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i went down the pc route

Posted by Christine Tham (R) on February 22, 2008 at 20:03:27

In Reply to: Blu-ray Players posted by Bill Spohn on February 22, 2008 at 06:16:23:

there are some gotchas - it's still early days and the software/hardware haven't fully matured. but it's a workable and usable solution (most of the time).

Make sure you buy the absolute latest/greatest in video cards, ie. something with PureVideo 2 or AVIVO 2. do not consider anything less, otherwise you may get jittery video for high bitrate Bluray discs.

Audio - there's no easy way to send high resolution audio out of the PC, so stick with a good on board audio solution and send 7.1 analog out to your processor/pre amp/receiver. i have been using my E-MU 1820M successfully.

Drive - get the LG universal GGW-H20L (it's a Bluray recorder as well)

Software - unfortunately, no real alternative apart from PowerDVD. The latest version is Profile 1.1 compliant and will support high resolution audio (ie. does not downsample unlike previous versions). also get AnyDVD which will make your player region free. some people recommend vista, but i'm currently using XP Media Center Edition.

the rest is up to you. i strongly recommend making your pc as noiseless as possible - 120mm fans, passive cooling whenever possible, boot off SSD. you may be able to get away with just 2 120cm fans (one built into the power supply, the other for the case) - everything else, even the cpu cooler, can be passive. silentpcreview.com is your friend. it is definitely possible to make your pc so quiet you can't hear it.

use a separate power circuit for the pc compared to your analog audio equipment, if possible, and keep the pc well away from your other equipment (even 1-2m will do) to reduce RFI.

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