Going Blu-Ray, The Inexpensive Way
Now that Blu-Ray has won the war, prices on players have begun to drop dramatically as companies begin full-fledged attempts to establish themselves as the best in building Blu-Ray players. Blu-Ray players can be had for around $200 for a base model, which looks good compared to a year ago. Still, when compared to dime-a-dozen DVD players, the price of Blu-Ray is still expensive.
But there is an unexpected hero willing to fight for your pocketbook - your PC. Blu-Ray players for HTPCs have been around for some time, and their prices have dropped along with the prices for stand-alone units. Currently, it is possible to purchase a Blu-Ray player for your HTPC at a price of around $99 dollars, half that of basic stand-alone units. Thanks to this bargain pricing, turning your PC into a Blu-Ray player is an attractive solution, although there are some requirements you'll need to ensure your HTPC meets before you upgrade to a Blu-Ray player.
Preparing Your PC
The first roadblock you will need to clear on your path to cheap Blu-Ray enjoyment is the performance of your HTPC. Blu-Ray is not a format which will handle your PC with kid's gloves. Displaying large, high-detail images on a screen many times per second takes a significant amount of muscle, as does plowing through the encoding used to protect the disc from pirates and condense the video and audio into a more palatable size.
There are several areas of performance which you'll need to pay attention to. The first is your processor. A decent dual-core like an Athlon 64 or a Core 2 is recommended. Single-core processors and modern budget dual-cores like Intel's Celeron series may not be up to the challenge. Theoretically, the GPU - which I'll cover next - should be able to take most of the load off the processor. But theory does not always become practice. It is not unusual to see a moderately powerful Core 2 processor working heavily when displaying 1080p Blu-Ray content.
Secondly you'll want to check on your GPU. Having a GPU which is capable of taking on the task of displaying high-def video should take the burden off your processor, creating less strain on the system as a whole. In addition, a good GPU can offer HDMI-out abilities which allow you to run video and audio directly from your PC to your HDTV using a single cable. This makes hooking an HTPC up to your home theater system much easier. For Blu-Ray content, you'll probably want something from the Radeon 3000 series or newer, or an Nvidia card from the 9000 series or newer.
Turning your PC into a Blu Ray Player
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