You Said I Was a Fool

[Plouffe]

Several years ago a lot of you weren't happy about us using an Xbox to compare Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray so we ponied up for a $500 standalone player. It offers some advantages but is it worth spending that much more money on your setup if you already own a game console?

 

 

Buy an LG OLED EVO G1: https://geni.us/wyERmk

Buy a Panasonic DPUB820: https://geni.us/KV2X

Buy an Xbox Series X: https://geni.us/o4QI5R

 

 

[s_k]

*changed my mind, I'll turn this into a separate topic*

[Error 52]

It is a pretty annoying and baffling decision on Microsoft's part to not have Dolby Vision on Blu-Rays. I mean, it is admittedly a niche within a niche, but it's still a kinda baffling decision.

 

(Sidenote, why are 4K Blu-Ray players so expensive anyway? Non-4K ones are pretty cheap for the most part. I'd expect some premium for 4K, but it's a bit ridiculous...)

[Zodiark1593]

13 minutes ago, Error 52 said:

It is a pretty annoying and baffling decision on Microsoft's part to not have Dolby Vision on Blu-Rays. I mean, it is admittedly a niche within a niche, but it's still a kinda baffling decision.

 

(Sidenote, why are 4K Blu-Ray players so expensive anyway? Non-4K ones are pretty cheap for the most part. I'd expect some premium for 4K, but it's a bit ridiculous...)

There’s no technical reason for 4K Blu Ray to be so expensive. Cheap SoCs can decode 10-bit H.265 4K easily nowadays, and given this is a plug-in device, you can probably get away with a super cheap 28nm chip. And we’ve had 4 layer BD-Rs (BDXL to be exact) and faster drives for years before 4K really became a thing. Only thing I can think of is licensing. 
 

On a side note, I still use my decade old PS3 for my Blu rays. I can’t be bothered to pay the, still pretty outrageous albeit absent the 4K premium, pricing for a proper Blu ray player. 

[Hybris5112]

I asked this in the Youtube comments and I'll probably ask in a different section of the forum as well but how does a PC with a good GPU (3080 for example) and a Blu-Ray drive stack up against either of these options?

 

I had one person say that DRM is a issue but I can't see how DRM factors in just playing the disc verses trying to rip it for archive or piracy purposes.

 

I ask because building a media PC is a major goal of myself and my parents so I wouldn't mind finding out an answer before the time to spec parts comes.

[Zodiark1593]

1 hour ago, Hybris5112 said:

I asked this in the Youtube comments and I'll probably ask in a different section of the forum as well but how does a PC with a good GPU (3080 for example) and a Blu-Ray drive stack up against either of these options?

 

I had one person say that DRM is a issue but I can't see how DRM factors in just playing the disc verses trying to rip it for archive or piracy purposes.

 

I ask because building a media PC is a major goal of myself and my parents so I wouldn't mind finding out an answer before the time to spec parts comes.

For straight playback, the DRM dictates that certain software must be used to playback the disc, rather than one of my choice. The DRM dictates the OS, so for example, Linux users are SoL. The DRM also dictates the hardware, so a PC may be technically capable of decoding the video content, if it lacks the DRM hardware, you cannot play the content. The recent Deprecation of SGX on Intel processors breaks the DRM used for 4K playback, even if everything else is in line. 
 

If you’re not ripping the discs, straight up don’t bother with 4K Blu Ray on PC. As in, if you’re on 11th gen Intel or later (or Ryzen), you have no choice but to rip the disc to playback 4k. 
 

With a ripped disc, you can play it on literally anything that can handle h.265, no matter the OS, or hardware. 
 

Taken from the website of PowerDVD themselves. 
 

 

[Hybris5112]

21 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

For straight playback, the DRM dictates that certain software must be used to playback the disc, rather than one of my choice. The DRM dictates the OS, so for example, Linux users are SoL. The DRM also dictates the hardware, so a PC may be technically capable of decoding the video content, if it lacks the DRM hardware, you cannot play the content. The recent Deprecation of SGX on Intel processors breaks the DRM used for 4K playback, even if everything else is in line. 
 

If you’re not ripping the discs, straight up don’t bother with 4K Blu Ray on PC. 
 

Taken from the website of PowerDVD themselves. 
 

 

I had heard over the years that DRM was getting bad but I never realized it was this bad. Now I know.

[Bitter]

8 hours ago, Hybris5112 said:

I asked this in the Youtube comments and I'll probably ask in a different section of the forum as well but how does a PC with a good GPU (3080 for example) and a Blu-Ray drive stack up against either of these options?

 

I had one person say that DRM is a issue but I can't see how DRM factors in just playing the disc verses trying to rip it for archive or piracy purposes.

 

I ask because building a media PC is a major goal of myself and my parents so I wouldn't mind finding out an answer before the time to spec parts comes.

There are ways around the whole SGX thing, I haven't personally messed with it but I've heard...

As for PC, there's some niceties there such as running your own color correction and post processing to get the most out of what you have.

[Error 52]

19 hours ago, Hybris5112 said:

I had heard over the years that DRM was getting bad but I never realized it was this bad. Now I know.

It's a good thing then that the DRM has been highly effective in preventing people from ripping the movies and posting them online. Because otherwise, it'd almost be like the whole process is a pointless waste of time! Phew, glad that never happened!

[Nayr438]

On 4/24/2022 at 2:37 PM, Zodiark1593 said:

For straight playback, the DRM dictates that certain software must be used to playback the disc, rather than one of my choice. The DRM dictates the OS, so for example, Linux users are SoL.
 

As in, if you’re on 11th gen Intel or later (or Ryzen), you have no choice but to rip the disc to playback 4k.

Interesting.

Spoiler

 

 

On 4/24/2022 at 1:29 PM, Hybris5112 said:

I had one person say that DRM is a issue but I can't see how DRM factors in just playing the disc verses trying to rip it for archive or piracy purposes.

The point of DRM is to limit what can and can not read the data on the disc. Regardless of whether your Watching or Ripping, that data has to be read.

 

On 4/24/2022 at 1:29 PM, Hybris5112 said:

I asked this in the Youtube comments and I'll probably ask in a different section of the forum as well but how does a PC with a good GPU (3080 for example) and a Blu-Ray drive stack up against either of these options?

Either of those devices will probably play whatever BluRay you throw in it. Your PC on the other hand, thanks to DRM, may not.

If your goal is to just throw a disc in and hit play, I would just purchase a BluRay player.

[gr8brandino]

On 4/24/2022 at 4:01 PM, Hybris5112 said:

I had heard over the years that DRM was getting bad but I never realized it was this bad. Now I know.

MakeMkv makes it pretty simple to rip the disk, if you have a drive that can read UHD.