Blu-Ray Playback w/8300 IGP = No-go

That is a pretty odd form-factor. I think my Alienware laptop is the only PC I've ever owned with an extra slot for one of those cards...

Wait... I have a Dell Hybrid PC that has a blu-ray decoder built-in. That must be what they're used for that. Maybe I should open it up and have a look.

King of Heroes said:
The Broadcom Crystal HD decoder is basically that. Its pretty cheap too:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816321016

The only drawback is that it uses Mini PCI-Express, you'd need to use an adapter to use it inside a PC unless your motherboard has one. A company called HWTools sells them.

http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter.html

http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/MP1.html
Click to expand...
 
Flapjack said:
That is a pretty odd form-factor. I think my Alienware laptop is the only PC I've ever owned with an extra slot for one of those cards...

Wait... I have a Dell Hybrid PC that has a blu-ray decoder built-in. That must be what they're used for that. Maybe I should open it up and have a look.
Click to expand...

A few Atom netbooks used it, the Dell Mini 10, HP Mini 110, and ASUS Eee PC 1005PR jump to mind. I'm pretty sure there were more. Silent PC Review did a nice review on it (they use a different brand name though):

http://www.silentpcreview.com/LogicSupply_BCM970012_HD_video_decoder

They compare it to the Ion chipset, which may be relevant to you.
 
Ok, I've pretty much officially given up. I cannot get a BD movie to play. I've tried three different sets of drivers, AnyDVD, PowerDVD, and TotalMedia.

Someone mentioned 5450 card. How hard is it to run non-IGP video and still get the onboard sound to piggyback on the HDMI cable going to the receiver??

Oh, and the DRM shit... I'm a little pissed. Of course, I can use AnyDVD for a bunch of stuff, but this was most definitely NOT a DRM issue, despite the multiple comments that it was. I appreciate all the suggestions, but the comment that it was "obviously" a DRM issue was unfounded.

So what to do before I throw this freaking PC out of a moving vehicle?
 
Flapjack said:
So what to do before I throw this freaking PC out of a moving vehicle?
Click to expand...

If all you want to do is watch retail Blu-ray movies, then you might be better off just getting a Blu-ray player. They should be cheap enough if you look around. If you want to do more, you might try getting a cheap, modern video card. It could be that the 8300 is too old and not recognized by the software?

The Radeon 5450 or the 5570 might be good choices. Anandtech did reviews on both those cards:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2931 - 5450
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2935 - 5570
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3601/the-final-word-on-the-best-radeon-htpc-card

The 3rd article is pretty important because it retests the cards using updated drivers, which resulted in better performance.

Someone mentioned 5450 card. How hard is it to run non-IGP video and still get the onboard sound to piggyback on the HDMI cable going to the receiver??
Click to expand...

The Radeon cards have a built Realtek audio chip, so you don't really need to do anything other than selecting it as your default playback device after installing the card.

If you go Nvidia, you need to run the S/PDIF output of your onboard or discrete sound card to the graphics card using a cable. This shouldn't be difficult either.
 
King of Heroes said:
If you go Nvidia, you need to run the S/PDIF output of your onboard or discrete sound card to the graphics card using a cable. This shouldn't be difficult either.
Click to expand...

lower range nVidia 2xx/4xx chips have an onboard soundchip, too. Though I have seen nobody recommend it, and I won't recommend it without some experience with it, first.


At any rate, I put my lot in with the HD5450.

ATi cards since the HD2000 series have an onboard RealTek sound chip, so they can easily pass audio over HDMI, wihout needing anything but the card.
 
King of Heroes said:
The Broadcom Crystal HD decoder is basically that. Its pretty cheap too:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816321016

The only drawback is that it uses Mini PCI-Express, you'd need to use an adapter to use it inside a PC unless your motherboard has one. A company called HWTools sells them.

http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter.html

http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/MP1.html
Click to expand...
EDIT: so wrong, it's not even funny.


Other drawback is that they only work with Windows Media Player and Flash... :(

No MPC-HC, no VLC, no BD software player, either!!
 
Last edited:
jeremyshaw said:
Other drawback is that they only work with Windows Media Player and Flash... :(

No MPC-HC, no VLC, no BD software player, either!!
Click to expand...

Really? Because the drivers page says it does:

http://www.broadcom.com/support/crystal_hd/

Applications currently supported include Windows Media Player 12, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, ArcSoft TotalMedia™ Theatre (OEM edition) and CyberLink PowerDVD (OEM edition). Please check back for additional application support.
Click to expand...

