Blu Ray on a laptop

[Spod]

I'm looking to buy a new laptop which will also have a BD-Rom player and optical out with HDMI so I can get it to the TV and amp.

In general are the PC versions of the players upgradeable much like the PS3 and is Region an issue?

[mudstuff]

Depends what laptop you get. I have a Sony AR51SU and they use Matshita drives which AnyDVD HD doesn't support. So I can basically only switch region a few times and it will lock. Not really a problem as most things are out on both regions though you sometimes have to wait a little longer for region b.

The software players get upgraded often and the whole experience is good. I get audio out over HDMI too though it is limited to 2 channels (PCs aren't quite there yet with the audio side of things). It has an optical out as well though.

So if you don't need multiregion, the Sonys are very good machines. Otherwise, check what drive the laptop has before purchase.

[Jon_C]

"I have a Sony AR51SU and they use Matshita drives which AnyDVD HD doesn't support."

The final part of this statement is incorrect. My Dell XPS M1530 has a Matshita Blu-ray drive and it works perfectly with AnyDVD HD to play back region A locked movies.

Perhaps your Sony laptop has some other incompatibility with region A discs.

[mudstuff]

Originally Posted by Jon_C

"I have a Sony AR51SU and they use Matshita drives which AnyDVD HD doesn't support."

The final part of this statement is incorrect. My Dell XPS M1530 has a Matshita Blu-ray drive and it works perfectly with AnyDVD HD to play back region A locked movies.

Perhaps your Sony laptop has some other incompatibility with region A discs.

There's nothing incorrect about that statement. The majority of matshita drives do not work with AnyDVD and this is widely reported. I don't have any other incompatibility issue, the error comes from AnyDVD.

Said something along the lines of:

failed to read DVD!
several reasons:
1.dvd media is dirty - i doubt mine is
2.dvd media is damage - doubt it
3.Your drive is a region locked rpc2drive, which does not allow reading of scrambled sectors from a different region and u try to read a dvd from a diff region. known drives having problems are ricoh/philips dvd writers, matshita/ panasonic dvd readers and writers. You can try to find rpc1 patched firmware...
4. Your drive is rpc2 drive that has not yet been assigned a region. try to assign one, or try to find a rpc1 patched firmware..

I think I have a UJ-220S so you must have a different model or different firmware - the dell firmware is likely to be different though ironically they are usually more restrictive, not less.

[Jon_C]

Mudstuff, I think I've just figured out what you meant when you said "...Matshita drives which AnyDVD HD doesn't support".

I read it as "AnyDVD HD doesn't support Matshita drives". Clearly, to say this would be incorrect, given that my Matshita drive works with AnyDVD HD. I now see that you meant that your laptop uses a particular model of Matshita drive that is unsupported by AnyDVD.

I hope this clears matters up for the OP.

I also note that Mudstuff is getting an error code that refers to RPC1 and RPC2 drives. Perhaps he or she could clarify whether these refer to Blu-ray or DVD playback. Mudstuff, have you tried a region A Blu-ray on your Matshita drive (running AnyDVD HD first of course)? If not, don't be disheartened by the problem with standard DVD playback - I have encountered a similar problem on some region 1 RCE-protected DVDs with AnyDVD but it works flawlessly with region A Blu-rays.

As far as I know, whether you have an RPC1 or RPC2 drive is only important with regard to standard-definition DVDs. It sounds as though Mudstuff knows a bit more than I about this, though, so any corrections to this would be appreciated.

However, the OP's enquiry seems to focus on Blu-rays.

Usually a Blu-ray drive that is coded to region B would have its DVD playback restricted to region 2 but I see no reason why they could not be changed independently if, say, you wanted to use up one of your five DVD region changes to set the drive to region 1 for US DVDs and keep the Blu-ray region setting as region B, knowing that AnyDVD HD should work just fine for Blu-rays. Depends what sort of media you will mainly be playing (HD or SD).

AnyDVD identifies my drive as a "MATSHITA BD-RE UJ-225S Q310 10/12/07HF2V +", if that helps the OP.

I'd also like to make another suggestion if price is an issue. If Spod's main focus isn't on portability (given the desire to connect the laptop to an amp), then perhaps built-in Blu-ray isn't strictly necessary. A much cheaper option would be to buy a laptop that has a good enough processor, graphics card and amount of Ram to support Blu-ray playback but just has, say, a DVD drive built-in.

Then add a cheapo LG Blu-ray drive (about £80) using a Sata to USB 2.0 enclosure (about £30) and you're in business.

Having said that, people have different needs from their laptops and it is nice to be able to connect it to a mate's amp and TV if the mood takes you, for example.

I am a sucker for a nice gadget and the lure of a built-in Blu-ray drive was too much for me, even though it cost an extra few hundred quid.

I hope you enjoy yours.

On a final note, depending on which laptop you choose, you might need to add a decent soundcard for optical out or (for high-def audio) analogue out.

[mudstuff]

Hi Jon_C, glad you see where I'm coming from. I know some Matshita drives work fine while others don't for some reason. I've not tried it with bluray as everything I own is either Region B or Region free but would have thought it would be the same story - I'm pretty sure powerDVD allows 5 changes with bluray too and will then lock. Since anydvd isn't helping on the DVD side of things, I didn't think it would be likely to do better with Blu though I could be wrong. I have read of other people having exactly this problem though on firmware websites. I was simply saying that there do seem to be issues with different drives so it's something for the OP to look out for.

My main bluray player is a panasonic BD30 hooked up to an Onkyo 606 for all the lossless formats. I'm therefore unlikely to ever purchase Region A discs in the near future as I'd have to play them on the laptop that only does standard 5.1 via optical or 2 channel via HDMI though updates to firmware and powerdvd might change that. I have a friend that might have some Region A discs so will look into it and post back.

I plan to build a decent HTPC when the audio situation has improved on PC and I can output lossless audio with video over hdmi to the amp. Until then I'm restricted to Region B and region free which isn't so bad, plenty to pick from and I also get 3 discs from lovefilm every few days.

[Jon_C]

Thanks for posting more.

I look at AnyDVD's abilities and shortcomings from the opposite perspective - because I successfully played a region A Blu-ray first of all, I was disappointed when AnyDVD failed to work its magic on a region 1 DVD that had RCE.

However, I think you will be pleasantly surprised when you try a region A Blu-ray with AnyDVD HD if you can get your hands on a test disc from your mate.

A successful outcome might even persuade you to part with about £70 for an external soundcard that will allow you to play back the high-def formats to your amp's analogue inputs (if you can be arsed with that).

It's nice having a laptop as a region-free Blu-ray player that can also pump out high-def audio - two important features that my previous setup (PS3 and optical out - sadly I don't have an amp with HDMI just yet) couldn't provide.

[mudstuff]

Fair enough. I see your perspective and don't think I necessarily come from the opposite. I hardly watch DVDs and even if anydvd won't play them, I've managed to rip them and remove the protection with another app. Not that any of it matters due to my home cinema setup. I see what you are saying about using it as a region free player but I'd personally wait a few weeks longer and buy the Region B if the US disc isn't region free. It works both ways as there are some films that come out here first.

I absolutely plan to sell the BD30 and get a HTPC when the audio over HDMI issue is resolved and there's some better soundcards available and do connect my laptop up now and then. I agree it's the way forward but it's not quite there yet and the simplicity of the BD30 + 606 (especially for the wife) is great.