PC versus dedicated Blu-Ray drive

[davmoo]

One more question, then I'll shut up...at least for a few minutes :D

Is there any reason to favor a dedicated Blu-Ray player over a PC-mounted Blu-Ray drive?

[ghelyar]

Depends on your PC. You probably need a graphics card that can support HDCP and the like, as well as a PC within a HDMI cable's length from your HDTV.

If you want to play it on a PC monitor rather than a TV it needs to be quite a good one and at least something like 24" with HDMI for the 1080p.

If your PC is loud, it may be a nuisance when you are trying to watch a movie.

Personally my PC is on another floor to my big TV so I have a Blu-ray drive in my PC and I'm also going to get a standalone Blu-ray player for my TV too now that my Blu-ray collection is getting a bit bigger (and now that my DVD player died on me).

The only advantage of a PC player I can think of is that you can rip the disks to other storage (hard drive, NAS, etc).

[davmoo]

I guess I should have been more detailed. My media PC already has a HDCP compliant video card with HDMI output (an HD4350 to be specific), is quiet enough that I don't consider it a problem, and sits just below the 1080p TV it feeds. And it has a 3ghz core2-duo processor, 4 GB of ram, and a 7.1 sound card with a full compliment of output jacks. The only thing it lacks to play Blu-Ray is a Blu-Ray drive.

I'm leaning heavily toward buying a drive for the PC. I just want to make sure there is no compelling reason to go stand-alone that I'm overlooking.

[ghelyar]

In terms of features, even the top of the line Blu-ray drives are basically attempting to be PCs (Internet streaming support, wifi, etc) so if you already have a decent PC that is already hooked up to the TV and everything else in place, a Blu-ray drive is a cheaper and better option than a standalone drive.

The only thing the Blu-ray player would probably beat it on is start up time, noise and maybe the remote control. The PC will have more features.