What Bluray Player Software? It's time.

[BurnerHEAD]

hi guys!

I'm proud to get a Bluray drive in the following days and to be able to join the HD-experience.

I'm planning to use my PC as a player for my new 42" Plasma TV.

The final question that pops up in my head is what Player-Software do I use?
Do you have any favorites?

Currently available:
- PowerDVD 8 Ultra
- WinDVD 9 Plus Bluray
- Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre

The Product that stands out in best using the GPU Power is TotalMedia Theatre, as the average CPU usage is about 15%. Maximum of 25% at special Bluray. Second is WinDVD with average of 40%. Maximum of 60%.
PowerDVD 8 is average 60%. Maximum is 100%.
The only Product that can do a Video-DVD 1080p Upscaling is WinDVD 9 Plus Bluray.
The only Product to play a BD-Folder from the harddrive is Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre.

Thank you for any tips or help! Please correct the information above if incorrect. They are based on a test of Mai 2008.

Best Regards,
John

And the final Question:
Which Product works best with AnyDVD HD?

Rock the vote. Decide what Product you like best.

[Adbear]

Well to start with it's in the wrong forum, should be in third party software.
Secondly you may want to add in PDVD 7.3 as that's what a lot of us are still using as it gives better results than 8
My main system never goes above around 7% cpu usage when playing back Blu-ray in PowerDVD, TMT crashes anything I try to use it on and WinDVD uses more CPU and not as good a picture. I've even just tried PowerDVD on an old system 478pin single core P4 3.2ghz using an ATI 3650AGP card and CPU usage levelled out around 55%

[Bigrick]

im on the same boat 7.3 is way more user friendly then 8 of powerdvd but i do like the reloaded pack for 8 its very simple to use and it gives HDDVD playback as well but myself i use both on one system i use 7 and another 8

[fast eddie]

You should also start a poll on what do you use to play back your hi def movies.

software player or hardware player

With the blank media starting to drop in price, and next year you will really see a price drop in Blu-ray media, hardward players are going to be really competative with the software players, especially now that you can burn to blank DVD-5 and DVD-9 disks. And with hardware players no hassel with graphics cards or problems with software player companies not being able to play from the hard drive.

:agree:

[Adbear]

Well I already have a PS3 and if I wanted to I could get a settop player in the UK for £150. And have just found a site that is selling blank printable SL BD-r's for £1.99 ex-vat and carriage

[Bigrick]

Well I already have a PS3 and if I wanted to I could get a settop player in the UK for £150. And have just found a site that is selling blank printable SL BD-r's for £1.99 ex-vat and carriage

do you know how much that is in $ for the media?

[Adbear]

around $3-4

[Ocky88]

before you hook your PC up to your plasma you might want to research screen burn, Plasma's are by fair great tvs for viewing and watching tv on but when hooked to consoles and pcs screen burn could be a risk. I had a friend that his plasma was ruined bye a screen saver from off his pc when it was hooked up.

[BDMinus]

You didn't include "other" in the poll. If I had blu-ray i'd probably skip all the nonsense and make an mkv file and play it with mpc-hc. eac3to is supposed to work great for that, even reencoding the audio to flac for lossless sound. blu-ray players dream of electric sheep (or foxes maybe ;) )

[froogle]

Well I already have a PS3 and if I wanted to I could get a settop player in the UK for £150. And have just found a site that is selling blank printable SL BD-r's for £1.99 ex-vat and carriage

where is that?

[BurnerHEAD]

hi!

Okay, you're getting off-topic.
PDVD 7.3 is out of the question. I don't spent money on old software.

Why does TotalMedia Theatre crash? You have demo-version?

@Adbear:
What is your main system like? CPU usage of 7% with PDVD 8? That can only be possible with VC-1 (HDMV). I doubt it with H.264 (BD-J).

Regards,
John

[Adbear]

I use a core 2 quad and an ATI 2600, and yes it's easily possible, I build many systems and hardly ever have cpu usage above 10% on any type of disc when the movie is playing even the high bitrate stuff.
No the TMT is not trial version but full retail and many of us find it crap because it crashes, locks the system up or just restarts the computer for no reason.
And to dismiss 7.3 is just stupid, as you can already see I'm not the only one who recommends it over 8. Many of us have been using playback software for over a year (nearly 2 years in my case) so we're pretty much up to date on what's good and what's not, and out of the 2, 7.3 is the more compatible with more discs than 8

[SamuriHL]

I've started playing around with TMT today simply because it was included in TME and I upgraded to the full version of that. However, I have PowerDVD 7 and 8, WinDVD BD for Vaio, and Nero 8 Showtime. I have been in the HD game for almost 2 years myself. PowerDVD 7 was my first HD player. I hated it. And I still have many aspects I dislike about it. However, as I said in my TMT thread, currently it's my "go to" player. I've removed 8 completely from my system. Showtime is a joke and was never taken seriously by me. TMT, up until today, was not an option because I couldn't get it to work. However, with the modifications I've made (kill the arcsoft connect service, stop the daemon from loading, and above all else, kill the stupid afc.sys UDF driver they insist on installing), it seems to be running very stable. But, again, I've not had a chance to really test it yet. I've run some media files I've been recording through and that seems very good so far. Iron Man BD plays nicely. All in all, so far so good. But, I'm only at the beginning of my testing. For me it's not just a matter of running a couple things and calling it good. It will take me weeks to fully test it and put it through its paces to find out if it can compete with PowerDVD 7 for top dog space on my HTPC. I'm extremely pick about my software. Arcsoft wouldn't even be in contention if it weren't for the fact that I need it for my HD PVR recording equipment. But since I had to put it on there anyway, I figure why not test it. And so far, it seems decent.

