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[bspachman]

Hi all!

I’d like to take the dive into Blu-Ray. I’ve accumulated a double handful of discs already, but have no way to play them back! Naturally, MC will be my playback software of choice, but first the hardware…

In limited research, it looks like we’re in a transitional phase where blu-ray manufacturers are starting to support triple/quad layer media. I’ll probably go ahead and focus on those burners, unless there’s a compelling reason not to. I don’t foresee myself burning a lot of BR discs, but 25+ GB of archival storage does seem compelling to me.

Right now, the leading candidate is the Pioneer BDR-2209. Thoughts or experiences, anyone?

Any other hardware gotchas I should be looking out for at this point?

I’m a little concerned about playback. My video is primarily viewed on a front projector, but only via a VGA connection. I do have an HDMI connection to a much smaller TV screen. My audio has historically been sent from MC to my receiver via an optical SPDIF connection. Although my motherboard has analog outs, my receiver’s 5.1 analog ins are currently occupied by my stand-alone DVD player. I remember reading somewhere that the high resolution audio formats will NOT bitstream over SPDIF, right?

Any other playback gotchas I should think about?

Thanks for everyone’s insight!
brad

[6233638]

Keep in mind that Blu-ray in MC is not "easy" like DVDs.
You either need to purchase decryption software like AnyDVD HD to access the content on the disc, or rip them with a tool like MakeMKV.

Media Center does not have BD-J or menu support, so it bypasses everything and just skips right to the film.
That in itself is generally fine, though it can be awkward if you want to access special features on the disc (personally, I don't care) and some titles may have issues with subtitle tracks depending on how they were encoded. (e.g. a film that is mostly English, but then some conversations are in another language and should be subtitled)
 
Overall though, it works well for me, and I prefer it to using a regular player where it takes several minutes before you get to play the film.
 

Since the discs need to be decrypted before MC can play them, it doesn't matter if you're using a VGA connection to the projector.

 
You will not be able to play the uncompressed audio tracks over S/PDIF, since it only has the bandwidth for stereo uncompressed audio, or AC3/DTS compression. (and not TrueHD/DTS-HD)
You would have to use the analog outputs from your PC or an HDMI connection for that.
 

Pioneer drives have always been good for me. Other brands (Samsung/LG) have been less reliable.

[bspachman]

Thanks for the input--I'm checking out some of the particles threads--I'm not worried about the lack of the menus. I'll probably end up ripping to mkv (or mp4 containers) anyway. I'll have to ponder what's the best use of my analog ins on my receiver--I'll probably stick with SPDIF for the time-being, at least until I'm able to upgrade to HDMI around the whole theater.

I'll be interested to see how AnyDVD works....

brad

[DeepPurple23]

I use AnyDVD HD.  I bit the bullet and went with a "lifetime" license.  I'll say this, with the exception of using MakeMKV, AnyDVD makes anything I'm doing with Blu-Rays or HD DVD a none issue.  I pop in a disk, let AnyDVD do it's thing, once done JRiver asks if I want to Rip.  It's really nice.

[Matt]

Yeah, I use AnyDVD HD too.  It just makes it so nice.  Insert a DVD or Blu-ray and MC is ready to rip it.