Poll: What's the best HTPC Blu-ray software?

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Jun 26th 2008 at 1:03PM

With Blu-ray drives for PCs selling for less than $150 -- and only getting cheaper -- many HTPC fans are left wondering, what is the best HTPC Blu-ray software? While the old favorites were the first on the scene with PowerDVD and WinDVD, ArcSoft has recently been bragging how popular its TotalMedia Theater is with high end HTPC vendors like NiveusMedia and Vidabox. We assume the reason is because these companies are keen on Vista Media Center and ArcSoft works harder on integrating with Media Center than the rest. But Media Center integration isn't the end all be all for Blu-ray playback, and it isn't that difficult to integrate the other players yourself. So this left us wondering, which is the best Blu-ray player software for Windows?

Filed under: Blu-ray, Media PCs

Tags: ArcSoft, arcsoft totalmedia t..., ArcsoftTotalmediaT..., arcsofttotalmediathe..., Blu-ray, Niveus, NiveusMedia, PowerDVD, Vidabox, Vista media Center, VistaMediaCenter, VMC, WinDVD

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Highly Ranked

Dy Phan @ Jun 26th 2008 1:31PM

My question is what is the best software to play Blu-ray AND HD DVDs? I could buy two sets of software packages... please help me and let me know.

Neutral

andyg8180 @ Jun 26th 2008 2:09PM

are you going to have both a blu-ray drive and an hd-dvd drive? I havnt seen any dual-drives... if thats the case... arcsoft ftw for you...

Highest Ranked

Godskitchen @ Jun 26th 2008 4:00PM

I have a drive that plays both, LG Multi blue, google it

Neutral

Wes @ Jun 26th 2008 9:31PM

You can get dual formats drives for $150.00 on most big e-retail websites for computer parts. I believe the manufacturer on those ones are lg.

There's also LG specific blu-ray only for a bit more but has a higher blu-ray speed. I think they are starting to get up there between 4x or 8x in speed now.

I remember not too long ago when dvd-rom drives were $50.00 - $60.00 so hopefully LG will be able to march those old dvd-rom prices and someday drop as low as $30.00-$40.00. I'm hoping for $50.00-$60.00 pc-rom drives within the year towards x-mas or 1st quater next year and $30.00-$40.00 the following year.

Neutral

burndive @ Jun 26th 2008 2:05PM

Why is SlySoft missing?

I think most people run whatever came with their Blu-ray drive, in my case, I bought a Dell with Blu-ray and PowerDVD 7 DX (a special Dell edition that plays Blu-ray).

Neutral

andyg8180 @ Jun 26th 2008 2:08PM

PS3 lol... sorry...

but if i had to choose, ive always enjoyed the PowerDVD setup over arcsoft... it may be that im just used to having it on every PC ive owned, but i think if they did that good with regular DVD, then blu-ray will be a cakewalk...

Neutral

mlb5000 @ Jun 26th 2008 2:13PM

I've used PowerDVD for a while now and I'm not a huge fan. I've had playback problems with certain movies where it will begin to jitter, then lock up, then jump 30 seconds to catch up with the audio (which hasn't lagged at all). Needless to say it's annoying. My system isn't a wuss either:

4GB RAM
2.8GHz Dual-Core

I've never tried Arcsoft, but if it's more stable than PowerDVD, I'm in.

Neutral

John Anderson @ Jun 26th 2008 2:58PM

I still use PowerDVD 7 because I have an extensive HD-DVD collection. Needless to say, I really don't like it.

Does Arcsoft still play both formats?

Neutral

J.Goodwin @ Jun 26th 2008 2:48PM

I'm on the hardware bandwagon, I guess. I only have significant experience with Cyberlink and I really don't like it, mainly because of the awful interface.

Neutral

Ben @ Jun 26th 2008 2:49PM

Yes ArcSoft plays HD DVDs.
In fact you can see in the image that the HD DVD logo is still on the splash screen.

Neutral

John Anderson @ Jun 26th 2008 2:58PM

Cool, didn't see that.

I was just curious because on their product page, there isn't a single mention of HD-DVD:

http://www.arcsoft.com/products/totalmediatheatre/

Neutral

EvilWaterman @ Jun 26th 2008 3:19PM

It is rumored Arcsoft will be dropping HD DVD. I am ready to replace my HD DVD PC drive with a LG combo, but with them dropping HD DVD along with PowerDVD I'm left with little options. I might as well continue to wait for a good Profile 2.0 stand alone player that supports bitstreaming.

Highly Ranked

kcjones @ Jun 26th 2008 3:16PM

I second the AnyDVD HD by Slysoft. Anyone with a HTPC prefers to archive and stream content over playing content off of an optical disc.

Neutral

Aaron Smith @ Jun 26th 2008 3:31PM

Agreed, if you are just trying to build a pc to play discs from the drive, it's cheaper to buy a stand-alone player if you want uncompressed audio. $100-200 Video card + $150-200 sound card + $100 drive plus the software is more than a PS3.
However, if you use it as a media server then the extra cost is worth it and you really need AnyDVD HD to make streaming painless.

Neutral

Garst @ Jun 26th 2008 3:45PM

I don't have a desire to play Blu-ray yet. My TV and computer monitor are both too small to warrent the price, and my TV isn't a HD set yet.

Neutral

Some Kid @ Jun 26th 2008 3:53PM

where the hell are Blu-Ray drives less than $150
cause they are all $200 plus from what ive seen....

