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Here's what you need to run a UHD blu-ray movie on your PC

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02-uhdbr-htpc.png
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PowerDVD 17 is also the fist certified software Blu-ray player capable of playing back Ultra HD (4K) Blu-rays on a PC. The hardware requirements are quite stringent, though. In addition to the two GIGABYTE boards mentioned below, the ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac is also an option for a UHD Blu-ray playback-capable HTPC. Pioneer is currently the only choice for PC-compatible UHD Blu-ray optical drives.

It is no secret that the onerous DRM requirements have made Blu-rays a pain for HTPC enthusiasts. PowerDVD 17 requires an active Internet connection for the first time playback of an Ultra HD Blu-ray movie. Consumers who appreciate the extra video and audio quality from local discs have to put up with these annoyances.
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As per anandtech.com.

You need one of three motherboards currently available, a brand new Intel CPU with DRM integrated, one of two UHD drives and PowerDVD on Windows 10. Either that, or just stream your shit to a 50 bucks Android box. But where's the fun in that?
 
M

Mindwipe

Member
The thread title is a little bit misleading, these are the requirements for UHD Blu-ray, not for UHD itself necessarily.
 
L

Lilalaunebaer

Member
Yep, if you wanna play a UHD-Blu-ray. If you, for some reason, have a rip of said UHD-Blu-Ray you don´t need any of that. Which is why it won´t atract a lot of consumers. Same thing with regular blu-rays. Too much of a hassle. Better to rip em.
 
Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
You still need the drive to do legal rips.

I don't know of many people actually playing from the disc directly on their htpc.
 
Mohonky

Mohonky

Member
Its a complete fuck around just to play blurays. I have a bluray drive but then you have to buy software on top which can be nearly as much as a player by itself.
 
T

ThoseDeafMutes

Member
Even regular bluray playback is like pulling teeth on PC. If I want to actually be able to use menus and shit I need to buy specialist software. I don't want to rip my whole collection to hard drive, so I'm basically forced to use either a dedicated player or a console as a media centre.
 
G

grendelrt

Member
So ridiculous the hoops you have to run through just to add a drive to a computer to play movies. I have a HTPC in my theater room and I just went standalone player this time, so damn stupid. My 6700K cant use a drive because of DRM, bleh fuck the movie industry.
 
S

Sho_Nuff82

Member
I put a BR drive into my home built PC (from 2007!) and I've never even used it because of the fuckery of software and DRM necessary to read discs.

I would honestly recommend anyone interested in the technology to buy a One S or Scorpio this fall.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
4k and the uhd stuff including the sound is a fucking ball ache. i invested in an amazing tv and though sonos had an amazing surround setup without receiver. haha not if you wanna play any kind of surround that isnt just dolby digital.

im so pissed at sonos, what a massive outlay for last gen surround. they even just released a new product with optical only.

smfh
 
M

MikeHattsu

Member
orava said:
I'd rather spend my money on a proper dedicated player than some cheap afterthought. But having the functionality in a HTPC would definitely be the best option.
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The Xbox will probably be supported with updated firmware longer than many dedicated players though.
 
C

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
SlaughterX said:
It's great that you can finally do it, but when you can buy an Xbox One S for $200... why bother?
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because i dont an xbox. And it means we're one step closing to someone cracking the DRM and allow us to be able to do what we've been doing with regular blu-rays for years which is rip them, put them in our digital library and stream them to our HTPC with Kodi or Plex.
 
D

Dr.Acula

Banned
I bought a Blu-Ray player for my PC and the software stopped working when I reformatted. Maybe it expired anyway, I don't know, it's a rip-off regardless.

DVDs are a hassle too, but at least windows has a license and they work in VLC/Media Player or whatever.

I don't know why these film studios sent Blu-Ray out to die.
 
C

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
catfish said:
4k and the uhd stuff including the sound is a fucking ball ache. i invested in an amazing tv and though sonos had an amazing surround setup without receiver. haha not if you wanna play any kind of surround that isnt just dolby digital.

im so pissed at sonos, what a massive outlay for last gen surround. they even just released a new product with optical only.

smfh
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sonos isnt designed for ultra high end audio and those wanting the absolute best and newest sound, 5 minutes of research should have told you that.

They dont even have a proper 5.1 setup until recently.
 
K

Klotera

Member
Lilalaunebaer said:
Yep, if you wanna play a UHD-Blu-ray. If you, for some reason, have a rip of said UHD-Blu-Ray you don´t need any of that. Which is why it won´t atract a lot of consumers. Same thing with regular blu-rays. Too much of a hassle. Better to rip em.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I already rip my Blu-rays for convenience. Basically rip them and then put them in storage (except 3D, since there isn't a great way to rip).

