Will my HTPC be able to display Blu-Ray?

The GPU should be able to decode a bluray disc, might consider getting more RAM.

the 7800gt probably doesn't have HDCP aswell so it won't be able to output the video.

also my PC which is slightly less powerful than yours can only just output 1080p video so I have doubts that if it did have HDCP that it could output Blu-Ray.

Thats why I want to replace my current video card with the one I linked to above (Radeon HD 4650). From what I've read, you are able to play blu-ray movies if you have SP2 installed on windows XP. Is this correct?

XP will be able to play blu-ray discs, you just need the right software, like PowerDVD. That 4650 has HDCP built in and would be perfect for a HTPC build. It'll take the load off the CPU when watching movies.

Ah! I couldn't edit my post! It's an HP laptop.

Whoops, should be HP.

Whoops, should be HP laptop. Couldn't edit my post for some reason...

Also VLC can't do HD or Blu-Ray, its only for standard video files.

What is the software included anyways, is it WinDVD?

I can speak from experience. I have that Blu Ray drive and XP.

The PowerDVD software is junk, especially the OEM version that comes with the drive. Quite a few people have had problems with it and have relegated to downloading cracked/pirated versions because some of PowerDVD's versions/updates cause problems with Blu Ray playback.

I highly recommend downloading K-Lite Mega Codec pack and installing the "Full w/ Media Player Classic". And also get AnyDVD HD so you won't have to update your software every time studios come out with newer BD+ protection. AnyDVD HD allows me to play my Blu Rays with MPC and it works far better than PowerDVD.

The 4650 is fine. Just try to find one that comes with either an HDMI port or DVI-to-HDMI adapter.

If you want DTS-HD and DD TrueHD playback, then you will also need a good sound card, something from ASUS or Azuntech and the ones you would need start at a little over $100. Otherwise, your sound will be reduced to DVD quality.

If this HTPC will be playing audio thru a stereo system, then you must upgrade the sound card to the $75+ level because everything lower, and especially the motherboard audio, will have noise and possibly crackle. I have a M-Audio external firewire professional setup with $250 Seinnheisser headphones and also a $75 creative sound card. The Creative sound card has some noise so that is why I recommend spending a little more money.

Alright, thanks for the input. I'm probably going to hold off on the Blu-Ray drive for a few more months, but I just bought this video card.
Sapphire Radeon HD 4650 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102829

Thanks. I'm kind of in the process of piecing together a decent home theater PC. Now I have the video card and in probably a few months I can get the Blu-Ray drive. Within the next year, I hope to get a quiet HTPC case, motherboard and processor. The computer I am using now works, but it is big and loud. Any other recommendations would be appreciated.

I really don't know at this point. I was thinking of going with AMD because they make some good cheap low power processors that are easy to cool.

I'm not using my current computer as a DVR, mainly just to stream movies from my main PC in my office and play a few old school emulated games. The processor I have now is only single core 2.0GHz, but it works for what I need it to do. I'm just using onboard sound and it is only hooked up through the TV, since I don't have a sound system in my living room.

I was using an old P4 1.4GHz with 384MB of RAM for this purpose, but it was struggling, so I bought my current set up off of craigslist for cheap.

I really like that Antec case. I've been looking at a couple different Shuttle barebones, they are tiny.

2.0Ghz?, hopefully my 2.4Ghz P4 can handle it lol.

I upgraded my video card to a Radeon HD 4650 and tried to play 1080p .mkv files, but the video is very choppy and CPU usage is at 100%. I have K-lite codec pack installed but I want to know if the video card is actually doing the decoding instead of the CPU. Any ideas? Do I need to install something else besides the catalyst drivers for AVIVO?

I've been having problems with a HD 3650 AGP with Avivo. I just found out that it can only decode VC-1, and H.264 with the newest ver. of PowerDVD or MPC-HC. WMV and MPEG2 encoding is not yet developed for MPC_HC tho.

I just tested a bonus video from Blu Ray Batman -DK which is a H.264 Elementary Stream and about 20% of my 4 cores were being used to play it. However, a 720p 1.09GB downloaded TV show uses 0% which uses H.264.

Playing a DVD with MPC-HC used 0%.

I think what we can take from this is that it might be a hit or miss when playing Hi-Def video. If a video was properly encoded, then we should be fine. I just can't believe that the studio would screw up encoding the Batman bonus video, which is the largest and longest bonus video on the disc. However, the actual movie is VC-1 and doesn't use CPU at all.

+1, A tutorial was meantioned earlier in this thread that helped me alot, thanks! H.264 can be decoded perfectly using a player called Media Player Classic - Home Cinema. But not all can be decoded. Certain files can't be accelerated with Avivo (ATI) while most of all can be decoded with Puervideo (Nvidia). I haven't tried MPEG-2 or VC-1 yet. Heres a great site for HD quicktime trailers that'll test your GPUs encoding power. For whoever owns or makes the site and its contents, thanks so much!

http://www.davestrailerpage.co.uk

So my bad, I meant that the graphics card will decode the file with its acceleration technology, i.e Purevideo, Avivo. The video does not need to be encoded.

Ok I spoke too soon. The video played fine and and didn't skip this time, but the processor usage is still jumping up to 100% and when I look in Catalyst Control Center, the GPU usage is at 0. When I pressed play the second time, the computer locked up and I had to reboot.

I've read about people having problems with hardware acceleration using Windows XP. Do you think I should install Windows 7 beta and try it?

Update - I installed Windows 7 and PowerDVD 9 and hardware decoding works great. CPU% is at about 10% with hardware decoding on and goes to 100% with it turned off. I still haven't gotten it to work yet on Windows XP, but I've yet to try the tutorial for MPC-HC.

It is a little bit slower than XP booting up, but for playing video I can't tell any difference. Now that I have hardware decoding working on Windows 7, HD video looks even better.

Here are the minimum requirements for Windows 7

* 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
* 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
* 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of avaiable disk space (64-bit)
* DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

I'm using the 32bit verision. I would say you should be able to run Windows 7 just fine. The only problem might be your graphics card, but you could always set it up to dual-boot XP and Win7 like I have. Then you can use both and when RC1 expires you don't have to reinstall XP.