Neutral

albus522 @ Jun 26th 2008 5:08PM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106227

Highly Ranked

Mr. E @ Jun 26th 2008 5:23PM

If you're in the U.S., here are a few. I can't vouch for the quality of the products since I haven't tried any of them myself, but the retailer is excellent.

Lite-On, $129
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106227

Sony, $159
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118013

Pioneer, $169 - also a DVD burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129015

Neutral

h0mi @ Jun 26th 2008 6:04PM

I'm guessing an open source alternative is too much to expect? Alot of these are a little pricey.

Neutral

DrXym @ Jun 27th 2008 4:28AM

You'll probably not see any open source that can play the BD-J, HDi menus of this content, but they may be able to read the container format and play the movie from play that. I'm thinking that VideoLan is the most likely candidate to get some level of support if it hasn't already. Thereafter it might some rudimentary BDMV / HDi and possibly BD-J support but don't expect it to be very good for years.

Neutral

Paul Moon @ Jun 26th 2008 6:15PM

In case anyone's not up to speed, Cyberlink got greedy at some point and decided their margins could increase by dropping HD-DVD support even though it caused a huge outcry and backlash by its users. What's more, around the same time they introduced PowerDVD 8 with minor improvements, including integration with a bottom-of-the-barrel Flixster wannabe social networking site, while making PowerDVD 7 owners pay almost full price to upgrade.

Cyberlink has not earned much affection, to put it simply. I've been cheering for some on-shore, solid company to kick their ass with what seems to be a relatively simple software application, but no dice so far.

Neutral

Grant @ Jun 27th 2008 12:14AM

I use PowerDVD 7 for the HD-DVD support. I've been trying ArcSoft and it work fine, but it doesn't seem to have any command line arguments for launching it from HTPC front-end apps. If they do support command line, then a pointer would be great. Sure, ArcSoft has a Media Center plug-in, but what about those who don't use MC?

Neutral

DrXym @ Jun 27th 2008 4:24AM

Nero supposedly offers some level of BD / HD DVD playback in Nero 8. They're always spamming me about it because they want me to upgrade.

Neutral

Peter F @ Jun 27th 2008 11:56AM

power dvd 8 can be hacked to do hd-dvd, just google her up. Pretty easy, just have register a filter I believe. I've done it and it works. Now if I could only get powerdvd to play my blu-ray........ Keeps locking up computer.

Neutral

SweetJeebus @ Jun 27th 2008 1:40PM

In my opinion, I really like ArcSoft. It plays HD DVD and Blu-Ray, plus it supports playing backed up (aka ripped) copies from a hard disk. PowerDVD used to offer both features, but no longer.

That said, I recently upgraded to Vista x64, and ArcSoft does not work in 64-bit. So, I'm back to using PowerDVD version 7 and am holding off installing any updates (the version that came with my LG drive still allows playing from the hard drive).

Neutral

Leroy Vargas @ Jun 28th 2008 3:40AM

I voted for PowerDVD Ultra (actually, I still use 7.3 Ultra, because I have no money to upgrade to 8 Ultra), but I have a comment. PowerDVD 7.3 Ultra doesn't allow me to take snapshots from BD (the Capture button is replaced with the Popup Menu button when playing BD, and the Capture hotkey, "C", is disabled too). If PowerDVD 8 Ultra keeps that same no-snappies limitation, then I'm not upgrading.

Neutral

IsleOfMan @ Jun 30th 2008 10:21AM

The only thing that has kept me from building an HTPC for Blu and HD discs is the lack of software supporting the transmission of 5.1/7.1 LPCM over HDMI. Until an HTPC can pass LPCM over the HDMI output of something like an ATI 2600 HD, it can't do everything a standalone player can. The hardware is capable (anything from ATI above a 2400 HD) but so-far the software hasn't enabled it.

Neutral

Ben @ Jun 30th 2008 10:23AM

IsleOfMan,
You are mistaken, there are currently 3 solutions that can pass LPCM over HDMI including the Intel G35 Mother board, a few Nvidia Mother boards and the new ATI 4850 video card.

They are currently limited to 48kHz/16bit, but only about 10 % of the Blu-ray titles out there have 48kHz/24bit tracks and those get down sampled so the quality is still better than lossy codecs.

Neutral

Ken @ Jul 14th 2008 4:26AM

None of these work well for me

Arcsoft does not work with Windows XP x64
WinDVD does not work with windows XP x64

PowerDVD does work with Windows XP x64, but to upgrade from the OEM version included with the drive and actually take advantage of the new features they want another $85.00 beyond what you already paid for the drive. This reminds me of the bait and switch days where the promise one thing but you get another.

"For a small fee..."

I tried the upgraded version from PowerDVD, but fail to see anypoint in upgrading. The video looks identical (as in perfect picture) and the sound options still seem fail to impress me at all and they just give you surrond sound which has been out for years. So, still not sure why I should pay another $85.00.

Neutral

Bruce @ Aug 5th 2008 11:44AM

I'm using the Power DVD that came with the vid card or drive(liteon BD) with vista 64 ultimate. It gives a superb picture and sound but with some discs it stays on the select menu screen (play now, special features etc) and does not respond to any mouse clicks or keystrokes. I'm using the ver 7.3 I don't know if the ver. 8 ultra would be any different. anyone know or have this problem?

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