Anybody watch Blu-ray movies on the PC?

The Blue-ray computer drives (reader not burner) has become more affordable as I see one advertised for $70 and just wondered how the quality of a blue-ray movie is when displayed on a pc as compared to a DVD.

id gues it depnds on the video card and cpu in the system

And the resolution quality of your monitor.

I'm still holding off on BluRay. DVD player resolution is superb on my PC's. Upcoding DVD player works great (for TV). The Blu-Ray hoardes try to make it sound like DVD level resolution is bad. VHS resolution was bad. Quality DVD resolution is more than acceptable. Is Blu-Ray better? Yes. Is it worth upgrading your monthly TV plan with higher monthly rates, new antenna, new receiver, new DVR (that stores less hours), new BluRay player, new HDTV? Not as far as I'm concerned. Are people going to meet sales targets set by Sony when they paid off the HD-DVD consortium & other media/hardware companies hoping everything buys their new high def stuff in this current recession? Nope.

The biggest problem is HDCP. Without it, you won't be watching any BR movies on a PC. AnyDVD can get around this, but it's a cat and mouse game.

Does the copyright protection prevent a blu-ray movie from being viewed on a pc or just being copied? I thought you could view them as I know my latest Power DVD viewing software boasts blu-ray support.

geepondy said:

Does the copyright protection prevent a blu-ray movie from being viewed on a pc or just being copied? I thought you could view them as I know my latest Power DVD viewing software boasts blu-ray support.

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You must have an HDCP-compliant monitor to view BlueRay movies on the PC.

ur video card, playback software and screen or monitor must be HDCP complaint. the difference in quality is chalk and cheese, visually and sound wise, supposing u have the capable sound set up.

i can spot the difference between a bluray and a dvd instantly upconverion works great on dvds but a bluray is betetr guess its just me though or us video guys

unless your computer monitor is 1920x1080 you won't see the full potential of blu-ray and won't be worth while to upgrade.

that being said if you can't tell a difference between DVD resolution (720x480NTSC) and blu-ray at 1080p then there is something wrong with your system.

scaredofthedark said:

unless your computer monitor is 1920x1080 you won't see the full potential of blu-ray and won't be worth while to upgrade.

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I disagree. I have a very good 42" plasma that's 720p, and I can very easily tell HD from DVD. I tested this by recording LOTR on my DVR and switching back and forth from DVR to my DVD player.

That being said, I got my parents a nice Oppo upconverting DVD player, and it makes a very big difference for DVDs.

Have they been dumbing down the video quality of new DVDs ? Seems like they've been looking uglier than usual lately.

NA8 said:

Have they been dumbing down the video quality of new DVDs ? Seems like they've been looking uglier than usual lately.

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Well, they try to squeeze a lot of extra content into DVDs, which means they have to increase compression for the movie itself.

However, I wouldn't put it past the movie companies to lower the bitrate on DVDs, in order to drive up BluRay sales.

As in - look how much better BluRay looks compared to this DVD...

in poplaer mechanics this month they comapred bluray to the interent streamed movies if i recall bluray came in first and some company that streamed at 20 mb was second lol i dont even know one person who has 20 mb at home i think im 5 mb and most are 3mb.and ps im not sure if im useing the corect term

raggie33 said:

in poplaer mechanics this month they comapred bluray to the interent streamed movies if i recall bluray came in first and some company that streamed at 20 mb was second lol i dont even know one person who has 20 mb at home i think im 5 mb and most are 3mb.and ps im not sure if im useing the corect term

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hmm, do you mean mb as in megabytes or megabits (8 bits in a byte)? Most internet companies rate on megabits because it makes their internet sound faster to those who don't know the difference, however, I would be very surprised to learn of someone who has a 20 MB (megabyte) per second connection to their house. In New Jersey where I live, you can get 15 megabit cable which is about 1.9 megabytes a sec and some people I know get 30 but thats about it if you don't want to upgrade to some busisness plan which you have to get a new line for, etc.

here is the best streaming hd provider ill stick with bluray for now lol 4 hours isnt to lojng a wait but still to long for me http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/10/16/vudus-hdx-titles-compare-to-blu-rays-picture-quality/

Verizon FiOS :twothumbs

"We think this is a do-or-die time for Blu-ray," said Ron Sanders, president of Warner Home Video

That's a quote from a NYT article DVDs, Hollywood's Profit Source, Are Sagging

Here's another quote from the article.

"Most troubling, industrywide sales of next-generation Blu-ray discs — promoted as a high-definition technology that will restore growth to the medium — are growing but will miss sales projections for the year by 25 percent or more, according to Warner."

Art Vandelay said:

"We think this is a do-or-die time for Blu-ray," said Ron Sanders, president of Warner Home Video

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They don't seem to remember how the war between Beta and VHS turned out.
If they want to succeed, they need to get the player prices down.

I watch blue-ray on a lcd tv.

I would also like to watch them on the PC (with 24" lcd) but nothing in Windows plays them or in fact any DVD. Is there a good freeware program that plays DVDs, or BR?

I use media player classic which works greats for movies of almost any format