Other applications known to work include GOMplayer, Kmplayer and Media Player Classic (including Home Cinema Edition).
Click to expand...

Well, regardless, getting a 5450 or 5570 would probably be easier since there's no adapter BS involved.
 
Damn. Had to cancel the order. That card only has a displayport. WTF? Why would any video card today NOT have an HDMI port??
 
I didn't feel like messing with it. Since my case is well ventilated, I decided to go with the HIS 5570 fanless card. Good reviews and quiet. I ordered it off Amazon using Prime, so I should have it by Saturday.
 
jeremyshaw said:
Ah :( I must of been reading an early review? I dunno, teaches me about trusting youtube reviews.
Click to expand...
The drivers are still really buggy and just barely support apps other then WMP, TMT so you're still right in not recommending the broadcom card.
 
Man... it just never ends. I went to install the 5570 and realized that my RocketRAID 2314 controller is using the PCI x16 slot. This is unreal...
 
Flapjack said:
Man... it just never ends. I went to install the 5570 and realized that my RocketRAID 2314 controller is using the PCI x16 slot. This is unreal...
Click to expand...

Does your mobo have a PCIe1/PCIe4 slot with some clearance near the back, and do you have a willingness to mod your mobo?

Or do you have ANY spare PCIe slot, and are willing to buy a riser? If you have a low profile GPU, then a riser will make the LP braket *just* fit :)
 
If you have a full height slot, then:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150469
http://cgi.ebay.com/PCI-Express-PCI..._EN_Networking_Components&hash=item255a558fb3

and cut off the back "block" on the PCIe riser.

It will work perfectly for bluray. Unless if you need some postprocessing effect tath is GPU only, in which case, you are in trouble (only one I use is 1080i-->1080p vector adaptive deinterlacing, but that is because I have OTA content. BluRay shouldn't have this problem).
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Flapjack said:
Man... it just never ends. I went to install the 5570 and realized that my RocketRAID 2314 controller is using the PCI x16 slot. This is unreal...
Click to expand...

Well, since the RAID card is external only, you won't be losing any critical functionality of the HTPC if you remove it. You could remove it just to test the ATi card and verify that it fixes your issue.

Other than that, I would recommend a full system reload and the nForce drivers. (Maybe pop in a spare HDD and do a clean OS install..? Though running DriverSweeper in safe mode should yield the same result)

Do you not have a media server to store all your media? They're well worth it, and they don't usually require much horsepower. :cool:
How many external HDD's do you have connected to your HTPC?
 
Last edited:
danman said:
Try Total Media theater.
Click to expand...


I would agree with Danman totally here. I have had a bitch of a time working with PowerDVD for Blu-Rays. Total Media Theater was just much easier to use. That being said, if it is something in the hardware that requires a certain processor to use the Hyperlink Transport at it fastest speed, then you are kinda screwed.

Or an even easier albit more costly answer is to pick up something like an AMD 4550 or 5450 to play your Blu-Ray's with. At least that way you know it would work and not add noise.
 
jeremyshaw said:
If you have a full height slot, then:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150469
http://cgi.ebay.com/PCI-Express-PCI..._EN_Networking_Components&hash=item255a558fb3

and cut off the back "block" on the PCIe riser.

It will work perfectly for bluray. Unless if you need some postprocessing effect tath is GPU only, in which case, you are in trouble (only one I use is 1080i-->1080p vector adaptive deinterlacing, but that is because I have OTA content. BluRay shouldn't have this problem).
Click to expand...
Creative thinking... but it seems a bit convuluted, in my opinion. I'd rather swap out the motherboard (which I'm not a huge fan of anyways). Nvidia is starting to piss me off anyway.

lord_farfig said:
Well, since the RAID card is external only, you won't be losing any critical functionality of the HTPC if you remove it. You could remove it just to test the ATi card and verify that it fixes your issue.
Click to expand...
The RAID card is what my NAS RAID5 array is connected to. It was an absolutely nightmare to set up the web interface to access the RAID management console, I'm sure unplugging it would send me right back down that route. If I'm gonna go through that again, I might as well swap mobos, have two PCI x16 slots, and get rid of nvidia all in one fell swoop....

Other than that, I would recommend a full system reload and the nForce drivers. (Maybe pop in a spare HDD and do a clean OS install..? Though running DriverSweeper in safe mode should yield the same result)
Click to expand...
Already did that, with a spare drive (great minds think alike). Same exact error message.

