or catalyst? Just trying to figure out minimum requirements...

Thanks

 

[Charlie]

You mean when using anydvd hd right? as regular anydvd doesn't require anything. You might need a higher graphics card like one of those that is listed on the powerdvd website.

http://www.cyberlink.com/english/support/bdhd_support/system_requirement.jsp

 

[Androo79]

If you want it to play every movie (HD and Bluray) flawlessly I would recommend the fastest Core 2 Duo you can afford and a 8800GTS. On a budget get the E6300 and overclock it to at least 2.5 Ghz.

 

[colinhunt]

If you want it to play every movie (HD and Bluray) flawlessly I would recommend the fastest Core 2 Duo you can afford and a 8800GTS. On a budget get the E6300 and overclock it to at least 2.5 Ghz.

Non-overclocked E6400 and 7950GT has been more than enough for every single BD/HD title so far, even ones with complex interactivity features. There's no reason to splurge for the most expensive HW just for BD/HD playback.

 

[OldRedFox]

I just saw yet another reason not to bother with HD yet. I don't have a HD compliant TV. As far as my PC, I have an AMD FX-53 & ATI X800 XT PE....so let's see, I would need a new CPU, new Video Card, PowerDVD upgrade, likely a new MOBO, & new Power Supply....oh yeah, and a DVD-HD drive....just to see a little clearer, detailed movie.

I still cannot make a backup of any DVD-HD's I would get, cause they would not fit on a Dual Layer DVD....oh yeah, I don't have one of those yet either. ROFL....spending $1,000 +++ just to watch a limited catalog of somewhat better looking HD movies......I'll pass.

 

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

I just saw yet another reason not to bother with HD yet. I don't have a HD compliant TV. As far as my PC, I have an AMD FX-53 & ATI X800 XT PE....so let's see, I would need a new CPU, new Video Card, PowerDVD upgrade, likely a new MOBO, & new Power Supply....oh yeah, and a DVD-HD drive....just to see a little clearer, detailed movie.

I still cannot make a backup of any DVD-HD's I would get, cause they would not fit on a Dual Layer DVD....oh yeah, I don't have one of those yet either. ROFL....spending $1,000 +++ just to watch a limited catalog of somewhat better looking HD movies......I'll pass.

And here is the funny part where a Slysoft beat the curve before HD-DVD burners and many players were already on the market.

Hey, you don't have to use the product or even find it useful. Others, however, will.

In terms of upgrades... that's what Vista, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray have caused. If you want to use/see them then you want the best way to do so and that means better hardware. AnyDVD HD makes this easier.

I'm staying with XP Pro.

 

[Scarpad]

I have the 360 drive but my PC's definately are not hefty enough to play. I'm waiting till we have a Software which will backup the Movies to say 2 SD DVD's and then play back on the 360 drive, then I'll update.

 

[OldRedFox]

Yeah, I'm not anti-HD....nor anti-Vista....it's just that neither of them are ready for prime time....and it will be several more years before they are there....at least 2009, more likely 2010.

Once the studios sort out this latest HD version of VHS vs. Betamax, once hardware & titles to play HD are more available, affordable, and PC burners able to burn a fair use archive backup copy....I'll consider upgrading. Remember also that all the old titles were not even filmed/videotaped with 1160i+ recording cameras or media format....so HD only applies to fairly recent TV, Sports, Movies that started using the higher standards.

Vista....ummm....no thanks. Their pricing is a total ripoff, and only a fool would try any of M$'s new OS before they come out with at least their traditional SP-1 to fix all the bugs, and increase driver support.

 

[dharris]

I just thought i would repost since i started the thread.

I have C2D e4300 with a evga 7800GT card, 2GB of ram. I ripped a few of my HD DVDs to my network media server. Playback over my gig lan works flawlessly. No stutter. CPU utilization is only at 40%.

Im using PowerDVD 7.1

 

[Androo79]

I have C2D e4300 with a evga 7800GT card, 2GB of ram. I ripped a few of my HD DVDs to my network media server. Playback over my gig lan works flawlessly. No stutter. CPU utilization is only at 40%.

Out of curiosity, Is the e4300 overclocked? Apparently it can do up to or even greater than a 100% overclock.

 

[coodbe]

If you want it to play every movie (HD and Bluray) flawlessly I would recommend the fastest Core 2 Duo you can afford and a 8800GTS. On a budget get the E6300 and overclock it to at least 2.5 Ghz.

Can processors be upgraded or do you mean buy a knew computer? I assume you mean that a new computer has to be purchased.

I have a Dell Dimension 8400 with Windows XP, Plentium(R) 4 CPU 3.4GHz. I currently have 3GB of RAM and a NVDIA GeForce 6800 graphic card. I went to the NVDIA site and this graphic card does everything that the GeForce 7100, 7300, 7600GS and GT do. The only thing that appears to be different is that it has VGA and DVI but no HDMI.

My Dell is only 27 months old and I am not going to buy a new one to play high definition DVD's. However next year I am considering purchasing a top of the line laptop.

 

[Androo79]

Can processors be upgraded or do you mean buy a knew computer? I assume you mean that a new computer has to be purchased.

I have a Dell Dimension 8400 with Windows XP, Plentium(R) 4 CPU 3.4GHz. I currently have 3GB of RAM and a NVDIA GeForce 6800 graphic card. I went to the NVDIA site and this graphic card does everything that the GeForce 7100, 7300, 7600GS and GT do. The only thing that appears to be different is that it has VGA and DVI but no HDMI.

My Dell is only 27 months old and I am not going to buy a new one to play high definition DVD's. However next year I am considering purchasing a top of the line laptop.