BUT, I'm with adbear, up until today, I couldn't get the damn thing to work. So, there are many people out there with similar complaints and issues. If it don't work, it's not in the running. PowerDVD 7 with all its warts is still the best player chioce we have. Period.

[BurnerHEAD]

hi!

Thanks for your help on making a decision.

But I think I will take WinDVD 9 Plus Bluray, as I have so many Video-DVD and I will not buy so many Blurays now, as they are too expensive.
WinDVD 9 is the only player being able to do "All2HD" and "Digital natural Motion", to upscale the DVD stuff and thats important to me.

Thank you!
John

PS: I can't change the Poll, even though I wanted to add PDVD 7.3.

[HermosaBeach]

Please add PowerDVD v7.3 to the list and I'll my vote.

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

PS: I can't change the Poll, even though I wanted to add PDVD 7.3.

Please add PowerDVD v7.3 to the list and I'll my vote.

..........

[mrpep]

I just installed my bluray drive on my pc today and so far so good. I have a DLP tv which isnt as hot as plasma or lcd but still looks pretty good, anyway, I use the power dvd 7.3 as mentioned and I like it very easy to use. The problem that I did have with my set up was that my NVIDIA 8600gt 512mb was lagging a bit with all of the settings maxed out so I went out and bought a NVIDIA GE FORCE 9800 GTX+ and my picture is good and the lag is gone. So make sure your card can handle the maxed out setting to get that super awsome picture I know youre looking for.

[stu_the_viking_scot]

PowerDVD 8 Ultra is clearly the best! The 2 other apps have issues...TotalMedia Theatre...when loading blurays Discs, would lock up the system...corel WinDVD had another problem playing blu-rays like picture not sync with sound, PowerDVD 8 ultra...works perfectly fine. :clap: Cyberlink makes good programs come to life.

[steevee59]

Thats very cheap what make are they and which website
Thanks

Steve

[Bigrick]

Thats very cheap what make are they and which website
Thanks

Steve

who are you refering your question to and are you asking what makers are the players? if so powerdvd is cyberlink, windvd is coral and Total media theatre is arcsoft

[SamuriHL]

He's asking about the cheap discs.

[Bigrick]

He's asking about the cheap discs.

the sad thing is that was my conversation to but it was so far after that post that he asked by the time i read his i forgot all about it

[Adbear]

For the cheap discs in the UK

www.optical-disc.co.uk

but like I said they don't have them in at the moment so I pre-ordered afew

[BurnerHEAD]

hi!

So, is PowerDVD 8 Ultra actually capable to play a BD-Folder from the harddrive? (e.g. ripped with AnyDVD HD)?

Thank you!

John

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

hi!

So, is PowerDVD 8 Ultra actually capable to play a BD-Folder from the harddrive? (e.g. ripped with AnyDVD HD)?

Thank you!

John

No.

Not since PowerDVD7 Ultra 7.3.3319a has a user been able to play a ripped BD from a folder. For any newer versions including all the PowerDVD8 releases you must play a mounted image.

I don't believe any of the major players allow this: Corel WinDVD, CyberLink PowerDVD7 & PowerDVD8, and ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre. If I am wrong about TMT then someone correct me. I believe I was told that you can't.

[Bigrick]

plus i believe that older versions of powerdvd 7.3 are becoming obsolete because alot of newer movie are unable to even play from file and need to be mounted

[BurnerHEAD]

No.

Not since PowerDVD7 Ultra 7.3.3319a has a user been able to play a ripped BD from a folder. For any newer versions including all the PowerDVD8 releases you must play a mounted image.

I don't believe any of the major players allow this: Corel WinDVD, CyberLink PowerDVD7 & PowerDVD8, and ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre. If I am wrong about TMT then someone correct me. I believe I was told that you can't.

Jep, you're wrong about TMT. I can play a BD Folder.
=> TMT rocks.

Regards,
John

[brianw_uk]

Jep, you're wrong about TMT. I can play a BD Folder.
=> TMT rocks.

Regards,
John

DO you know if TMT supports full DTS-HD/Dolby True HD without downsampling?

[aoao02]

Hey...How about try PowerDVD9 (http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdvd/overview_en_US.html). I think it fully support BD and can works well

[Adbear]

Hey...How about try PowerDVD9 (http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdvd/overview_en_US.html). I think it fully support BD and can works well

You do realise you're replying to a post over 15 months old