Do you not have a media server to store all your media? They're well worth it, and they don't usually require much horsepower. :cool:
How many external HDD's do you have connected to your HTPC?
Click to expand...
My HTPC is my media server. The enclosure is a Rosewill 5-bay port-replicated enclosure with five 2TB drives in a RAID5 array. In my opion, most media servers suck. The throughput I get with the RR2314 PCI x4 card and the Rosewill enclosure (even CPU-assisted) is much better than I see with the assorted media servers I've played with. In addition, I've never seen one hold 10TB of drives. That is the one thing that works good... media player. The only problem I have is with BluRay discs.

Ravenor said:
I would agree with Danman totally here. I have had a bitch of a time working with PowerDVD for Blu-Rays. Total Media Theater was just much easier to use. That being said, if it is something in the hardware that requires a certain processor to use the Hyperlink Transport at it fastest speed, then you are kinda screwed.
Click to expand...
I have tried TotalMedia. I like it (for DVDs), but it still won't play BDs. It gives a very similar error... something like not being able to build a decoding layer (the error is linked in a picture above somewhere).

Or an even easier albit more costly answer is to pick up something like an AMD 4550 or 5450 to play your Blu-Ray's with. At least that way you know it would work and not add noise.
Click to expand...
If you read a few posts above, I did get an ATI card (5570). I couldn't install it because I'm already using the PCI x16 slot for my PCI x4 RAID card. So I have a new motherboard coming in today, which has two PCI slots. Hopefully this madness ends tonight.
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Flapjack said:
Wow. I would've never found that. What an oddball way to do things. No wonder I'm an ATI fan.

I will try that tonight. That would be awesome if it did the trick.
Click to expand...

For what it’s worth I have a similar issue. I too am using an LG BR player recorder by LG and it’s just about two and a half years old.

LG does not make contacting their CS department easy and I found a working number on a third party site.

Long story short, there is a cutoff point where they could be won't be providing any further firmware updates to cover Windows-7, PERIOD.

I did install VISTA on another machine and the drive worked fine with Power DVD OEM but there is no program that will allow my drive to work as a BD drive under Win-7. I can play standard DVDs no problem and I can record CD and play CD and do everything a normal CD would do, but on WIN-7…No Blu Ray.

LG’s attitude is very simple, “buy a new drive”.
 
BillR said:
For what it’s worth I have a similar issue. I too am using an LG BR player recorder by LG and it’s just about two and a half years old.

LG does not make contacting their CS department easy and I found a working number on a third party site.

Long story short, there is a cutoff point where they could be won't be providing any further firmware updates to cover Windows-7, PERIOD.

I did install VISTA on another machine and the drive worked fine with Power DVD OEM but there is no program that will allow my drive to work as a BD drive under Win-7. I can play standard DVDs no problem and I can record CD and play CD and do everything a normal CD would do, but on WIN-7…No Blu Ray.

LG’s attitude is very simple, “buy a new drive”.
Click to expand...
Really? Can you at least see the BD file structure when you browse the disc? So all this hassle could be due to the drive, not the video card/video drivers/software??

I actually bought this drive because it read both HD and BD. It was actually pretty hard to find as it was no longer being made. So that would make a lot of sense, regarding the firmware.

I guess we'll see after I put the new motherboard in...
 
My old 2007 era LG doesn't play Blurays via the useless Cyberlink software, but AnyDVDHD can still get them, if need be.
 
Flapjack said:
Really? Can you at least see the BD file structure when you browse the disc? So all this hassle could be due to the drive, not the video card/video drivers/software??

I actually bought this drive because it read both HD and BD. It was actually pretty hard to find as it was no longer being made. So that would make a lot of sense, regarding the firmware.

I guess we'll see after I put the new motherboard in...
Click to expand...

Your drive is about the same era as mine, built around 2008 from what I can see so I don’t think it’s a stretch to think it might be the same issue.

1-800-243-0000 to contact LG.
 
jeremyshaw said:
My old 2007 era LG doesn't play Blurays via the useless Cyberlink software, but AnyDVDHD can still get them, if need be.
Click to expand...
So if I'm using AnyDVD together with Cyberlink (or TotalMedia), and it's still not playing, could it still be a driver issue? AnyDVD doesn't fix the problem.... so it sounds like decryption should happen on the drive?

BillR said:
Your drive is about the same era as mine, built around 2008 from what I can see so I don’t think it’s a stretch to think it might be the same issue.

1-800-243-0000 to contact LG.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the number. I'll be sure to call the assholes. I have an LG fridge, washer, drier, etc... If this is the kind of crap they're going to pull, I just won't buy their stuff any more.
 
