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General Startup Questions

WilsonFlyer

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I don't seem to be able to decipher how you guys are even getting started on HD and Blu-Ray DVDs. Please forgive me. If there's a link that covers these questions, I would certainly appreciate it.

1) What drive are you attaching to your PC to read HD DVDs?
2) What drive are you attaching to your PCs to read Blu-Ray?
3) Where do you get the above drives and how much (I have a PS3 and an HD DVD on my XBox 360)?
4) What are you burning HD DVD's with once you rip them on you PCs with AnyDVD HD?
5) What are you using to burn Blu-Rays?
6) Where can I buy the burners? Cost?
7) Is an HTPC necessary or if burners are not to be had, can a USB HD be loaded with movies and attached to the PS3 and used? XBox 360?

I think that's it for now. There's gotta be a sticky about this general stuff here somewhere but I can't seem to find it.

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

-WF
 
I don't seem to be able to decipher how you guys are even getting started on HD and Blu-Ray DVDs. Please forgive me. If there's a link that covers these questions, I would certainly appreciate it.

1) What drive are you attaching to your PC to read HD DVDs?
XBOX 360 HD DVD drive (external USB 2.0 case with integrated USB HUB).
Highly recommended
 
Thanks James. Got that on the HD DVD reader.

Still leaves a lot of unanswered questions though. You'd have thought this would be covered in a sticky somewhere, wouldn't you? :confused:
 
Answers:
1) xbox 360 hd dvd drive, available where ever you can get a 360, i.e bestbuy, futureshop, walmart

2) there is no low cost bluray burner comparable to the 360 drive, though if you look online you can find them cheap on ebay. Also LG is selling a combo drive that burns/plays bluray and plays HD dvds for around $300. Not likely to be found in to many retail stores, try ebay or amazon, its a LG GGC-H20L

3) if you already have a ps3and an xbox, you really don t need to buy any hardware. I realize its not terribley sleek and sexy as a single contained unit, but you ll be saving yourself a lot of head aches.

4) Right now there are no hd dvd burners available except in select Toshiba laptops, so you won t be burning them anytime soon. If perchance you do have a burner, you could try converting the ripped files to an iso and then burning it with Nero, making sure you set it to UDF 2.5

5) I am sure James will second this, but copying blurays are a pain in the ass. 1st, I don t know of any 50gb rightable discs available so you will have to delete everything but the movie to fit it on a 25gb, and even then that might not be possible. Additionally, if it a FOX title, it will likely hve BD+ on it and not many have had much luck getting those to work on burned discs. For other studio titles, follow the same steps as for HD dvd

6) Answered above but will restate, blu ray burners at any computer store or a Bestbuy or future shop. Make sure that they can read AND write, some only read. You can also buy them online. Prices vary but usually no less than $300. For HD DVD the Xbox 360 drive is the best option, usually for less than $169 and comes with some free movies and can be bought at any store that sells 360's

7) An xbox 360 will not play the ripped discs off of a hard drive, as for PS3 it is possible but you need to install a linux operating system on your PS3. This will also let you rip blu rays using your PS3, copy them to a HDD and then burned on a computer. SamuriHL did a good job on how to install linux and do all this a few threads ago. Here's the link:
http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=9777

Hope this helps.
 
1st, I don t know of any 50gb rightable discs available so you will have to delete everything but the movie to fit it on a 25gb

I can buy 50gb BD-R and BD-RE disks in my country (Australia) so I would assume they are available elsewhere. The real problem is cost. a 50gb BD-R disk is $70+AU - for that price you could buy 2 or 3 original blu-ray movies.
 
You're right, my apologies. They are available in North America, but I could not find any at a big box store (i.e. Best Buy) so you ll have to go to a specialty computer store. And as Ozzlander said, they aren t cheap, anywhere from $35- $50. Also, Like I mentioned earlier not all Blu-ray drives are equal. Some only read blu-ray, others read and write and those that do might not burn to 50gb discs. The majority of new ones do, but some older models don t.
 
I think I've got it now, guys and thanks for all the great 411.

Too early for me. I'll take my chance with scratching what I own. I've been down the HTPC road several times only to regret it.

Disk space (in the voluminous amounts needed for HD/BR DVD), blank media for BR and the unavailability of blank HD media and writable drives just lends itself to the fact that it's just a novelty at this point.

Maybe one day we will be able to affordably back up our collections of "HD" DVDs. I remember when it was too expensive to back up regular DVD collections too.

I'll keep watchi' from the sidelines for now. Thanks again.

-WF
 
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