I have not purchases a desktop PC in several years but I have heard that Dell and the like are hard to upgrade. If you motherboard is an socket 775 then you could upgrade the CPU. I do believe you would need a new graphics card. Though they are starting to score the current graphics cards with the new HVQ HD benchmark and the are all scoring zero. Nvidia and AMD should be able to fix this with new drivers.

27 months is a pretty old for a desktop PC IMO if you want to be able to play HD content flawlessly. Your best bet would be to build a new computer from scratch, it is really not hard. There are many step by step guides online and in magazines like Maximum PC that would help.

 

[coodbe]

I have not purchases a desktop PC in several years but I have heard that Dell and the like are hard to upgrade. If you motherboard is an socket 775 then you could upgrade the CPU. I do believe you would need a new graphics card. Though they are starting to score the current graphics cards with the new HVQ HD benchmark and the are all scoring zero. Nvidia and AMD should be able to fix this with new drivers.

27 months is a pretty old for a desktop PC IMO if you want to be able to play HD content flawlessly. Your best bet would be to build a new computer from scratch, it is really not hard. There are many step by step guides online and in magazines like Maximum PC that would help.

Any suggestions on which computer to buy on my next purchase that will allow to upgrade a processor?

 

[johnk]

Any upgrades I can do for HD DVD playback without complete PC overhaul?

My HTPC (the parts relevant to HD DVD) configuration is:

MB: Asus A7N8X Deluxe (AMD Socket A/754)
CPU: Athlon 64 3200 (single core 2.2GHz)
RAM: 2GB DDR
Videocard: NVidia 7800GS AGP non-HDCP (w/latest driver 93.71 from 11/2/06)
HD DVD drive: XBox 360 unit
Soundcard: Soundblaster Audigy


I just got a used XBox HD DVD drive, PowerDVD Ultra, and AnyDVD HD, and I hooked it up and tried to play King Kong (came with the XBox drive).

What happens is:
- PowerDVD.exe uses 99% of CPU.
- Audio plays fine.
- Video never updates, unless I jump to a new position in the movie, which makes that *one* frame that I jumped to appear and stick (so if I just left it, it would show the same one frame for the whole movie).


Is there anything I can do for usable HD DVD playback without upgrading the whole motherboard (which would also require a new videocard of course, moving from AGP to PCI Express).

There is a slightly faster Socket A CPU available, the 3700, which runs at 2.4Ghz. Would that extra 200Mhz make enough of a difference?

I also thought that my 7800GS video card might help to accelerate the video, but I guess that's not the case. Or do I maybe just have the video not properly set up to take advantage of the card's functionality?


I will upgrade the PC if I need to, but I was hoping to put that off for a few months at which point I can replace it with parts from my current gaming PC, which I may be upgrading by the middle of this year. The PC works perfectly fine for everything else I use it for (mainly over-the-air HDTV recording/plackback with MyHD, and regular DVD playback with Theatertek).


Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Androo79]

Is there anything I can do for usable HD DVD playback without upgrading the whole motherboard (which would also require a new videocard of course, moving from AGP to PCI Express).

Unless your current MB can support a dual core processor I think you would need a whole new setup.

There is even talk on anandtech.com that the current fastest processor and video card combination may not be powerful enough if the movie industry starts encoding their movies at a higher bitrate.

I just took my Xbox 360 drive back to the store yesterday, right before the 30 day period was up, because it will be probably 4 months before I can afford to build my new system. Plus there are issues with the drive that Microsoft may not fix. I am also starting to think that maybe Bluray will win the fight and I can just buy a combo reader/burner drive by then.

 

[coodbe]

A Pentium 4 (2.4GHz) is apparently enough to play HDDVD. I ran across this on YouTube. The standalone HDDVD player being evaluated here uses a computer drive. What do you think? Can it be that Power DVD7 Deluxe uses too much CPU and RAM. If so could there be a less resource draining application?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fodTWo2JDwI

 

[Androo79]

There is not much choice in applications at the moment, the technology is in its very early stages. In time there will be better products out. Another reason why it may be a blessing that I cannot build my computer now.

 

[data.beetle]

What's wrong with the XB360?

I'm new to HD, but doesn't the Microsoft HD-DVD player work with the XB360 to play movies? Then I wouldn't need a fast PC with extra software.

I'm asking this question because that's what I'm thinking about purchasing to play HD DVD movies. Was hoping to use a vga converter cable with my LCD widescreen computer monitor until I get a HD TV.

Please let me know if there is a flaw in my logic (there usually is).

thanks,
data.beetle

 

[coodbe]

There is not much choice in applications at the moment, the technology is in its very early stages. In time there will be better products out. Another reason why it may be a blessing that I cannot build my computer now.

This could be good news. No reason to "jump the gun" now and purchase a new computer just because using PowerDVD7 makes it appear that additional CPU is necessary to play HDDVD. This is what I suspected. There is going to be much more developing not only with the computer application of high definition disks but with which format will survive and the reduction of the cost of the blank media. That in addition to the fact that about four years passes between each large jump in CPU speed and the new chips that evolve.

 

[johnk]

Unless your current MB can support a dual core processor I think you would need a whole new setup.

There is even talk on anandtech.com that the current fastest processor and video card combination may not be powerful enough if the movie industry starts encoding their movies at a higher bitrate.

Sounds like I need a PCI Express motherboard so that I can take advantage of NVidia's PureVideo HD (wow, they make it a huge pain in the butt to figure out that PureVideo HD is only for their PCI Express cards, while even my 7800GS AGP supports plain PureVideo).

So I guess I'm screwed.... time to start spending a lot of time researching the upgrade for my gaming PC's MB/CPU so I can move my Athlon 64 X2 4800+ CPU and its MB to my HTPC. Sigh... time to turn off the HD DVD preference I just set on Netflix.