[WWEfanUK]

Hi guys,

I bought an xbox360 hddvd drive today (part of the current gamestation deal) i was just wondering with regards to setting it up on a computer... i have managed to get it set up, plugged it in, d/l drivers and get it recognised as a drive on my PC but how easy is it to play hd-dvd content? I recently downloaded the cyberlink blu-ray/hd checker and it said my graphics card/firmware/player software and monitor did not meet spec's to go HD yet!

In truth, i need a new PC anyway (this 1 is pretty old) ..my question is, what is important to have an HD-compliant PC...

I know for a fact my monitor is HDCP compliant, it doesnt have an HDMI (i think thats why the cyberlink checker said i wasnt hd ready , pardon the pun) but does have DVI and VGA inputs, it's a Samsung 226CW..

any info on this would be greatly appreciated...



also does anyone know why there are 2 seperate usb ports on the xbox360 hddvd drive?

[stevelup]

The most likely problem is that your video card is not HDCP compliant.

[dan_n_out]

The extra USB ports on the back are so you can add more devices to your 360/PC. Could be useful if you're running low on USB ports on your PC and then take the last one with the drive.

[cjed]

Originally Posted by WWEfanUK

In truth, i need a new PC anyway (this 1 is pretty old) ..my question is, what is important to have an HD-compliant PC...

You need an HDCP compliant graphics card - and it helps if it's a reasonable specification. If your monitor if HDCP compliant then connecting via DVI is fine, you don't need an HDMI connection.

You'll need a pretty recent processor, say a 2GHz+ core duo and 2GB+ of RAM

Then you'll need a sound card that can do digital out and is supported by your selected player software.

Then there's the software, currently there are only 3 manufacturers producing HD-DVD/Blu-ray player software. There's Cyberlink with PowerDVD, ArcSoft with TotalMedia Theatre and Intervideo with WinDVD. I've not tried WinDVD's HD player, and found PowerDVD Ultra unstable (plus, the latest version no longer supports HD-DVD). My recommendation (and the one I currently use) is Arcsoft's TotalMedia Theatre - there's a trial version you can download to check it will work on your system.
ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre

I'm using this with a PC that has an internal Pioneer Blu-ray drive, and an external XBOX 360 HD-DVD drive fitted. The PC has a NVidia 8600 HDCP graphics card connected to a monitor via DVI, a 2.2GHz core duo CPU and 2Gb of RAM.

[WWEfanUK]

thankyou cjed! very useful info and just what i was after

[chocky909]

Can I ask a question regarding using this with my PC instead of my 360? Is it possible to play HD DVDs at 1080/24p through a HTPC or is the lack of 24p support a problem with the drive? I know HD DVDs suffer from judder played through a 360 whether you have a 24p display or not but can this be rectified by using the drive with a PC.

Basically, if I want to play HD DVDs in 1080/24p will I need to buy a standalone player?

[stevelup]

Hi

It's nothing to do with the drive - 24FPS capability is down to the rest of the hardware. In the case of a PC, there is nothing stopping you.

You should be able to output 48 or 72Hz which will give you perfect 24FPS capability.

Steve

[chocky909]

Interesting. Thanks. I'll try it out at the weekend. I have no idea whether my GFX card is compatible though. Nvidia 8600GT. I think that some are HDCP and some aren't. Sod's law says mine isn't. Is there a way to check before I hook the drive up?

[DragonOfSilver]

Pretty sure the entire 8xxx series is hdcp, they started switchover in 7xxx series I believe

[chocky909]

Googling 8600GT suggest otherwise.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...e+Search&meta=

EDIT

Although it seems that if I use AnyDVD HD then it doesn't matter.

[tobybunny]

Originally Posted by cjed

Then there's the software, currently there are only 3 manufacturers producing HD-DVD/Blu-ray player software. There's Cyberlink with PowerDVD, ArcSoft with TotalMedia Theatre and Intervideo with WinDVD.

Actually Nero 8 will play back blu ray and HD-DVD as well as burn both . I tried windvd9 blu ray at first but found it was not compatible with my graphics card (NVidia 9600 GT ) - choppy playback and stuttering on both HD discs and dvds - and that is on a system with a Q6600 procssor !
but Nero Showtime played back both formats as smooth as silk, even though I don't have an HDCP compliant monitor - with AnyHD-DVD it worked perfectly If you already have Nero 8 the HD plug-in costs £ 15.

[cjed]

Originally Posted by tobybunny

Actually Nero 8 will play back blu ray and HD-DVD as well as burn both . I tried windvd9 blu ray at first but found it was not compatible with my graphics card (NVidia 9600 GT ) - choppy playback and stuttering on both HD discs and dvds - and that is on a system with a Q6600 procssor !
but Nero Showtime played back both formats as smooth as silk, even though I don't have an HDCP compliant monitor - with AnyHD-DVD it worked perfectly If you already have Nero 8 the HD plug-in costs £ 15.

Ah, I did see mention of HD playback with Nero 8 but assumed it was from media files not HD-DVD/Blu-ray - I'll have to give it a go ...

[tobybunny]

it (Nero Showtime) works fine from disc playback via the LG Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combo drive but there is one peculiar quirk ..
some discs only playback with AnyDVD(HD) enabled and others only play back with it disabled
of course that may be just me as although my system is fully HDCP compliant , the monitor is not

[DougieB]

Originally Posted by cjed

You need an HDCP compliant graphics card - and it helps if it's a reasonable specification. If your monitor if HDCP compliant then connecting via DVI is fine, you don't need an HDMI connection.

