The First Ultra HD Blu-ray PC Drive Ships Next Month

Megalith

Megalith

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It’s about time. Funny enough, I own a 4K Blu-ray disc, but I don’t have a single player to watch it on. While there are a couple of standalone models available for home theater folks (I actually had my eye on Oppo's UDP-203), Pioneer looks to be the first out of the gate for those who want to enjoy 4K movies on their PC. You do, however, need Windows 10 and Kaby Lake for playback. While that prerequisite alone may serve as a turn off, my disinterest really lies with the fact that UHD hasn't been cracked yet—it seems that all I use my PC drives for these days is to back up my movie collection, but who knows when I will be able to do that for 4K discs.

The company announcement is about two models, the BDR-S11J-BK and BDR-S11J-X. They are very similar but the BDR-S11J-X appears to be targeted to audiophiles as Pioneer’s press release states the drive should offer better audio quality than its sibling. That should be due to improved protection against vibration. Pioneer claims it uses a method to make sure discs don’t vibrate which can also be found in high-end audio equipment. Also the case of the drive has been adjusted to make the drive more silent than it’s cheaper twin brother. Most interesting feature of both drives is obviously the playback of Ultra HD Blu-ray discs on the PC. In order to play Ultra HD Blu-ray discs, users are required to run Windows 10 on a PC with at least 6GB RAM and either a Core i5 or Core i7 of the Kaby Lake (7th) generation. The drives will use the integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 GPU of the Intel Core processors for Ultra HD Blu-ray content.
 
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I would buy an XBox One S before I would upgrade my computer just for this. Heck, ever since I moved my computer to a new case with 2 video cards installed, I have not even installed my Bluray disc drive back in.
 
Huh.

I didn't even realize that the 4k disks required special optical drives. I figured BluRay was BluRay, just with a different quality file on the disk.

You learn something ever day, I guess!
 
I dont even build machines with optical drives anymore. Bootable USB sticks replaced anything I needed them for.

Digital downloads and streaming has replaced all my media needs for a while now. I hate having physical crap when I can get a digital version.
 
Those system requirements tho....

Windows 10, that will sit well with people, if that is actually true, probably just BS but i dunno.
 
Been waiting on this for a while. Requires Kaby Lake, a bit of a bummer, wanted to add this to my sig rig but the 4k decryption stuff seems tied to Kaby for now. Will probably pick up one of the drives anyway.
 
Way to limit sales, Kabylake only.
Lucky I'm getting an Oppo 205 :p
Although I would have probably bought one if I could use it, moronic.
 
Darunion said:
Those system requirements tho....

Windows 10, that will sit well with people, if that is actually true, probably just BS but i dunno.
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It's the combination of Kaby Lake and Windows 10 needed for the decryption.
 
I *did* want one of these, but I'm not about to get a Kaby Lake processor. Until that requirement goes away (or Intel makes a new processor I actually want), I'll do without.
 
Jovian said:
I don't even build machines with optical drives anymore. Bootable USB sticks replaced anything I needed them for.
Click to expand...

I have stacks of CD-R's and DVD-R's from the old days. Hundreds of them. I've used them rarely for ISO's (PFSEnse, etc.).
 
Even if I have a Titan X and don't use the integrated graphics on the processor I still would need a Kaby Lake processor?
 
AceGoober said:
Even if I have a Titan X and don't use the integrated graphics on the processor I still would need a Kaby Lake processor?
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Yep.
The decryption algorithm/keys are encoded in the CPU and wont be released for software.
Not yet at least.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Huh.

I didn't even realize that the 4k disks required special optical drives. I figured BluRay was BluRay, just with a different quality file on the disk.

You learn something ever day, I guess!
Click to expand...

It's all the DRM shit baked into the hardware of the drive and everything else that makes it required. I initially thought the same and was amazed that there were no PC BD drives capable of reading UHD BD even though it's just a 3 layer disc and writable ones have been around for some time. There will probably soon be another AnyDVD HD that will fix this though. I can't believe this crap, BD and HDMI can hardly be called a standard since it keeps changing all the damn time.
 
