Play Blu-Ray with Atom 330

[chaugh]

Hi,

Does anyone know if the Atom 330 capable of playing a Blu-Ray movie to my Samsung 46 inch HD TV in 1080p? Would the stream be downgraded because it's not HDCP?

Chris

 

[WR2]

What motherboard chip set will you be using? Going with mini-ITX format?

If you get a motherboard with the Intel GMA X4500HD video chipset I'd say you'd be good to go.
One of the Intel GMA 950 video motherboards? Maybe not the right choice for Blu-Ray and 1080P output.

If you're going with micro-ATX you can usually upgrade with a video card to help do the HD output decoding.

You're concerned that Atom 330 is not "HDCP"? (Hint; Can you find any other CPU that is?)

 

[angry_ducky]

If you get a motherboard with a PCI Express slot, you could throw a cheap video card in there which supports Blu-Ray acceleration. Something like a GeForce 9500GT, Radeon HD3450, etc.

 

[spathotan]

Looking over Neweggs selection (kind of limited in barebones), all of them have GMA 950, which wont cut it. You will definetly need to add a video card if you do go with one of those.

 

[photonboy]

I assume (if still there..) you wish to build an efficient PC-based system to play BluRay, DVD etc.

Yes, the ATOM "can" playback BluRay if paired with a newer card that has hardware video decoders.

There are several technical issues in building a HTPC which I just don't want to get into.

At present, I recommend getting a Sony PS3, a standalone BD/DVD player or use a laptop with HDMI HDCP output if it.

If the laptop has a fast enough processor it doesn't need the hardware video decoders (aka "UVD") from ATI or NVidia. Currently, on a laptop or desktop, you must software toggle between normal sound and HDMI sound as the HDMI sound is only streamed from the disc and is not processed via the sound card. However, I don't believe all of the newer BluRay sounds can be sent without intermediary processing which isn't available with this method, so this is one of the "issues" I won't discuss further. Of course, you could use this only for media playback but then why not just buy a $250 standalone player?

If you really want to build a standalone Home Theater PC for BD/DVD etc my advice is wait another year as motherboards as PC hardware still has to sort out these issues (not to mention Home Servers are just taking off.)

 

[jimmysmitty]

Hi,

Does anyone know if the Atom 330 capable of playing a Blu-Ray movie to my Samsung 46 inch HD TV in 1080p? Would the stream be downgraded because it's not HDCP?

Chris

Yes it can play 1080p through the VGA port. I am assuming you have either a LNA550 or 650 which has a blue VGA port for moonitors. The VGA ports are fully capable of supporting full 1080p res.

Hell I ahve my PC hooked up via DVI to HDMI and I run all my movies and stuff in 1080p on a 40" Samsung HDTV. Its awesome.