You'll need a pretty recent processor, say a 2GHz+ core duo and 2GB+ of RAM

Then you'll need a sound card that can do digital out and is supported by your selected player software.

Then there's the software, currently there are only 3 manufacturers producing HD-DVD/Blu-ray player software. There's Cyberlink with PowerDVD, ArcSoft with TotalMedia Theatre and Intervideo with WinDVD. I've not tried WinDVD's HD player, and found PowerDVD Ultra unstable (plus, the latest version no longer supports HD-DVD). My recommendation (and the one I currently use) is Arcsoft's TotalMedia Theatre - there's a trial version you can download to check it will work on your system.
ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre

I'm using this with a PC that has an internal Pioneer Blu-ray drive, and an external XBOX 360 HD-DVD drive fitted. The PC has a NVidia 8600 HDCP graphics card connected to a monitor via DVI, a 2.2GHz core duo CPU and 2Gb of RAM.

HI
Question?
Did Arcsoft player playback from 360 HD-DVD player on installation or did
you have to install anything else.

DougieB

[nwgarratt]

Will this drive work with my spec? I won't be displaying it at 720 or 1080 as my projector is 480p. So, I will be downscaling it from the pc (848 x 480). I can get a cracking picture from HD WMV files (up to 1080p) and they play ok.

Athlon 64 3700+
2GB RAM
NVidia 6150

I can get round HDCP with AnyDVD.

[cjed]

Originally Posted by DougieB

HI
Question?
Did Arcsoft player playback from 360 HD-DVD player on installation or did
you have to install anything else.

DougieB

Sorry about the slow reply. You do need the drivers to allow your PC to access the 360 add-on correctly. They're available from several sites on the web.

Once those are installed, Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre played back HD-DVDs from the 360 add-on fine with no additional software.

I've just got the Nero HD playback plug-in, but haven't had a change to try it yet. It doesn't seem to work with my Nero V7 (although their web site says it does).

[cjed]

Originally Posted by nwgarratt

Will this drive work with my spec? I won't be displaying it at 720 or 1080 as my projector is 480p. So, I will be downscaling it from the pc (848 x 480). I can get a cracking picture from HD WMV files (up to 1080p) and they play ok.

Athlon 64 3700+
2GB RAM
NVidia 6150

I can get round HDCP with AnyDVD.

I would expect it to be OK - if you can play 1080p content via a media player you should be fine. You do of course need a USB2 port to plug the drive in to.

[nwgarratt]

Originally Posted by cjed

I would expect it to be OK - if you can play 1080p content via a media player you should be fine. You do of course need a USB2 port to plug the drive in to.

Thanks. USB 2.0 isn't a problem as I have plenty of ports left.

I have played up to 1080p WMV and Quicktime files. I use VLC and Media Player Classic.

There is a Gamestation near by so I may go and see if they have any.

btw, is the drive externally powered or does it get all the power from the USB?

[cjed]

Originally Posted by nwgarratt

Thanks. USB 2.0 isn't a problem as I have plenty of ports left.

I have played up to 1080p WMV and Quicktime files. I use VLC and Media Player Classic.

There is a Gamestation near by so I may go and see if they have any.

btw, is the drive externally powered or does it get all the power from the USB?

It's externally powered - it also comes with a 360 remote controller, a bargain for £25 (with 2 HD-DVDs of your choice).

[DougieB]

Originally Posted by cjed

Sorry about the slow reply. You do need the drivers to allow your PC to access the 360 add-on correctly. They're available from several sites on the web.

Once those are installed, Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre played back HD-DVDs from the 360 add-on fine with no additional software.

I've just got the Nero HD playback plug-in, but haven't had a change to try it yet. It doesn't seem to work with my Nero V7 (although their web site says it does).

Hi
Thanks for the reply. I have the drivers for the 360 HD Drive and my PC recognizes it but Arcsoft does not appear to see it although the drive letter (in this case J) appears in the Arcsoft drive list but does not show any title against the letter, for that matter it does not even recognize my DVD writer or ROM drives. Any ideas.
Thanks in anticipation. I am running an AMD 4200 x2 @2.6Gig and my graphics
card is a Raedon 1600 Pro with 512 DDR II memory (PCIe).

DougieB

[jellofund]

I'm trying to hook my 360 hd-dvd player to my pc using Power DVD Ultra (hi-def suite).

I've installed all the drivers and Power DVD detects my player ok. However, when I click 'play' a disc I get the following warning:

'A critical component of the player requires updating. New movies could fail to play if the critical component is not updated promptly. Would you like to update now?'

I click the option to update, it downloads some kind of patch file. Rather than the usual 'run' or 'save' option you get with download files I am asked if I want to 'find' or 'save'. ('find' takes you to a Windows web page that says it does not recognise this MIME file???)


Not sure where the file needs to be saved.....have tried saving it in the Power DVD folder but am still hitting the same warning message.

Anybody else managed to apply the update & where did you save it to?

Many thanks!

[Smith2004]

Tom, Save it to the desktop, put .exe after the file name and double click on it, it should start to run.

[jellofund]

Originally Posted by Smith2004

Tom, Save it to the desktop, put .exe after the file name and double click on it, it should start to run.

That worked a treat - thanks very much for the help!