So, I bought a blu-ray drive... [Part 2]

8 August 2010

This is the follow-up to the part 1.

Update to the part 1

In the first part, I was wrong when I said that there were 4 programs scheduled to start with Windows… There are 5 of them…

Oh, and one of them (the LG fwupdate.exe) requires UAC to launch, and asks for permission at each start… Oh, why?!?

Initial success over HDCP

Whatever, I’ve spent some time to fight the HDCP problem… I will not detail all the steps I went through here, but the solution.

Funnily, the only way I could play the BD, was to replace by DVI cable with a VGA cable, since my Monitor is able to get input from VGA. My GPU only has a DVI, so a VGA/DVI convertor was used.

Initial success

Going the VGA way helped me to have a playback with PowerDVD of more than 3 seconds. Yay!

A few questions though:

  • Is it full resolution? No idea!
  • So, using VGA is ok, but not DVI? Don’t you think I can copy the same?
  • Why is PowerDVD deactivating Aero? It is 2010, and Vista has been out since more than 3 years…
  • Why is the taskbar still on top when I play with PowerDVD? Very nice to playback a Video with it above…
  • Why can’t I navigate in the menus with the mouse?

Anyway, I can play one disc, so let’s say that I won almost a point on it:

Blu-Ray: 1 - 1 :JB

Initial failure

Let’s be a bit less optimistic though, out of the 4 BD-Video, 2 of them play, 2 don’t…

No error messages, updated drive, software, player, nothing to do…

Maybe I’ll install another player, like WinDVD…

Jean-Baptiste Kempf

Comments

  1. On 6 May 6060, 2:23 by Jean-Baptiste Kempf

    @kurkosdr: good news: VLC 1.2.0 got multi-threading enabled!

  2. On 6 May 6060, 9:34 by kurkosdr

    I HAVE the answer as to why PowerDVD can play Bluray through VGA but not through DVI.

    See, the HDCP agreement (or whatever paper you need to sign to get a proprietary piece of software HDCP approved), does NOT allow a digital stream to leave the computer without being HDCP encrypted.

    However, there is a loophole which says that, if the stream is “downscaled” to analog (either through VGA or Component), then it CAN be outputted without HDCP encryption.

    So, if you connect your monitor through VGA or component, you can output fullHD signal from a non HDCP-enabled card. Even Sony standalone Bluray players can output fullHD, non HDCP encrypted, signal through component!

    As regards PowerDVD, it was always a lame piece of software. The only reason people use it is because it comes with the PC (or the drive), much like Mc Afee antivirus (an equally horrible antivirus program). WinDVD is my choice for playing HD content and Blurays (at least till VLC gets multithreaded support, since my graphics card doesn’t have DXVA2)

  3. On 6 May 6060, 7:36 by Koegler

    Dear JBK, Dear all,

    I guess you have on your hardware may be a HDCP problem, HDCP must be implemented at least on 3 levels, the MoBo (raw data coming from dis over SATA, the Graca (acceleration of the data and conversion in TMDS signal (DVI and HDMI) AND the reverse conversion done in the screen, from the TMDS signal into LVDS similar but a bit different signal used by the LCD panel.

    I really also wish VLC take care with that, why not talking at high level with Sony or better the BR consortium, it’s also their interest to increase the potential users number. If they refuse, to help for a plug-in or like that, I guess it could become illegal in Europe as anti trust and consumer protection (BR on PC means OS = Win$ = trust!)

    Cheers / Bruno
    Hardware by passion ;-) and running amazing BR disks with Power DVD and Win XP / Vista / 7 , the only problem NOT be able to use Linux is BR Disks! Please, help ;-)

    Bruning is really not the priority, nor menus, but put a BR in and enjoy! Over VGA you have only HD, no Full HD is possible over VGA and BD, that is a must from BR consortioum to Cyberlink, FullHD only over HDMI/DVI if HDCP works… as a check …

    http://www.koegler.tw/module-compi….

    http://www.computex.biz/koegler/

    http://www.facebook.com/brukoe

  4. On 29 May 29290, 6:08 by nishi

    you must look at this

  5. On 15 May 15150, 11:21 by JBK

    @Gary: you mean the BD+ machine?

