Questions regarding HTPC throughts (1 Viewer)

[Razz2o4]

Well, I have been dabbling a little with HD movies on my computer and am not really impressed. I have been streaming them to my PS3 and have yet to find a program that will keep up with it. It's very jumpy and not fun to watch.
I have decided to try building a HTPC since it will be wired up to everything. No more streaming it across the network.
For my build I would probably build it very similar to what I currently have for my PC setup. AMD Phenom II 940 and most likely leave stock. I am currently overclocked at 3.2G and happy. 4GB Patriot Memory Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB HD. I am a little hung up on vid card as I'm not farmiliar with HDCP. Maybe someone can elaborate on that. What my question is, what programing do I need to be able to take my BR disc's and store them on my HD then also be able to play them? Will I need any special software to be able to play them back? The only other thing I would be keeping on there is my entire collection of DVDs so I can get them put up and stored. My BR collection is growing slowly. Do I need any special Sound card or will the MOBO handle that? Will the HDMI from the Vid card transfer the sound over to my HK reciever? any help and thoughts on system setup would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Stephen Orr]

I have converted my BR discs to iso's on hard drives connected via usb. I have a NVidia graphic card with an HDMI out, and run the cable directed into my Denon A/V receiver. There are programs, well, a specific program I use, that can remove the HDCP coding when you create the iso, but I am not sure I can specify it here. I recently upgraded to PowerDVD 10 Ultra, which now supports HDMI audio output, and it also integrates nicely into Windows Media Center 7. I use the free program MyMovies 3, which also integrates into WMC7, to create a browseable display of all of my BR movies (my regular DVD movies as well). The sound through my Denon is awesome, and the picture is perfect on my 46in Sony Bravia. I am using an older HP m7680y with maxed out RAM, but no overclocking, as my machine.

 

[Razz2o4]

Very intersting. My biggest problem will be figuring out what to use program wise. I won't have any problem creating the Iso, its just finding the proper program to play it. I appreciate the help! I am thinking of building a proper HTPC to sit in the entertainment center. So there is no Quality loss in the playback?

 

[mattCR]

If you're going to ISO, you'll need to use an ISO mounting tool, there are several available, and a program that can mount and play. Realize (see the Wikki) that most programs have now disbanded support of this under pressure (PowerDVD and TMT3 no longer support this). You can do so with DVD using many tools.

Then link to programs such as MediaBrowser. There are other tools which provide zero quality loss, but they cannot be addressed here.

 

[Parker Clack]

I love my HTPC with Windows 7 and MCE. I use TMT over PowerDVD as PowerDVD does not support HD DVD and TMT does. I still have a few HD DVD discs and I wanted to be able to watch them.

There are other tools which provide zero quality loss, but they cannot be addressed here.

matt:

Thanks for the reminder to members that discussion of programs that can defeat copy protection is not allowed on the forum.