Frys -- LG Blue Ray/HD-DVD combo drive -- $249.99

[zoiks]

No rebates. Good deal if you have a HTPC or need this for your regular machine.
At your neighborhood Frys. Here's the ad from the San Jose Mercury news.

http://newspaperads.mercurynew...5&subid=19029112&type=

 

[Ricochet]

Very nice, indeed. :thumbsup:

Really makes me want to build an HTPC.

 

[deepinya]

Do these players upconvert regular DVDs?

Edit- I see it doesnt.

 

[IBUYCHEAP]

This was just 269 on sale somewhere else a few days ago is this going to be replaced by a much cheaper version?

 

[uli2000]

Originally posted by: deepinya
Do these players upconvert regular DVDs?

Edit- I see it doesnt.

I would think with a decent software decoder you could scale this however you want. Are you maybe confusing this with a stand alone hidef player?

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: deepinya
Do these players upconvert regular DVDs?

Edit- I see it doesnt.

This is a PC drive, not a standalone player. You need software to play DVDs, Blu-Ray, or HDDVD movies on it, and yes, the software can upconvert whatever.

 

[KPACOTKA]

Does it come with software to play HD/BR DVD?

 

[jalaram]

Originally posted by: KPACOTKA
Does it come with software to play HD/BR DVD?

Yes, an OEM version of PowerDVD.

Also, AVSForum has a great thread on using this drive here.

 

[KPACOTKA]

Thanks, it is long and great thread in AVS. Certainly this drive is in my shopping list for Xmas 2008

 

[XMan]

Originally posted by: deepinya
Do these players upconvert regular DVDs?

Edit- I see it doesnt.

If you're using it an HTPC, the HTPC does the upconvert, to whatever resolution you're running your screen at.

 

[nikkai]

Agreed - upconversion isn't the "hardware" necessarily, but more the software.

ie: Your video card capabilities and the software used.

Well... I guess that means hardware too. Good thing I used "quotes."

All I picture is Dr. Evil.

 

[Tegeril]

Not to mention that PowerDVD upscales better than most commercial upscaling hardware and DScaler/FFDShow make for the best upscaling of anything money can buy (and they're free).

Waiting for these to come down in price just a bit before I buy for my media center.

 

[Lurker1]

So where's my writable HD DVD drive? That's what I'm waiting on, if it reads BD too, that's fine.

 

[bfdd]

Holy I just saw one for 500 and thought "excellent deal" 259? jesus I need to drive up to San Jose!

 

[Lurker1]

Originally posted by: bfdd
Holy I just saw one for 500 and thought "excellent deal" 259? jesus I need to drive up to San Jose!

They've been under $280 online for the past month or two, ever since the Toshiba opening salvo with HD DVD players.

 

[chexi]

For those who have this drive (like me), what sound card/solution are you using? I want something cheap that outputs via spdif to my receiver, but my Aopen Cobra Deluxe does not work properly, at least not with the free version of PowerDVD that comes with the player. It brings both HD-DVD and Blu-ray video to a crawl with no audio, despite the card otherwise working flawlessly with XP MCE, WinDVD, TheaterTEK, Zoomplayer, etc. I have my onboard audio working in 2 channel analog, but don't have an SPDIF or coax digital out on my mobo, and stupid ECS' recommendation as to where I can find the daughterboard for this mobo was "Try a computer store or look online." No joke. Thanks ECS for being so helpful

Anyway, any ideas?

 

[zinkpig]

Originally posted by: chexi
For those who have this drive (like me), what sound card/solution are you using? I want something cheap that outputs via spdif to my receiver, but my Aopen Cobra Deluxe does not work properly, at least not with the free version of PowerDVD that comes with the player. It brings both HD-DVD and Blu-ray video to a crawl with no audio, despite the card otherwise working flawlessly with XP MCE, WinDVD, TheaterTEK, Zoomplayer, etc. I have my onboard audio working in 2 channel analog, but don't have an SPDIF or coax digital out on my mobo, and stupid ECS' recommendation as to where I can find the daughterboard for this mobo was "Try a computer store or look online." No joke. Thanks ECS for being so helpful

Anyway, any ideas?

I ve heard good things about the Auzentech 7.1 card over at avsforum. Try waiting for the upcoming ATI HD34XX or the HD36XX series to do audio and video over HDMI. They are cheap, will be available with a passive HS, have full support for 5.1 audio and do heck of a job decoding HD video.

 

[GabeTheBabe]

I got this for christmas, and it does a great job of playing both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies. I'll probably be selling it though. I don't need a player for my computer. Keep an eye out in the For Sale/Trade forum.