I can't wait until it's cracked and then the Kaby requirement is dropped. It should happen in time, I can't see a ton of sales like this. Or, I'll just build the cheapest Kaby machine I can and use that for ripping. I use my BluRaydrive probably 7-10 times a week for backing up my BluRays. Media server's are the way to go for 90% of my media consumption now, can't wait until I can start streaming 4k. Pricing out a CPU and Mobo I should be able to build a machine for under $300, then the price of the drive, hopefully they break that encryption or release a software option in the next 6 months or so
 
Verge said:
http://www.whathifi.com/news/no-xbox-one-s-isnt-very-good-4k-blu-ray-player
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That article was barely relevant when it came out, and completely irrelevant nowadays.
Their only complaint (which somehow required an entire article - an article that never stated exactly why they found the xbox one s lacking, only another link for more advertising impressions), was PCM vs bitstreamed audio. Bitstreamed audio (including support for Dolby Atmos) was added in an update last year.
 
There is no magical/cheap 4K Blu-Ray solution. The best thing we can hope for is for Nvidia to push the fact that their cards can handle the DRM requirements without Kaby Lake. They certainly pointed that out last year, but ever since 4K content actually came to the PC (via Netflix first) they've been dead silent.
 
jeremyshaw said:
That article was barely relevant when it came out, and completely irrelevant nowadays.
Their only complaint (which somehow required an entire article - an article that never stated exactly why they found the xbox one s lacking, only another link for more advertising impressions), was PCM vs bitstreamed audio. Bitstreamed audio (including support for Dolby Atmos) was added in an update last year.
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What date was atmos support added exactly?
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Huh.

I didn't even realize that the 4k disks required special optical drives. I figured BluRay was BluRay, just with a different quality file on the disk.

You learn something ever day, I guess!
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That's not how we roll. We make you buy a new device even if technically the previous ones could work just as well.

But really it's how it was since forever. Make early adopters pay as much as humanly possible, and as sales diminish slowly make the technology cheaper. It the same old story. First DVD players were expensive as fuck, then they started throwing them at you for like $30. Same for bluray. Same will be true for UHD.
 
Domingo said:
There is no magical/cheap 4K Blu-Ray solution. The best thing we can hope for is for Nvidia to push the fact that their cards can handle the DRM requirements without Kaby Lake. They certainly pointed that out last year, but ever since 4K content actually came to the PC (via Netflix first) they've been dead silent.
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Intel paid for exclusivity i'm sure. Can you blame them though?

How many people honestly watch blu-ray PHYSICAL DISKS on their pc's. Honestly? Such a small market.
 
Nenu said:
Yep.
The decryption algorithm/keys are encoded in the CPU and wont be released for software.
Not yet at least.
Click to expand...
Again making legitimate customers life miserable. Every anti piracy measure they put on their product will only hurt actual customers. Maybe it's time to revise that strategy? I mean they were pushing this crap since the first DVDs, and it doesn't make a difference. It might prevent average you to rip the movie and watch it on his crappy iphone, but it doesn't prevent large scale privacy at all. It never did.
 
Makes more sense to just buy a dedicated player, methinks. Though I don't have a 4K display anyway, so it'd be a ways off for me.
 
What's the big deal with UHD anyway? I barely noticed a difference going from 480p on DVDs to 1080p on BluRay in movies. In games, I definitely see the difference, but not in movies. The frame rate (60hz, 120hz, 240hz) makes more of a difference in how the movie looks than UHD, and that's more of a function of the TV.
 
Verge said:
Intel paid for exclusivity i'm sure. Can you blame them though?

How many people honestly watch blu-ray PHYSICAL DISKS on their pc's. Honestly? Such a small market.
Click to expand...
Your second thought trumps the first. If it's such a small market why pay for exclusive rights for it? It's not what will drive sales then.
 
dgingeri said:
What's the big deal with UHD anyway? I barely noticed a difference going from 480p on DVDs to 1080p on BluRay in movies. In games, I definitely see the difference, but not in movies. The frame rate (60hz, 120hz, 240hz) makes more of a difference in how the movie looks than UHD, and that's more of a function of the TV.
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There is actually a huge difference between 480p and 1080p, if you watch it from an ideal distance. But I agree with the general idea. Instead of 4K the next step should've been 1080@60fps or even more.
 
Verge said:
Intel paid for exclusivity i'm sure. Can you blame them though?

