If I got a BD drive for computer, would it work?

[snipper_cr]

My question is really what the title says. Now that a winner has been chosen, I would like to get a BD drive for my comptuer because I wont have access to an HDTV for quite sometime and my computer is really more of a HTPC.

I was at a local electronics super store and noticed internal BD drives for about $150. I was blown away! They were not BD burners but I dont care about that, at least not yet.

Now the question is, my computer is a little old technology wise. Pentium 4 processor at 3.4GHz, 2 gigs of memory, a Radeon X850XTPE on AGP, and a Xfi sound card. Now If i download HD content, say from NASA or something in 1080P my computer can play it just fine. No skipping, full resolution (as far as I can tell), and no serious strain on the system. Howeve, due to its obvious age, HDCP is going to get in the way and prevent it from playing properly.

Is there any way if I got one of those BD drives that I could throw it in and beable to watch a blue ray movie in full resolution on my monitor? What if I wanted to pipe it out over component to a HDTV in the future?

Thanks for the help.

[Inventive Software]

Good luck piping it out over component. HDMI with HDCP is a must if you want to do it "the proper way", otherwise, get AnyDVD HD.

[Jay Bee]

You need to upgrade your graphics card for Blu Ray.

[Doom9]

And AGP? Uhoh.. we've moved beyond that a couple years ago. You might still find some AGP models with halfway recent GFX chips, but if you ask me it's a waste of money.. you're probably going to replace the mainboard before another GFX card is due.

And speaking of the future - at some point ICT is going to come which will limit your output resolution over component to 9xx x somewhat - so HDMI is going to be a must then (there are DVI to HDMI adapters so if you don't get a GFX card with HDMI output, that's not going to be a problem).

And I suppose that HDTV content you play is MPEG-2. While Blu-ray is infamous for using outdated codecs (about 1/3rd of the currently available discs - and some of them are 25GB discs on top of that), the majority of titles still use more CPU intensive codecs (another reason for a GFX card that has hardware acceleration).

And as far as HDCP goes, BD+ is going to run even the AnyDVDHD party unless you use an old no longer available PowerDVD version (which incidentally doesn't work on my machine for whatever reason).

[snipper_cr]

Alright well lets assume I jsut want to play it on my monitor (Sammy 22inch widescreen with HDCP via DVI). You dont think my X850 could handle the blu ray? I dont know if im comparing two different monsters, but Ive downloaded HD content to my computer before and it plays just fine. I think it is mpeg2, doom9, so is there a way to see if my computer could handle HD content anyways?

So if I got a blu ray drive,put it in my rig, got the latest WinDVD or PowerDVD software with the latest AnyDVDHD I still would not be able to view it in fullest resolution? Assuming my hardware could support it.

Oh and as far as piping out ove component, I do have a DVI to HDMI converter and the HDTV I have access to has HDMI in.

Thanks again for all your help everyone.

[Jay Bee]

Your GPU doesn't support video decoding (except MPEG-2) and your CPU is too slow to do it. You can get some AVC HDTV samples here (http://x264.nl/h.264.samples/) and Blu-Ray needs even more horsepower. AGP isn't the problem though, there are modern GPUs out for AGP like the ATI 3850 or 2600 if you don't game.

In answer to your question if it would "work" I would say in general no, no matter what hardware. If you go to avsforums you will see that there are still way too many problems with hardware, software and drivers. HD DVD was better in this regard.

[Doom9]

So if I got a blu ray drive,put it in my rig, got the latest WinDVD or PowerDVD software with the latest AnyDVDHD I still would not be able to view it in fullest resolution? Assuming my hardware could support it.Yes, but the hardware is a big question mark - I used to have a 7600GS card along with the QX7600 and PowerDVD played all AVC content choppy - even though the CPU is definitely more than enough to do all the decoding itself. When I got a 8600GT, everything was smooth.
And Blu-ray is increasingly turning to AVC - so I think you'll definitely be looking at a GFX card update along with the drive - regardless if HDCP. And as I said.. AGP is a dead end - it's up to you to decide if that bothers you or not.
Although - VLC (which gets no hardware acceleration), can handle Blu-ray AVC content just fine so it also depends on the player software. So, you could put up the money, get the drive and a couple of discs, get AnyDVDHD and PowerDVD and see how far it gets you (you could also try out VLC if you don't mind losing the menus and interactive stuff) and if the results are not satisfactory you upgrade your GFX card (be it just the card, or mainboard + GFX card).

Oh and you do realize that your screen has a 1650x1080 which is lower than the 1920x1080 that Blu-ray offers..

[snipper_cr]

Yes, but the hardware is a big question mark - I used to have a 7600GS card along with the QX7600 and PowerDVD played all AVC content choppy - even though the CPU is definitely more than enough to do all the decoding itself. When I got a 8600GT, everything was smooth.
And Blu-ray is increasingly turning to AVC - so I think you'll definitely be looking at a GFX card update along with the drive - regardless if HDCP. And as I said.. AGP is a dead end - it's up to you to decide if that bothers you or not.
Although - VLC (which gets no hardware acceleration), can handle Blu-ray AVC content just fine so it also depends on the player software. So, you could put up the money, get the drive and a couple of discs, get AnyDVDHD and PowerDVD and see how far it gets you (you could also try out VLC if you don't mind losing the menus and interactive stuff) and if the results are not satisfactory you upgrade your GFX card (be it just the card, or mainboard + GFX card).

Oh and you do realize that your screen has a 1650x1080 which is lower than the 1920x1080 that Blu-ray offers..

Thanks alot for the detailed response Doom9

Looks like right now Ill just sit on my money until I have enough for a new computer. I know Ive needed to upgrade for sometime but actually right now its meeting my needs as far as the games I play and the media content that I use.

As far as the monitor, yes I know it is slightly below full HD resolution. When I was monitor shoppingthis time last year, I wanted a widescreen monitor. I got the one I have for about 300. Prices were fairly linear up to 22 inches however at 24 inches prices doubled up to about 600-700 dollars. While the monitors were great - with a lot of extra features and the obvious native resolution, I decided to stick with the 22 inch monitor and its been great.