Help a Blu-ray Newbie

[Alex0128]

Hey everyone,

This is my first post after browsing these forums for a while now, and I was hoping you could help me with a few things. Thanks in advance as I know some of these questions may be quite silly.
A little background: I've recently bought a panasonic 50'' 1080P plasma television, which I have hooked (via HDMI) to an HP m9600t (2.66GHz quad core, 8GB RAM) that has a blu-ray player. From here, I plan on setting up a home theater (nothing super fancy). Also, I would like to backup a few of the blu-ray DVDs that I have. Actually, I have a few terabyte hard drives networked to the computer so I'm considering just backing what I own up to these and putting the actual discs away somewhere where they're out of harm's way. Then I could just play them from the hard drives.

Anyway, on to the questions:

1. If I am interested in the highest quality sound that I can get off the blu-ray discs, can I simply hook up the standard audio cables from the back of my computer to a receiver? I haven't purchased a receiver yet, but I'm looking at a high-end onkyo that can handle the 7.1 and all that. My computer audio outputs are simply headphone out, line out, and outputs to a center, right left, surround left, surround right, and subwoofer speaker.

2. Let's talk disc playback software. I'm looking at the powerDVD series, and I find myself wondering if I really need the $100 powerDVD 9 ultra. PowerDVD 8 ultra is $70 cheaper for pretty much the same thing. I'm looking at the comparisons on their website (http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdvd/compare-retail_en_US.html) and the only real difference between the two is that the 9 ultra has true theater HD, true theater motion, and powerDVD cinema mode. Does anyone have experience with these extra features? Are they necessary?

3. AnyDVD. I'm currently using a trial version of anyDVD, but will be purchasing the real deal once my trial period is up. The only questions I have concerning this software deals with some of the blu-ray settings. In the settings menu, should I check "enable blu-ray support," "prohibited user operations," "remove annoying adverts and trailers," and "disable BD-Live?" Really, the only thing I care about backing onto the computer is the main video and main audio--I'll have the actual discs if I want to view anything else.

4. TSMuxer. This is where I'm stuck. I am trying to back up my Dark Knight blu-ray disc, for example. Following the guide, I've identified the playlist file with the main movie as 00100.mpls, and the m2ts file as 00007.m2ts. In tsMuxer (1.10.6), I see the main movie (VC-1 codec) and a series of audio sources: AC3 english (640kbps), TRUE-HD english, AC3 english (192kbps), and so on. Now, I'm slightly confused here. Can I just rip the TRUE-HD source without the 640kbps AC3 channel? I've read some places that this produces complications. Do I rip both? What's the benefit of TRUE-HD over the high bitrate AC3? As I mentioned before, I all I care about backing up is the untouched/uncompressed video and the best untouched/unaltered audio. Secondly, what output do I select within this program? Blu-ray? TS? m2ts?

5. Finally, is there any quality lost playing blu-rays through a computer rather than a standalone blu-ray disc player?

I usually try to figure these things out on my own, but these questions have been giving me a headache for a while now... In addition, I would just go through all of this via trial and error, but the software the HP sent for reading blu-rays doesn't allow users to load a disc from the hard drive, it must be from an actual disk, and I haven't purchased the powerDVD software yet.

Ugh. Please set me straight. Or, at least, point me in the right direction! A million thanks to anyone willing to help a guy out!

Alex

[onesloth]

can I simply hook up the standard audio cables from the back of my computer to a receiver?
To get digital audio to your receiver you will need to make a digital connection. Either an optical or coaxial S/PDIF connection to your receiver will allow you to transmit a 5.1 Dolby Digital Signal. That's not the highest quality audio on blu-rays, though. If you want full 7.1 HD audio you will need an HDMI output on your system that supports audio output. You'll have to figure out if yours does. If it does, then you'll plug the computer HDMI into the receiver, then the receiver HDMI into the TV.

In the settings menu, should I check...? Really, the only thing I care about backing onto the computer is the main video and main audio
If you just want to backup main video and audio, leave the AnyDVD settings on their defaults and put the output in TSMuxer to make the simpler disc. Or, if you don't care if the final output is still in blu-ray format, use eac3to (instead of TSMuxer) to mux the main video and audio to an MKV.

Can I just rip the TRUE-HD source without the 640kbps AC3 channel?
If the tracks are on different lines in the track listing, you can rip them separately.

I've read some places that this produces complications.
You might be confused by the fact that TrueHD has an AC3 core. You can extract the AC3 core of a truehd track and get a perfectly fine AC3 track. If the AC3 track you're confused about is listed on a different track in TSMuxer's track listing, it isn't the core of the truehd track.

Do I rip both?
Not if all you want is the highest quality main audio. You need to think about what audio you can actually play though. If you make your backup into a blu-ray structure you'll be able to play trueHD audio with blu-ray playback software. If, however, you back up the disc to an MKV you may not be able to play the trueHD track.

What's the benefit of TRUE-HD over the high bitrate AC3?
TrueHD is a lossless codec. When decoded, your trueHD track will be bit-for-bit identical to the original studio master. AC3 is a lossy codec. Whether you can actually tell the difference between the tracks is another matter. Listen to them.

Secondly, what output do I select within this program? Blu-ray? TS? m2ts?
If you want to keep the chapter listings from the original disc and/or you want something that could actually be burned to a blu-ray disc as is, then select Blu-ray.

Finally, is there any quality lost playing blu-rays through a computer rather than a standalone blu-ray disc player?
No.

[Alex0128]

Thank you so much, onesloth. I really appreciate it.

Anyone have opinions on which powerDVD I should purchase? I'm leaning towards the cheaper of the two I mentioned.

Thanks again,
Alex

[Ghitulescu]

Thank you so much, onesloth. I really appreciate it.

Anyone have opinions on which powerDVD I should purchase? I'm leaning towards the cheaper of the two I mentioned.

Thanks again,
Alex

A BD player is nowadays not much expensive than PowerDVD BD. I've seen Sharps at 129€ and LGs at 200€.

[saint-francis]

You might want to go with ArcSoft in you decide to play back from HDD. PDVD doesn't allow this.

[setarip_old]

@Alex0128which I have hooked (via HDMI) to an HP m9600t (2.66GHz quad core, 8GB RAM) that has a blu-ray playerIt should have also included a disc version of PowerDVDUltra v.7.3 which, if you are careful NOT to update, will serve all of your needs PLUS will still play BluRay files from your hard drive and still play HD-DVDs...