How many people honestly watch blu-ray PHYSICAL DISKS on their pc's. Honestly? Such a small market.
Click to expand...

I would if i could figure out how to do it withou spending 100+€ on playback software.
 
Verge said:
Intel paid for exclusivity i'm sure. Can you blame them though?

How many people honestly watch blu-ray PHYSICAL DISKS on their pc's. Honestly? Such a small market.
Click to expand...

Without question...that's why I'd like to see them pipe up about it. People aren't going to run out and buy an entire new rig for this stuff, which is essentially what it requires. Someone's going to crack it and there will be a zillion MKV's floating around in 6 months anyway, but I'd actually rather be able to go about watching 4K content in a legitimate way.
 
dgingeri said:
What's the big deal with UHD anyway? I barely noticed a difference going from 480p on DVDs to 1080p on BluRay in movies. In games, I definitely see the difference, but not in movies. The frame rate (60hz, 120hz, 240hz) makes more of a difference in how the movie looks than UHD, and that's more of a function of the TV.
Click to expand...

Massive difference between 480p and 1080p, though far less between 720p and 1080p.

4k looks gorgeous in stores, but I doubt I'd notice the difference in my living room (although maybe I'm just bitter because I bought a 1080p TV two years ago and now they're selling 4k TVs for the same price that I paid).
 
hmm, nice to see a capable drive.

hope its not only a kaby lake thing though, otherwise its completely pointless for me. I'm probably one of the few that uses a pc to playback video, on my home theater. I've had a LG hd dvd/blu ray player since they came out, and been through a few versions of cyberlink playback software.
 
Why wouldn't we be able to use an AMD Rizon cpu in order to watch these new discs?
 
NeoNemesis said:
Massive difference between 480p and 1080p, though far less between 720p and 1080p.

4k looks gorgeous in stores, but I doubt I'd notice the difference in my living room (although maybe I'm just bitter because I bought a 1080p TV two years ago and now they're selling 4k TVs for the same price that I paid).
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I went from 1080 to a 4k in my living room, sit about 10ft away from a 50" and you can see a difference, i wouldnt say it is "OMG!!" but lets say you sit a few feet from it, then is where you see a big difference. Only reason I made the jump was I got that 50" vizio for $320 shipped a couple months ago and couldnt let that slide by.
 
Verge said:
Intel paid for exclusivity i'm sure. Can you blame them though?

How many people honestly watch blu-ray PHYSICAL DISKS on their pc's. Honestly? Such a small market.
Click to expand...


Is it really "Kaby Lake Exclusivity" or is it more like "at least a Kaby Lake IGP will be required to decode UHD 4k content?"
 
article said:
That should be due to improved protection against vibration. Pioneer claims it uses a method to make sure discs don’t vibrate which can also be found in high-end audio equipment. Also the case of the drive has been adjusted to make the drive more silent than it’s cheaper twin brother.
Click to expand...

This is a huge WTF! First off it's digital. It doesn't suffer from Wow and Flutter like old vinyl. And dithering (which is variance of the read rate) has been long solved by use of a buffer which spits out data at a constant rate. Readback rate was never constant in the first place as data rate increased on the outer tracks. DUR!
 
Darunion said:
I went from 1080 to a 4k in my living room, sit about 10ft away from a 50" and you can see a difference, i wouldnt say it is "OMG!!" but lets say you sit a few feet from it, then is where you see a big difference. Only reason I made the jump was I got that 50" vizio for $320 shipped a couple months ago and couldnt let that slide by.
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At 10 feet and 50", your eye does not have the arc resolution necessary to determine a difference. (Unless you have better than 20/20) Sorry...
 
ZodaEX said:
Obvious fact is obvious
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Ya, okay, I guess I should have expanded on my point:

480p -> 1080p is great
720p -> 1080p okay
1080p -> 4k not really worth it

Keep in mind, I'm not saying there's no difference, what I'm just saying that the leap from 480p to 720p was tremendous, and everything that's come after has been sort of 'meh'.

*with TV of course, I'm not talking about gaming
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Is it really "Kaby Lake Exclusivity" or is it more like "at least a Kaby Lake IGP will be required to decode UHD 4k content?"
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It will be Kabylake or newer, not an exclusive.
I can see that some chips probably wont have it.
Not heard from the AMD side yet.
 
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