Is there any good software for ripping UHD yet? I already have some UHD discs for future proofing, since they come with regular Blu-rays, too. Would like to get those ripped and then should be able to play from my Shield. Don't want to buy the drive until I know I'll be able to do the rip.
 
H

Herr Schwarz

Banned
I try to reduce my physical media needs as a way of reducing my carbon footprint.

Digital downloads all the way, do the atmosphere a favour.
 
K

KHlover

Banned
BluRay industry gonna BluRay industry. Got no one to blame but themselves that BluRay never blew up on PC like CD and DVD did.
 
D

Daedardus

Member
They really dropped the ball with Blu-Ray on PC. The licensing costs and DRM protections accross the board are all so high, that Blu-ray drives cost a fortune, you need to pay a lot for workable software, the discs are more expensive too... Blu-ray could have easily replaced DVD for PC games, but they created such big hurdles that it's much easier to just download everything through services like Steam. Which sometimes sucks, because some places still have strict download caps, like at my dorm.
 
M

matrix-cat

Member
I was just wondering about this earlier today. I was changing over my hardware into a new case and found out the Blu Ray drive was all fucked up, so I was thinking about looking up whether you could buy a UHD Blu Ray drive. I think I'll pass, though.
 
S

Sho_Nuff82

Member
orava said:
But then i would own an xbox. Also, looking at the 4K playback reviews of the S, it does not look that good.
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captive said:
because i dont an xbox. And it means we're one step closing to someone cracking the DRM and allow us to be able to do what we've been doing with regular blu-rays for years which is rip them, put them in our digital library and stream them to our HTPC with Kodi or Plex.
Click to expand...

Guys, this isn't gaming side, so this stuff kinda looks ridiculous out of context.
 
P

PumpkinSpice

Banned
So I only recently jumped into regular old blurays and the entire "how do I even play this on my PC" part is completely insane. Like everywhere I looked it was like "just rip it and break the copy protection, it's not worth even trying to play the discs direct."

This is a whole 'nother level of stupid.
 
S

Somnid

Member
Both my wife and I have BR drives in our computers, neither of us have been able to successfully play a bluray with them due to the the DRM mixed with the absolutely awful PowerDVD which is essentially the only software that can actually play them. Fuck this industry.
 
R

robotrock

Banned
Mohonky said:
Its a complete fuck around just to play blurays. I have a bluray drive but then you have to buy software on top which can be nearly as much as a player by itself.
Click to expand...

Yeah I have a bluray drive in mind but I have never actually watched a bluray on it.
 
K

Kerensky

Banned
spons said:
As per anandtech.com.

You need one of three motherboards currently available, a brand new Intel CPU with DRM integrated, one of two UHD drives and PowerDVD on Windows 10. Either that, or just stream your shit to a 50 bucks Android box. But where's the fun in that?
Click to expand...

Are you telling me that it's easier to play Witcher 3 in 4k that it is to watch a moving picture in the same resolution?
 
T

tuffy

Member
Ripping discs has always been more convenient than trying to play them back directly on the PC, going all the way back to the days when audio CDs were king. Eventually the music industry figured out that selling people downloads and subscriptions to streaming services were a better way to go than trying to fight MP3s. But the movie industry is hung up on these annoying DRM schemes so trying to play video discs through approved channels is still a huge pain in the ass.
 
Z

ZOONAMI

Junior Member
tuffy said:
Ripping discs has always been more convenient than trying to play them back directly on the PC, going all the way back to the days when audio CDs were king. Eventually the music industry figured out that selling people downloads and subscriptions to streaming services were a better way to go than trying to fight MP3s. But the movie industry is hung up on these annoying DRM schemes so trying to play video discs through approved channels is still a huge pain in the ass.
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It should just be set up so that if you buy a UHD disc it gives you a code for a lossless download of the movie with DRM like denuvo on the file.
 
D

Dan-o

Member
I used to be into the whole HTPC thing, but kind of grew out of it. I can appreciate that there's still a tiny market for it, though. I'm happy with the Xbox One S for my UHD discs.

MikeHattsu said:
Yup, and PowerDVD is terrible.
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Also this. TMT Media Player was the best... not sure if they're even around anymore.
 
T

tuffy

Member
ZOONAMI said:
It should just be set up so that if you buy a UHD disc it gives you a code for a lossless download of the movie with DRM like denuvo on the file.
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If they're going to provide a lossless download of the movie with DRM, why not let people skip the "buy the UHD disc" part of the process? Then, just as the music industry eventually gave up on forcing Apple to foist DRM on its song downloads, the movie industry can eventually ditch the soon-to-be-cracked DRM schemes altogether.
 
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