[Ryan-G]

Just caught this, and surprised it didn't get brought up yet.

Sony's releasing a BR PC Drive capable of reading/writing BR, DVD, and CD's at the end of July, including DL BR support. Pricing is $750 USD.

Of course, it requires a HDCP compliant vid card and display, but for HTPCers and the few people who watch media on the PC, this is something interesting.

No word yet on what software is being used for playback, or whether it's constrained without Vista. Not sure if the existing DVD playback software is capable of handling HD output, perhaps someone here knows if media player, Win-DVD, or PowerDVD is capable of the task?

I never thought I'd say this, but I believe that so far Sony's pricing for a BR drive is the lowest. I think the other announced/released drives are still $1k+.

[Austan]

They did hoard all the blu-ray lasers... and I'm pretty sure they are subsidizing it also...

[Jose Martinez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryan-G

Just caught this, and surprised it didn't get brought up yet.

Sony's releasing a BR PC Drive capable of reading/writing BR, DVD, and CD's at the end of July, including DL BR support. Pricing is $750 USD.

Of course, it requires a HDCP compliant vid card and display, but for HTPCers and the few people who watch media on the PC, this is something interesting.

No word yet on what software is being used for playback, or whether it's constrained without Vista. Not sure if the existing DVD playback software is capable of handling HD output, perhaps someone here knows if media player, Win-DVD, or PowerDVD is capable of the task?

I never thought I'd say this, but I believe that so far Sony's pricing for a BR drive is the lowest. I think the other announced/released drives are still $1k+.

If you're referring to the BWU-100A, it's a piece of crap! It won't even be able to read copy-protected movies. ie can't watch it!!!

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3744


I think HD-DVD will be the eventual winner because of Sony's blunders

[Rob_Walton]

Presumably this one must be targetted at the pro-sumer market: indy film makers, and pornographers. That's the only explaination I can think of for it being unable to play BD-ROMs.

[Lew Crippen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob_Walton

Presumably this one must be targetted at the pro-sumer market: indy film makers, and pornographers. That's the only explaination I can think of for it being unable to play BD-ROMs.

I assume that it is for commercial applications (and porn would fall in that category ).

There is a lot of demand for cost-effective storage (and this is not much money for commercial purposes). For these kinds of uses, the ability to play movies is not usuful.

[Kong Chang]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jose Martinez

If you're referring to the BWU-100A, it's a piece of crap! It won't even be able to read copy-protected movies. ie can't watch it!!!

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3744


I think HD-DVD will be the eventual winner because of Sony's blunders

Not really since they say it won't play now, but the feature of playability is manufactured onto the drive and has been disabled and all it takes is a firmware bios patch once more HDCP compliant hardware is more readily available. Manufacturers usually just disable a feature and enable it via patch/firmware later down the road. This is pretty much common knowledge of computer electronics.

[Brian-W]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jose Martinez

If you're referring to the BWU-100A, it's a piece of crap! It won't even be able to read copy-protected movies. ie can't watch it!!!

From Sony's site on the BWU-100A

"Playback of commercial movies on Blu-ray Disc (BD-ROM) requires additional software/hardware not included with this product. Requires compatible high-definition display for high-definition playback. Playback of AACS protected media may require an HDCP compliant output and HDCP compliant display. Photo CD playback requires additional software not bundled with this drive."

With the new Nvidia/ATI cards and an HDCP display, shouldn't be a problem.

[Kong Chang]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian-W

From Sony's site on the BWU-100A

"Playback of commercial movies on Blu-ray Disc (BD-ROM) requires additional software/hardware not included with this product. Requires compatible high-definition display for high-definition playback. Playback of AACS protected media may require an HDCP compliant output and HDCP compliant display. Photo CD playback requires additional software not bundled with this drive."

With the new Nvidia/ATI cards and an HDCP display, shouldn't be a problem.

Which means, Sony did manufacture the BR-ROM to play movies but had it disabled at the time of manufacturing. All they need to do is release a firmware upgrade to enable it once the HDCP compliant hardware becomes standardized (and so forth) in PCs. This also means, hackers also have a chance of breaking this disabling code and enabling the feature on the BR-ROM. We shall wait and see on this one.

[Jose Martinez]

yeah I know that a firmware update is all that's needed to get the drive to read copy-protected BR-discs but my point is that Sony, with all it's troubles in getting the PS3 released plus this, isn't helping them out in the high def war. It's also an incentive for hackers to work on a "workaround" to get BR discs to play without copy-protection. it's a lose-lose situation for sony

[Sam Davatchi]

Where does it say that it's disabled? It says clearly that if you have an HDCP graphic card, an HDCP monitor and the software player, you should be perfectly able to watch blu-ray movies with it.

[Jose Martinez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Davatchi

Where does it say that it's disabled? It says clearly that if you have an HDCP graphic card, an HDCP monitor and the software player, you should be perfectly able to watch blu-ray movies with it.

Did you read the article? It was dated August 11, 2006. That description of the drive is from the specs when Sony announced the drive months ago.