  6. On 14 May 14140, 8:05 by Gary

    The biggest issue I see at this point is that blue ray has this silly virtual machine that it runs the video out of to sandbox the content from a user’s well-meaning ability to back the content up. So far, Sony has only licensed the tech for the VM to apps on Windows, blocking both Mac OS X and Linux from legit playback of the format. Heck, they even incorporate it into their own Playstation OS (no surprise there….

  7. On 13 May 13130, 1:32 by JBK

    @mc: yes, I have the latest version :D

    Using AnyDVD is cheating :D

  8. On 13 May 13130, 12:50 by mc

    do you have the latest version of PDVD? look on the cyberlink site directly as the autoupdate doesnt work so well. the toolbar staying on top was was corrected w/an earlier patch.

    i suggest trying the ANYDVD-HD trial to get around the hdcp issues. i used to run vga at full resolution that way. also in PDVD 10 there is an option to allow aero to stay enabled

  9. On 12 May 12120, 9:24 by jjj

    Ah, I didn’t think enough, because just “disc-less” could also mean other physical media like USB dongles or similar things. Indeed possible, but also rather unlikely for the nearest future, IMHO. Anyway, time will tell, let’s hope the future won’t suck too much.

  10. On 12 May 12120, 9:14 by jjj

    Ah, you mean that. That should be perfectly possible, but the future doesn’t seem to be evenly distributed as regards the necessary technology for such distribution. While there may be broadband internet of 50 to 100 Mbit widely available in Korea or Japan, it is not so in Europe and unlikely to become in the near future, the same goes for other places. Without broadband connections, 45 GB are indeed a problem, although that size could be drastically reduced with better compression technology. But BD will be used for quite a while from now on, I think, and therefore should be supported, and be it only to make yourself have a comfortable viewing experience, which you seem to lack using the fancy commercial players. Let’s hope the match will end “Blu-Ray: Y - X :JB” with X greater than Y and VLC involved.

  11. On 11 May 11110, 9:41 by JBK

    Well, many people think that the future distribution systems will be disc-less…

  12. On 11 May 11110, 6:09 by jjj

    How is BD soon to be dead? Don’t you think of HD DVD instead? While not yet having a BD device, DVD is going to die, so please add BD support to VLC. However, I’m not certain, how to do that, I’ve read something about that you’re not going to include any decryption keys. I don’t know exactly how it works, but wasn’t something like that necessary for DVD, too? Can’t it be done the same way with BD? But then again, I’ve also heard, that the DVD encryption is a weak one that can be broken on the fly, which is not possible for BD. In such a case, it might be an option to have some interface in VLC to use some key or whatever is needed for playback. If the technology requires something like a key, users should be able to obtain it from somewhere, perhaps from the inventor of the technology who sells them or however it works. I hope, the VLC team will be creative. Anyway, thanks for VLC!

  13. On 11 May 11110, 4:05 by rajvirdionline

    There has got to be a simple and fast way to get that through dvi ,,,?

    It almost feels like going through vga is going backwords in a sense … any ways … what do i know ?

  14. On 9 May 9090, 8:36 by JBK

    What’s the point of playing a blue-ray (HD) thru a VGA cable ?

    Exactly, there is no point of doing so…

    Is your Monitor able to display the full resolution anyway ?

    Yes, even my laptop is full HD

    And at last what’s the point in playing a blue ray disc ? Physicalsupport are dead (or soon to be). HD is available in so many otherformats (some of them, I’m pretty sure, you can play with you know what)

    Well, delivering 45GB of data through your DSL connection is going to be hard… But more or less, I agree…

    However, this doesn’t mean I shouldn’t work on the playback support for Blu-Ray in VLC…

  15. On 8 May 8080, 11:20 by Pierre

    What’s the point of playing a blue-ray (HD) thru a VGA cable ? Is your Monitor able to display the full resolution anyway ?
    And at last what’s the point in playing a blue ray disc ? Physical support are dead (or soon to be). HD is available in so many other formats (some of them, I’m pretty sure, you can play with you know what)