http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/ Engadget HD Comments for Poll: What's the best HTPC Blu-ray software? http://www.engadgethd.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadgethd.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/Jun 26th 2008 1:31PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/Jun 26th 2008 2:09PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/Jun 26th 2008 4:00PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/
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.]]>Jun 26th 2008 9:31PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/
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).]]>Jun 26th 2008 2:05PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/
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...
]]>Jun 26th 2008 2:08PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/
4GB RAM
2.8GHz Dual-Core

I've never tried Arcsoft, but if it's more stable than PowerDVD, I'm in.]]>Jun 26th 2008 2:13PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/
Does Arcsoft still play both formats?]]>Jun 26th 2008 2:58PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/Jun 26th 2008 2:48PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/In fact you can see in the image that the HD DVD logo is still on the splash screen.]]>Jun 26th 2008 2:49PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/
I was just curious because on their product page, there isn't a single mention of HD-DVD:

http://www.arcsoft.com/products/totalmediatheatre/]]>Jun 26th 2008 2:58PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/Jun 26th 2008 3:19PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/Jun 26th 2008 3:16PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/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.]]>Jun 26th 2008 3:31PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/Jun 26th 2008 3:45PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/cause they are all $200 plus from what ive seen....
]]>Jun 26th 2008 3:53PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106227]]>Jun 26th 2008 5:08PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/
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]]>Jun 26th 2008 5:23PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/Jun 26th 2008 6:04PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/Jun 27th 2008 4:28AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/
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.]]>Jun 26th 2008 6:15PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/Jun 27th 2008 12:14AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/Jun 27th 2008 4:24AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/Jun 27th 2008 11:56AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/
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).

]]>Jun 27th 2008 1:40PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/Jun 28th 2008 3:40AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/Jun 30th 2008 10:21AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/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.]]>Jun 30th 2008 10:23AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/
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.]]>Jul 14th 2008 4:26AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/26/poll-whats-the-best-htpc-blu-ray-software/Aug 5th 2008 11:44AM