AnyDVDHD is a ripping software, to put it lightly. I dunno if it's legal, but I see it discussed a lot...
 
jeremyshaw said:
AnyDVDHD is a ripping software, to put it lightly. I dunno if it's legal, but I see it discussed a lot...
Click to expand...
So you're saying using AnyDVD alone to rip the movie, bypassing PowerDVD/TotalMedia altogether?

It's been a long time since I actually used AnyDVD. It was back in the DVD days. All it did was strip the encryption and copyright protection so you could use another program like CloneDVD.
 
Yeah, now it's anydvdhd, and you can then remux it, then use MPC-HC or something to play it. Or
 
Flapjack said:
So if I'm using AnyDVD together with Cyberlink (or TotalMedia), and it's still not playing, could it still be a driver issue? AnyDVD doesn't fix the problem.... so it sounds like decryption should happen on the drive?


Thanks for the number. I'll be sure to call the assholes. I have an LG fridge, washer, drier, etc... If this is the kind of crap they're going to pull, I just won't buy their stuff any more.
Click to expand...

Open device manager, open properties on your DVD drive. Click on driver. If the driver is Microsoft it’s the drive, not your machine.

And yes, I can read the DVD structure and Cyberlink wants to play the DVD but after a few stutters it just craps out and closes in Win-7.

My favorite part of yesterday’s conversation with the supervising tech…”We ignore complaints we see on the net and read in the forums”. “What do you expect from an almost three year old player?”
 
BillR said:
Open device manager, open properties on your DVD drive. Click on driver. If the driver is Microsoft it’s the drive, not your machine.

And yes, I can read the DVD structure and Cyberlink wants to play the DVD but after a few stutters it just craps out and closes in Win-7.

My favorite part of yesterday’s conversation with the supervising tech…”We ignore complaints we see on the net and read in the forums”. “What do you expect from an almost three year old player?”
Click to expand...
Weird. I've never seen a "driver" on an optical drive that wasn't MS. I did download the YS05 firmware, but it won't take. When I run it (and I've tried all the compatibility mode crap), it says "no drive found", so obviously, I can't update it.

Still, that's firmware. You're talking about a driver. Where in the world do you get a driver for a optical drive? Like I said... I've never seen one in my life.
 
Flapjack said:
Weird. I've never seen a "driver" on an optical drive that wasn't MS. I did download the YS05 firmware, but it won't take. When I run it (and I've tried all the compatibility mode crap), it says "no drive found", so obviously, I can't update it.

Still, that's firmware. You're talking about a driver. Where in the world do you get a driver for a optical drive? Like I said... I've never seen one in my life.
Click to expand...

The YSO5 is the last firmware available for my drive (2009 is when it was released). The driver comes from the software (Cyberlink they tell me) you use for playback.

The YSO5 firmware has a known issue with WIN-7.

Google your drive with WIN-7, it’s a very common problem. Or feel free to roll back to Vista or XP lol.

LG’s attitude did me in. It’s a damn firmware update, how hard can that be? Even worse I have a three year old LG CD burner that just had a recent update. Honestly I’m just tired of their BS.
 
It's just probably is something that they haven't figured out. I had similar with a LG DVD burner with Lightscribe. on 64-bit systems it will burn one lightscribe image before it errors out and won't recognize that the disc is a valid lightscribe disc but a reboot fixes it. It's the same way, recognized on forums but not by LG and I eventually just purchased a Samsung burner that works fine.

As for my Blu-Ray drive I have an LG H20L that I've had for a couple of years that runs fine in 7. I had one disc that refused to play that I thought was a problem with PowerDVD 7.3 but after dumping it for TMT when I upgraded to 7 I now realize that it's likely is just a bad disc.
 
Ryokurin said:
It's just probably is something that they haven't figured out. I had similar with a LG DVD burner with Lightscribe. on 64-bit systems it will burn one lightscribe image before it errors out and won't recognize that the disc is a valid lightscribe disc but a reboot fixes it. It's the same way, recognized on forums but not by LG and I eventually just purchased a Samsung burner that works fine.

As for my Blu-Ray drive I have an LG H20L that I've had for a couple of years that runs fine in 7. I had one disc that refused to play that I thought was a problem with PowerDVD 7.3 but after dumping it for TMT when I upgraded to 7 I now realize that it's likely is just a bad disc.
Click to expand...

Strange…Do you have a later firmware update later than the YS-05? I ask only because the LG GGW-H20L has a bunch of known issues with Win 7, especially 64.

If you Google that model and Win 7 you will get an unbelievable number of hits, mostly about yes, it plays DVD, cd, reads, writes etc. but won’t play Blu Ray from any program.

