Blu Ray drive for HTPC

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wtburnette

2[H]4U
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Jun 24, 2004
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I've been using my PS3 as my blu ray player for years now. I've had no issues until just yesterday, when it wouldn't play any of my blu ray disks. It still plays DVD and games, just not blu ray disks. This has spurred me to making the decision to buy a blu ray drive for my HTPC. Is there a good drive that can be recommended, preferably for around $50 and including playback software would be nice as well. I'm using WMP for my HTPC needs, but it absolutely sucked when it came to DVD playback, so I doubt I'll want to use it for blu ray playback. Oh and I also prefer for the drive to be available via Amazon, as I'm a Prime member and would like to get this ordered today with free 2 day shipping :)
 
Find a drive for $50 will be easy. You can find many for between $50-$60. Like this one http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008G9V60K/?tag=extension-kb-20.

Find it with playback software will be difficult. Most of them are around $80-$100 just for the software alone. I think was able to find a coupon for Totalmedia Theatre for like $70. I've used Totalmedia Theatre and PowerDVD and they work well and do a pretty good job of integrated with Windows Media Center. But you'll need to make sure you get the one with bluray playback I know PowerDVD has a $50 option that doesn't include bluray playback.

You can always use the trial of each one and see which one you like the best.

You can use VLC player or MPC-HC I think to play just the movie on the disc. But you won't be able to use any of the menus or extras on the disc. Thats atleast a free option.
 
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Thanks, that's the drive I was looking at earlier and likely the one I will buy. I was hoping there would be one with playback software that worked decently, but it looks like that's not the case. Anyone know of any other blu ray playback software that works really well but isn't so expensive?
 
Unfortunately I echo what's said already - blu ray disc playback (full menus wise), TMT and PDVD are your main options.

I'm not sure your exact goal, but after buying the drive and appropriate software, you'll be around the cost of a standalone bluray player that probably also has netflix and all the other streaming options w/out the hassle of the HTPC.

I have a bluray drive in my HTPC but use it simply to rip my blurays to MKV and playback via WMC; though I don't care for extras, menus, etc.
 
Well, I figured instead of hooking yet another device up (my PS3 still works for netflix, amazon video, DVD's and games) I'd just stick a blu ray drive in my HTPC since it's already hooked up and working. Seemed like it was a good idea, but if I have to pay more for a drive plus software, I'm not sure what is best...
 
Sucks but that's what it is...u could rip it but i guess you lose the menus and extras that route. I purchased tmt and have been pleased with it, I'm told it works with 3D blue rays too. I do wish the license allowed multiple installations though.

I think I saw a tutorial some time ago to mod vlc to play blue rays (or maybe it was XBMC?)
 
I picked up a well reviewed BD-ROM drive and installed it and purchased PowerDVD Pro 13. I didn't realize when I purchased that a 2.67Ghz CPU was required (my HTPC has a Q6600 running stock at 2.4Ghz). I put a mild overclock on the system to get it running without any problems at 2.7Ghz, but I get a lot of garbled video from time to time, like things are out of sync. It lasts from a few seconds to a minute or two. When it works, it works very well, but the video issues are driving me nuts. I can't afford to buy any new parts for the PC, plus I have tons of recorded TV content on it that's protected content that I would lose if I upgraded the PC. Is there anything I can do, or should I try to return the software and just pick up a cheap standalone blu ray player?
 
I have the same LG drive linked, and it works great for ripping. Much faster than my other drive (Pioneer 206BDK). It has gone up in price a bit though, I bought it 5/13/13 for 39.99 directly from Amazon.
 
DooLocsta said:
I had a problem with my PS3 doing the same thing and was able to order a new laser module off of eBay that was pretty simple to install. It was under $25 shipped to get it working again so you may want to go that route if you are not afraid of a little DIY teardown of the PS3.

Excellent step by step guide for replacement here http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repairing+PlayStation+3+BluRay+Laser/3557/1
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I might have to try that. So far adding the blu ray to my HTPC has been a bust. If I have time tomorrow I need to call tech support for PowerDVD to see if they can help me with the video corruption issues. Otherwise I'm asking for a refund.

Gronnie said:
I have the same LG drive linked, and it works great for ripping. Much faster than my other drive (Pioneer 206BDK). It has gone up in price a bit though, I bought it 5/13/13 for 39.99 directly from Amazon.
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That's what I paid for the drive from Newegg. The drive seems fine and I'm pretty sure that if I were using it in a more modern system, it would play my blu ray movies fine. I'm going to try to test that by putting it in my spare PC, which has a core i7 930 and see if the playback is smoother with that system. Of course, I'll still probably get a refund for the software, as I use the spare system for other things and I don't have the money to upgrade the HTPC. It seems like a smarter idea to upgrade the laser in my PS3 as the above poster suggested.
 
wtburnette said:
I picked up a well reviewed BD-ROM drive and installed it and purchased PowerDVD Pro 13. I didn't realize when I purchased that a 2.67Ghz CPU was required (my HTPC has a Q6600 running stock at 2.4Ghz). I put a mild overclock on the system to get it running without any problems at 2.7Ghz, but I get a lot of garbled video from time to time, like things are out of sync. It lasts from a few seconds to a minute or two. When it works, it works very well, but the video issues are driving me nuts. I can't afford to buy any new parts for the PC, plus I have tons of recorded TV content on it that's protected content that I would lose if I upgraded the PC. Is there anything I can do, or should I try to return the software and just pick up a cheap standalone blu ray player?
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I am running the same proc and have zero issues playing BluRays through PDVD.

But I have the video card doing hardware decoding, so maybe thats helping me.
 
