Blu-Ray Players

May 15, 2009 9:25 AM

I'm looking to get into Blu-Ray movies and have long fantasized about the PS3(or comparable BR player) but I see that I can get a BR drive for my PC for less than a third of the PS3's price. I have a pretty good PC and a 1080p monitor. Would I be missing out on any BR features or losing image/sound quality going with the drive?

I'm not yet sure what brand of drive I would go with, but it seems I can get LG and Sony for a decent price.

posted by aldurtregi to computers & internet (14 comments total)

You'll be fine. You'll just be missing out on all the other features of the PS3. If you're a PC gamer though, then you're probably not that concerned about that.
posted by purephase at 9:31 AM on May 15

If it's JUST for blu-ray, and you have no interest in games, then I'd skip the PS3, and, depending on your sound setup for your TV vs your PC, go with whichever you can afford that you think you would use more. That being said, I love my PS3, and it's a great blu-ray player, as well as a great gaming system. But if games are of no interest for you, it's probably not worth the extra price.
posted by Grither at 9:33 AM on May 15

The cheaper drives might not come with Blu-ray playback software, and if they do, it might be feature-limited - I know the copy of PowerDVD that came with my LG HD-DVD/Blu-ray drive only supports 2-channel audio, and not full 5.1. I can pay to upgrade it, but it's not especially cheap.

Also, you either need to make sure that your OS, video card and monitor all support HDCP - or connect your monitor via an analog connector. If you use a non-HDCP compliant digital connection, the video will be downsampled to SD-quality for copy-protection purposes. (I think AnyDVD HD *might* get around this, but I'm not entirely sure.)

Other than that, I don't think there are any other significant features you'd be missing.
posted by agentmunroe at 9:36 AM on May 15

Another person w/PS3, ditto on what Grither says.
posted by dubitable at 9:36 AM on May 15

From what I've understood (I don't know about late model BR drives) is that some BR drives are equipped with the 1.1 (or .2, or whatever) firmware that allows you to access some of the excessive online stuff that is sometimes tossed into BR discs. The PS3 has that firmware, (isn't it called Blue-ray live or somesuch?) native.

Aside from Blue-ray, the PS3 is also pretty good as a media center. I've got an NAS drive hooked up to my wifi router, and the PS3 can play music, show pictures, and most of my video files (but not all). I may be wrong, but it seems that in addition to upscaling regular dvds, it also works on video files that might otherwise look like crap on an HDtv.

All of that, and, well, you've got gaming functionality to boot. Or, well, you've got another entertainment center lump of plastic dedicated to doing one thing, and one thing only. Maybe some people are into that. Personally, I'd like to have as few things cluttering up the tv stand as possible.
posted by Ghidorah at 9:39 AM on May 15

How capable is your PC? 1080p decode is pretty intensive unless you have a video card and appropriate software support to offload to the GPU.
posted by Good Brain at 9:45 AM on May 15

For Blu-Ray on the PC, make sure that:

* The graphics card is HDCP compliant
* The monitor is HDCP compliant

In particular, you want the output you're going to use on the card (i.e. the DVI port, the HDMI port) and the input on the monitor to be HDCP compliant, not just the units themselves.

Also, how big is this PC monitor? You won't really see the benefits of Blu-Ray over DVD on a <20in screen....
posted by Sifter at 10:06 AM on May 15

Thanks for the answers.
I already have an Xbox360 for my games as well as my PC, which is a midrange dual-core with a Geforce 8800 graphics card running on Vista and my monitor is HDCP compliant, so it seems to be covered on that front.
I don't have a TV; everything is connected to my monitor and so would the hypothetical PS3 be. The monitor is only 24" so it's not like I'm watching the movies on a gigantic screen, but technolust doesn't always listen to common sense.
posted by aldurtregi at 10:14 AM on May 15

The three major software players have free downloadable utilities that will check your hardware to make sure it can play back BD.

