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Blu-Ray and HD-DVD Playback Under XP

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sooper-high-def dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In the last few weeks the first HD-DVD and Blu-Ray drives for PCs have slowly trickled onto the market. Up to now, it has not been clear what system requirements you need to actually be able to play HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs. The operating system was the main cause of concern; many rumors cropped up that the new generation of video discs would not work under Windows XP. Hardware.Info put the question to Cyberlink, the company behind Power DVD, if the lack of a protected videopath in Windows XP would make it impossible to enable HD-DVD or Blu-Ray playback. They have answered the questions, and provide a complete checklist of what you need to play Blu-Ray and HD-DVD movies in HD resolutions on your home PC."

7 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. 1 goat, 1 long knife by also-rr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...and a penatagram to use for the sacrifice Personally I hope that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD _never_ get cracked, or at least if they do it's never ported to Windows in an easy to use fashion. It's hard to think of any other way to get the formats dropped faster.

    --
    Think of the Children; Sleep with your Sister
    1. Re:1 goat, 1 long knife by Darkforge · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Personally I hope that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD _never_ get cracked, or at least if they do it's never ported to Windows in an easy to use fashion. It's hard to think of any other way to get the formats dropped faster.

      Besides, I still don't understand your thinking. If it isn't cracked I ain't buying in.
      That was the grandparent post's whole point. If (in a magical fantasy land) the formats didn't get cracked, no one would buy in, and the formats would rot, which would be a good thing.

      With that said, I think everybody agrees that the formats certainly will be cracked, so, meh.
      --

      When I moderate, I only use "-1, Overrated". That way, I never get meta-moderated!

  2. What you need to watch HD-DVD by slightcrazed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A shit-load of cash and a bunch of new hardware, apparently. Seriously, I need a DUAL CORE CPU just to watch a fricken HD DVD? Are you serious? What is a new HD DVD set top box going to look like, a cray supercomputer?

  3. What a deal! by shawnmchorse · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would only need to purchase a whole new computer, video card, and monitor to support playback of movies in somewhat higher resolution. Hold me back...:p Do they really think that introducing new hurdles like HDCP and a "secure video path" to be able to watch this stuff will encourage people to buy and actually use it? Or do they just not care?

    1. Re:What a deal! by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In a year or two the standard $500 pc from dell will have all of this stuff built-in, and the vast majority of people will neither know nor care that their pc has special hardware that enables this playback. These same people today don't know that their dvds can't be copied legally.

      Just to gauge the reaction, I explained the DMCA to my mother one day in plain English and she was aghast. People who don't hang out on here all day tend to not know these things.

      --
      Do you have ESP?
  4. Who cares? by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You have to need psychotherapy to even consider buying into this format war.

    I'll wait until there's a format where, when I push the Menu button after inserting a disc, I DON'T get "operation prohibited by disc". Prohibit my shiny white ass, disc makers!

  5. Re:Very irresponsible journalism by BalanceOfJudgement · · Score: 3, Insightful
    We will get Blu-ray and HD-DVD Windows support when the media and software companies decide we're finally allowed to watch the content we rightfully and legally purchased

    There, fixed that for you.
    --

    We are the fire that lights our world.. and we are the fire that consumes it.