This might be a stupid question, but what's deal with cinavia on PCs? One of the reasons I switched from using my PS3 to an HTPC for ripped movies was cinavia. If I add a Blu-ray drive and install playback software, am I going to have issues with cinavia coming up in XBMC during playback?

Also, I would think a Llano A6-3650 would handle Blu-ray playback fine, but it sounds like the clock speed isn't high enough for PowerDVD. Would I end up having to overclock this thing?
 
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The Lurker said:
I am running the same proc and have zero issues playing BluRays through PDVD.

But I have the video card doing hardware decoding, so maybe thats helping me.
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Is it the default setting for the video card to be doing the decoding, or does that have to be set? I might have to look into that. I'm using a 560 Ti, so I would think it would do a good job. You're using a Q6600 at stock settings?

Cmdrmonkey said:
This might be a stupid question, but what's deal with cinavia on PCs? One of the reasons I switched from using my PS3 to an HTPC for ripped movies was cinavia. If I add a Blu-ray drive and install playback software, am I going to have issues with cinavia coming up in XBMC during playback?

Also, I would think a Llano A6-3650 would handle Blu-ray playback fine, but it sounds like the clock speed isn't high enough for PowerDVD. Would I end up having to overclock this thing?
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Honestly I don't know what cinavia is, so I can't answer that question. I would hit the PowerDVD forums or call their tech support or sales line to ask about the CPU. I wish I'd paid better attention, but if others are running the software fine with the same CPU I have, I must be doing something wrong... :confused:

I think I may need to call their support and see if they can help.
 
From what I understand, Cinavia is a digital watermark on certain movies, meaning that the watermark is always there regardless if you've ripped the movie.

If you've ripped the movie to (say) mkv and are using a player that doesn't support Cinavia (like WMP, MPHC, etc), it's of zero importance.

If you were playing in official blu-ray playback software like TMT or PowerDVD, it would detect and stop playback at some point in the movie. If you backed up the movie to another blu-ray disk, it would also get detected; same goes for playing back ISO's. Newer Blu-ray players support this (they have to) so you'd get similar symptoms.

However, I think AnyDVD recently implemented a feature to circumvent Cinavia if mounting ISO's and playing back in TMT/PDVD/etc.

Short answer is if you don't use official blu-ray playback players, it's a non-issue.
 
I use LG drives as i have 2 computers with them and then i have a laptop wih Blu-Ray. my HTPC has Power DVD 11 but i have since started moving away from it as the other 2 run Corel WinDVD 11 as it was $49 and the key can be used on more then one computer.
 
wtburnette said:
Is it the default setting for the video card to be doing the decoding, or does that have to be set? I might have to look into that. I'm using a 560 Ti, so I would think it would do a good job. You're using a Q6600 at stock settings?
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I had to set the hardware decoding in Sharks Codecs, I believe. So I think that only applies to MKV playback. Otherwise both Win7 MCE and PDVD support PureVideo which is a hardware decoder built into Nvidia graphics cards. I assume they automatically leverage that feature since I did not set anything in either program to use it.

The card is a GT610 sitting in a PCIE 1X slot and the Q6600 is running stock.
 
When playing back you could always fire up gpuz or some other monitoring program to see if the gpu is getting taxed, if not then maybe look at setting the video card decode options.

FYI on the VLC bluray playback stuff I ran into a little trouble as it would randomly crash playback but only messed with it for a small bit and it was a while ago so probably that stuff is fixed. I would recommend getting a trial of the TMT as I have tried this out and its pretty baller.

I would also second the opinion to just try to fix your ps3 as for me it is a lot less hassle :)
Alternatively if you look on techbargains.com they have a sony bluray with smart apps for like 40 shipped right now :)
 
rhansen5_99 said:
FYI on the VLC bluray playback stuff I ran into a little trouble as it would randomly crash playback but only messed with it for a small bit and it was a while ago so probably that stuff is fixed. I would recommend getting a trial of the TMT as I have tried this out and its pretty baller.
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How are you playing it back with VLC? Last I knew it wouldn't do Blu-ray by itself as it can't decrypt the disk. I use AnyDVD HD to decrypt the DRM then VLC to play it. Only problems I get are sometimes the subtitle tracks don't show what language they are.
 
I wish there were more/better Blu-Ray playing options on the PC. Both PowerDVD and TMT are overpriced. There are tricks to make VLC and MPC-HT do it, but they're less than ideal and sometimes require other software like AnyDVD.
Beyond those - you're pretty much stuck having to rip things or go through a whole bunch of steps.
I wish someone made some good plug-ins for existing players and just charged 1/4 of what Cyberlink and Arcsoft want.
 
Domingo said:
I wish there were more/better Blu-Ray playing options on the PC. Both PowerDVD and TMT are overpriced. There are tricks to make VLC and MPC-HT do it, but they're less than ideal and sometimes require other software like AnyDVD.
Beyond those - you're pretty much stuck having to rip things or go through a whole bunch of steps.
I wish someone made some good plug-ins for existing players and just charged 1/4 of what Cyberlink and Arcsoft want.
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I imagine that the full supported Blu-Ray players have to pay license fees for HDCP and for Blu-Ray itself, so that itself will help to drive the cost up slightly beyond a normal "Paid" player.

Arcsoft Total Media Theatre is simply awesome, and they're having a sale all summer long (At least I think it's all summer long) for 50% off. There's a coupon code: TMTSUMP13

With the sale, it's an EXTREMELY reasonable price, and worth it for ANYONE who plays Blu-Ray discs on their HTPC's. I personally rip all my Blu-Ray's asap, but from time to time I play an unripped disc (I have a few old ones, that just REFUSE to rip, same with a bunch of my HD-DVD's - They playback fine using a player, but always have errors when ripping).
 
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