 

[chexi]

I ve heard good things about the Auzentech 7.1 card over at avsforum. Try waiting for the upcoming ATI HD34XX or the HD36XX series to do audio and video over HDMI. They are cheap, will be available with a passive HS, have full support for 5.1 audio and do heck of a job decoding HD video.

A good idea in general, but my Marantz SR8400 receiver does not accept HDMI. I have no intention of upgrading receivers, so I am forced to use either digital coax or optical toslink. If only there were a driver that was not over 3 years old for my Aopen Cobra, I would be fine. I cannot imagine a technical reason as to why there would be a problem, as everything is offloaded to the receiver via spdif. Oh well, it's just money I guess.

 

[Chunkee]

what kind of proc and mem and gcard do you need to play these kinds of movies? seems like you would need a hoss of a system.

JC

 

[NamelessMC]

Not to be a deal buster but-
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...oduct&id=1186003684236

 

[hans007]

you know i thought this was a good deal, but with the non hd-dvd drives going for like $200 or less (i think a liteon blue ray only one with no dvd writer was $150) it doesnt seem like that hot a deal. i guess it depends on how much you care about hd-dvd support at this point.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: hans007
you know i thought this was a good deal, but with the non hd-dvd drives going for like $200 or less (i think a liteon blue ray only one with no dvd writer was $150) it doesnt seem like that hot a deal.

i mean hd-dvd is probably dead. so im not sure its worth paying $100 more to get a drive that supports that and dvd/rw.

i wanted hd-dvd to win as much as anyone else, but i wouldnt pay $100 more for it now that it looks like its completely going to lose

HD-DVD is probably dead (A3 can be had for much cheaper actually, $100-$130 + movies), but this drive also plays Blu-Ray discs and is the second most future-proof Blu-Ray player besides the PS3. The weakness of this drive is that it relies on CyberLink to provide updates to its software player also. Add the ability to function as a full-featured DVD/RW and its a pretty good deal.

Its a great deal if you have the necessary components already (HDCP video card and 1080p+ LCD/TV, UVD/PureVideoHD OR fast CPU, decent 5.1+ sound system) and are looking for a cheap way to enter the HD movie arena, but don't want to wait out the format war.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: chexi
For those who have this drive (like me), what sound card/solution are you using? I want something cheap that outputs via spdif to my receiver, but my Aopen Cobra Deluxe does not work properly, at least not with the free version of PowerDVD that comes with the player. It brings both HD-DVD and Blu-ray video to a crawl with no audio, despite the card otherwise working flawlessly with XP MCE, WinDVD, TheaterTEK, Zoomplayer, etc. I have my onboard audio working in 2 channel analog, but don't have an SPDIF or coax digital out on my mobo, and stupid ECS' recommendation as to where I can find the daughterboard for this mobo was "Try a computer store or look online." No joke. Thanks ECS for being so helpful

Anyway, any ideas?

I'm using digital coax s/pdif passthrough to my STR-DG1000 receiver. Any card that works in XP with PowerDVD should be fine as its only being passed through. Does your onboard have a flexijack that can be configured to s/pdif output? If so, you can use a 3.5mm to RCA adapter and use a digital coax cable to your receiver. That's what I'm using and it works great, less noise than with toslink as well. Downside of this drive and PC HD movie playback in general is the lack of sound devices that support HDMI audio. The HD 38XX cards with HDMI output do apparently have an audio device integrated into the UVD processor, but I'm not sure if they actually support audio over HDMI at this point.

Originally posted by: Chunkee
what kind of proc and mem and gcard do you need to play these kinds of movies? seems like you would need a hoss of a system.

JC

You'll need either 1) a UVD or PureVideoHD card that handles 100% of the video decoding or 2) an older card with one of the earlier forms of video processing AND a powerful CPU (Core 2 or Athlon X2 2.5GHz+ to be safe). Ideally, the video card is HDCP compliant as well. There's currently workarounds but that may change in the future. GPUs that can handle 100% of the decoding range from very cheap to mid-range, starting with G84 based 8-series like the 8400s and 8600s along with the newer G92 based 8800s (GT and 512MB GTS) and HD2400/2600 then jumps to the HD3XXXs. With my GTX (older PureVideo), CPU utilization ranges from 25-40% on a 3.5GHz C2Quad. That'd be 50-80% on a 3.5GHz C2D.

 

[tdawg]

Originally posted by: Chunkee
what kind of proc and mem and gcard do you need to play these kinds of movies? seems like you would need a hoss of a system.

JC

I'm not sure what exactly would be required for this drive in particular, but with my Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive plugged into the PC in my sig, I was able to watch the movie with no hitches whatsoever and I was transcoding a video at the same time. Hopefully that gives you an idea of what may work.