Even LG at their highest level admits it won’t work and a firmware update is needed and they aren’t going to write one. Their answer was “buy a new drive, they are cheaper”

I’m not doubting you in the least so, what are you doing differently and that’s with a big PLEASE lol.
 
The exact model number is GBC-H20L, firmware 1.B.0 so it's only Blu-Ray I just looked to see if there was a firmware update but I didn't find one in a quick search. If this drive also have issues, I may be avoiding them since the htpc is still 32-bit.
 
Ryokurin said:
The exact model number is GBC-H20L, firmware 1.B.0 so it's only Blu-Ray I just looked to see if there was a firmware update but I didn't find one in a quick search. If this drive also have issues, I may be avoiding them since the htpc is still 32-bit.
Click to expand...

Well, ok. That’s a totally different drive from the one the OP has or mine. I don’t think it’s a disk issue; it’s a drive(s) issue.
 
So what drive would you guys recommend instead? I got the LG GGW-H20L because it reads HD-DVDs, too. I take it there are no more dual HD/BD drives anymore...

I know there is a site out there with firmware to change regular BD drives to read both, but they usually end up using at least a portion of the GGW-H20L firmware to do so, if I remember it right...
 
Flapjack said:
So what drive would you guys recommend instead? I got the LG GGW-H20L because it reads HD-DVDs, too. I take it there are no more dual HD/BD drives anymore...

I know there is a site out there with firmware to change regular BD drives to read both, but they usually end up using at least a portion of the GGW-H20L firmware to do so, if I remember it right...
Click to expand...

I was giving some serious thought to installing the windows-7 XP virtual machine pack to see if the drive and software would run under that set up.
 
Flapjack said:
I got the 8300 because the video and sound could be output over one HDMI cable to my receiver. At the time, it seemed getting a standalone video card working with the sound going to the receiver over the same cable would be a pain in the ass.


I Have a 5450 1Gig DDR3 and it's not problem to change Audio from my AuzenTech Xplosion sound card to the on-board audio on the vid-card and back again. You just go into the sound device manager and switch which card you want to be the default audio device. It's easy.
Click to expand...
 
BillR said:
Strange…Do you have a later firmware update later than the YS-05? I ask only because the LG GGW-H20L has a bunch of known issues with Win 7, especially 64.

If you Google that model and Win 7 you will get an unbelievable number of hits, mostly about yes, it plays DVD, cd, reads, writes etc. but won’t play Blu Ray from any program.

Even LG at their highest level admits it won’t work and a firmware update is needed and they aren’t going to write one. Their answer was “buy a new drive, they are cheaper”

I’m not doubting you in the least so, what are you doing differently and that’s with a big PLEASE lol.
Click to expand...

Flapjack said:
So what drive would you guys recommend instead? I got the LG GGW-H20L because it reads HD-DVDs, too. I take it there are no more dual HD/BD drives anymore...

I know there is a site out there with firmware to change regular BD drives to read both, but they usually end up using at least a portion of the GGW-H20L firmware to do so, if I remember it right...
Click to expand...

I have that LG drive and it works in both my HTPC and main rig with Windows 7 64bit with Power DVD 7, 8, and 9.
I just moved the LG to my main rig last week and yesterday tested the new Avatar Special Edition and it played fine, also tested The Rocky Horror Picture Show 35th Anniversary BD too.

EDIT, I have a different drive, just checked and I have the GGC-H20L
 
BillR said:
I was giving some serious thought to installing the windows-7 XP virtual machine pack to see if the drive and software would run under that set up.
Click to expand...
I've done the same. I haven't installed the new motherboard yet. I may just do an XP VM before I do.

Ravenor said:
I Have a 5450 1Gig DDR3 and it's not problem to change Audio from my AuzenTech Xplosion sound card to the on-board audio on the vid-card and back again. You just go into the sound device manager and switch which card you want to be the default audio device. It's easy.
Click to expand...
That easy? So it automatically knows to route through the video card's HMDI port?

Zepher said:
I have that LG drive and it works in both my HTPC and main rig with Windows 7 64bit with Power DVD 7, 8, and 9.
I just moved the LG to my main rig last week and yesterday tested the new Avatar Special Edition and it played fine, also tested The Rocky Horror Picture Show 35th Anniversary BD too.

EDIT, I have a different drive, just checked and I have the GGC-H20L
Click to expand...
I checked Google Shoping for that drive. It's still sold (for $170... ouch!), but it plays BD and HD. Have you gotten HD to work??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top