Topic: HTPC Requirement for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray

[av_phile1]

This is no joke.  It seems it's confirmed that I will need to buy a totally new PC to supprt HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.  The CPU requirement is quite demanding.

http://www.cyberlink.com/english/support/bdhd_support/system_requirement.jsp

CPU

Intel Pentium EE 840 (3.2 GHz)
Intel Pentium EE 955 (3.4 GHz)
Intel Pentium D 9xx series 945 (3.4 GHz), 950 (3.4 GHz), 960 (3.6 GHz)
Intel Core Duo T2xxx series T2500 (2 GHz), T2600 (2.16 GHz), T2700 (2.33 GHz)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6xxx series E6300 (1.8 GHz), E6400 (2.13 GHz), E6600 (2.4 GHz), E6700 (2.66 GHz), E6800 (2.93 GHz)

AMD Athlon 64 FX series FX-60 (2.6 GHz), FX-62 (2.8 GHz)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 series 4200+ (2.2 GHz), 4400+ (2.2 GHz), 4600+ (2.4 GHz), 4800+ (2.4 GHz), 5000+ (2.6 GHz)
AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 (2 GHz)

System Memory (RAM)
512 MB or above, 1 GB is recommended

Disc Drive
Blu-ray Disc drive or HD DVD drive

Graphics Card

NVidia

GeForce
6600 GT
7600 GT
7800 GTX 512
7900 GX2
7900 GTX
7950 GX2

ATi X1600 series
X1800 series
X1900 series

Video RAM
256 MB graphics card memory or above

Display Devices
HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) compliant display (DVI, HDMI connections) for digital output
TV (composite, componet, S-Video) or computer monitor (VGA) for analog output

Operating System
Supports only Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed

Software
PowerDVD HD DVD or BD version. Note: An easy way to determine whether your version of PowerDVD supports Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD is to look for the Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD logo on the main screen of PowerDVD. If you don’t see either of those logos, it is likely your version of PowerDVD doesn’t support Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD title playback.

Apparently there's no recommended audio card.  I suppose the codecs for DolbyTrueHD and DTS-HD have yet to be provided to manufacturers.  Also it seems the immense data streams on the HD is not only memory intensive (reuqiring 1GB as its recommended level) but also CPU intensive to require dual core processing.  And also wider I/O bus speeds allowed by newer motherboards. 

[atomicat10]

I read something about HDCP chips enabled graphic cards and monitors which will make both devices utilize max resolution capability of HD and BD. Unfortunately only few are out yet. Without the chips only 25% resolution is achieved, bummer!

[av_phile1]

Most titles are not yet flagged for HDCP this early.  And there's a good chance it may not get implemented until much later.  So the early adopters of the formats are benefitting here.

[Philander]

Got this somehere:


Westinghouse LVM-42w2 1080p Monitor $1800
AMD FX 60, $800.
2 nvidia 7950 GX2, $1100.
Sony BWU-100a BluRay Drive, $800.
Crappy Cyberlink PowerDVD 6.6 BluRay Edition, Free.

Not being able to play BluRay movies on my pc and
getting a "disc with unsupported format in drive:E" message. PRICELESS!!!!



Hahahaha. I read that here: http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=1915


Also check some helpful discussion here: http://forum.blu-ray.com/forumdisplay.php?f=32

[scoob]

Are the video cards mentioned above already availble in the local market?  Kailangan ba may HDCP support din yung video card to play HD DVD or Bluray?

TIA