Is this hardware capable of Blu-Ray playback?

[McBainUK]

I've been in contact with Arcsoft regarding Total Media Theatre 5 freezing on most of the Blu Rays I try, this can happen at any point in the film and not always at the same point if I re-watch a film.

Arcsoft support has told me that my PC is too old for BluRay playback:

the graphic card is not well enough for playing Blu-Ray, especially the 3D file. I would recommend you use HD5500 or above

Are they right? Is HD BluRay plackback too much to expect from this 3 year-old hardware?

Operating System
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit SP1
CPU
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e 25 °C
RAM
2.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 373MHz (5-5-5-18)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-M56S-S3 (Socket M2) 30 °C
Graphics
Panasonic-TV (1920x1080@60Hz)
ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series (ATI AIB) 42 °C
Hard Drives
733GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG HD753LJ ATA Device (SATA) 33 °C
Optical Drives
SAMSUNG DVDWBD SH-B083L ATA Device
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

[imilne]

I used to play blu-rays quite happily with an ATI 4550 and an Athlon 64 X2 4000+ via PowerDVD 7.3 and TMT3. Mainly on XP though...I can't remember if that hardware setup ever made it to Win7.

So I'd guess what you have is more than capable, and something else is screwing up playback (graphics drivers, tmt5, the cat sneezing, etc).

Maybe rip a disc and see if you get better playback via HDD rather than the optical drive?

Iain

[McBainUK]

So I'd guess what you have is more than capable, and something else is screwing up playback (graphics drivers, tmt5, the cat sneezing, etc).

How would one see if graphic card drivers are the problem - is newer always better?

Maybe rip a disc and see if you get better playback via HDD rather than the optical drive?

Is that a common problem? The drive is only 2 yrs old. Any tips on what to use to rip a disc?

[imilne]

With ATI, no, newer is rarely better. I'd suggest grabbing one from 6 months to a year after the 4 series came out but TMT may need a specific version too.

For ripping, AnyDVD HD to get an iso (then mount it with their virtual clone drive tool).

Have you tried playback in NPVR?

Iain

[McBainUK]

With ATI, no, newer is rarely better. I'd suggest grabbing one from 6 months to a year after the 4 series came out but TMT may need a specific version too.

Will investigate. Sounds like fun...

For ripping, AnyDVD HD to get an iso (then mount it with their virtual clone drive tool). Have you tried playback in NPVR?

I haven't got AnyDVD HD as didn't want to spend £50 when I've already shelled out for the drive and TMT5.

[Lao Pan]

DVDFab HD Decrypter is free but not quite as good as AnyDVD HD - could be worth a try if you don't want to fork out more dosh - Ive always used anyDVD though so can't give a personal recommendation.

[wtg]

I can playback a normal bluray using ArcSoft and my AMD X2 4600+ CPU and AMD Radeon 5450. Playback of a 3D disc required too much CPU though, stuttering terribly and pegging the CPU at 100%. The 4000 and 5000 series do not support hardware accelerated 3D playback.

I recently upgraded to an AMD Radeon 6570 since the 6000 series does support hardware accelerated 3D playback but it's not quite there. My CPU doesn't get pegged any longer, showing about 40-60% utilization, but something doesn't quite look right during playback - it's hard to explain - and I don't know what the problem is. It might be the drivers or perhaps something else but I haven't bothered to pull the card and bluray drive and put it in my more powerful desktop to see if it works.

[imilne]

If you're trying 3D discs, then all bets are off with that hardware setup. I've only ever used 2D discs and they all played fine.

AnyDVD HD has a trial period. I don't know for sure, but if it's fully functional then you should be able to use it to rip to an iso and give things a test during the trial. To me, it's an indispensable part of my setup, but then I bought it years ago on a very cheap deal (and got a lifetime subscription too). I know it's expensive if diving in today.

Another option is to use MakeMKV while it's still free and rip to an mkv file. That will let you play it (just the movie) in NPVR, and as the video/audio is untouched it'll let you know if the hardware can cope. It's obviously not a true test though as it's no longer like with like.

Iain

[McBainUK]

Another option is to use MakeMKV while it's still free and rip to an mkv file. That will let you play it (just the movie) in NPVR, and as the video/audio is untouched it'll let you know if the hardware can cope. It's obviously not a true test though as it's no longer like with like.

I've ripped "District 9" to MKV, what's required to play it? Eve n VLC says it can't do it!

As an aside I hade the same freeze while watching a standard DVD last night,. Not sure about the significance of that.

[imilne]

I've ripped "District 9" to MKV, what's required to play it? Eve n VLC says it can't do it!

For playback in NextPVR I use the LAV splitter and audio decoders (bitstreaming) and either the MS decoder for AVC video, or the MPC-HC one for VC-1 video (because the MS one doesn't do hardware acceleration with VC-1).

Was the DVD freeze with TMT? I still wonder if it's optical drive related...something stuffing up its buffering perhaps that causes a momentarily loss of data being fed into whatever app is doing the playback.

Iain