Having said that, I'd go with the PS3 over software players. The PS3 is the de facto reference platform for BD authoring houses. Future discs will have fewer and less annoying compatibility issues with the PS3 than with any other player. Having a remote control that can be easily replaced is really cool too.
posted by infinitewindow at 10:16 AM on May 15

@grither: BD Live has to do with the software, not the drive firmware, and yes, PowerDVD supports it.

As for differences, there won't be any with playback or quality. You may run into issues if you want to listen to the DTS-MA or TrueHD tracks as they can only be played back over HDMI (and not DVI)
posted by wongcorgi at 10:24 AM on May 15

Personally - I went this route about 1.5 years ago with a media center PC and a cheapish (150) BluRay drive.

So... it is a nightmare getting the wife/kids launching the software, ensuring the resolution is changed (because normally we run it at a lower res, so that text is readable from the couch)... If you stick a regular DVD or CD into the drive, it takes about 5 minutes to read it and is locked while doing so...

Got a PS3 for Christmas - much better experience, plus ... LittleBigPlanet...
posted by jkaczor at 11:03 AM on May 15

Just reinforcing some comments above, the Blu Ray player software will run you as much or more than the player drive, so you're looking at ~$160 total. The only added benefit of the PS3 would be the ability to play games. All the other features (you can install Linux on it! you can play music on it!) are already part of your existing PC.

Generally I would recommend a standalone player, but because you have such a small monitor (for Hi-Def video purposes, compared to say, a 50" plasma) and this is also the same monitor you use for your computer, it doesn't really make sense to spend $200 more on an additional box that doesn't really add any function. Judging by your setup I doubt you will need to worry about any of the advanced sound formats, like 7.1 audio, True HD, etc.

If you're watching from across the room, on a 24" monitor you'll be hard pressed to tell the difference between Blu Ray and DVD (although DVDs are more likely to have crappy transfers). If you're sitting right in front of the monitor like you would while using it for computing, the difference will be quite noticeable.
posted by hamsterdam at 11:22 AM on May 15

I keep hearing rumors about a new version of the PS3 being released soon. You might as well wait until that comes out and re-evaluate when you have new PS3 prices.
posted by valadil at 11:45 AM on May 15

I have a PS3 (and a computer) both attached to a 37" LCD monitor/TV. While I do not have a bluray drive for the PC, I can attest that the PS3 is radical for Bluray playback. One of the better features that you might consider, which is also available on some stand-alone players, is that Sony often upgrades the firmware, improving playback and adding features. Also, for $20 or so you can get a bluetooth remote for the PS3 which I like a lot.

Also, one thing I really like is the ability to stream content from the PC to the PS3 using Windows standard software (Windows Media Player/Windows Media Center). I know this wouldn't be much of a factor for you now, but in a couple years you might like it if you spread out into more rooms and across more monitors/TVs.

Another thing to consider is that if your PC isn't pushing a high-throughput out (DVI, HDMI) you aren't going to get a true HD signal to your monitor. To be honest I still watch a lot of stuff on my TV via PC using VGA and it still looks better than most 'HD' TV channels from Cox. (I have HDMI running from the PC as well as VGA for picture-in-picture...great for gaming.) If you decide on a stand alone player you need to make sure your monitor will support it. I remember reading some players having issues with monitors that employee older DVI standards. If your monitor has an HDMI in this might no be the case? Definitely look into it before spending money.

I'll disagree with a couple of Hamserdam's points in that you'll notice a difference between HD and SD signals regardless of monitor size at any viewing depth. The difference in size regarding HD comes into play when you are making the choice between 720i/p and 1080i/p. For anything under 40" or so your eye isn't really sensitive enough to see the extra lines of horizontal resolution. Also, the PS3 can play music from its internal HD, a thumb drive, or a machine on your LAN without installing Linux.
posted by Gainesvillain at 1:14 PM on May 15