Just received LG GGC-H20L, couple questions

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doox00

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I just received my new bd/hd dvd drive which came with powerdvd 7 standard. I was curious if the ultra version is worth the expense. I read somewhere it included nvidia's new purevideo hd with offloads the blueray hd dvd processing to the video card and makes the image quality much better.

Anyone use this and can vouch for an improvement in image quality? Any other software worth using?

Also, in Vista is there a way for me to add powerdvd into the media center menu? I have not installed the drive or powerdvd yet btw, just got it today and will be installing it later into my htpc.

thanks
 
- PowerDVD Ultra is pretty much the only thing you'll want to go with. It's the only software I've experienced that works right with all the newest titles, and it constantly gets updated. The Purevideo HD support is awesome if you have a graphics card that supports it. I highly recommend it.

- To get HD DVD and Blu-ray integration with MCE, you'll need Arcsoft Total Media Theater.
http://www.arcsoft.com/products/totalmediatheatre/ People have reported mixed results with this software though. I know several people that have it working fine, and others say it just crashes. I personally haven't tried it yet.
 
w1retap said:
- PowerDVD Ultra is pretty much the only thing you'll want to go with. It's the only software I've experienced that works right with all the newest titles, and it constantly gets updated. The Purevideo HD support is awesome if you have a graphics card that supports it. I highly recommend it.

- To get HD DVD and Blu-ray integration with MCE, you'll need Arcsoft Total Media Theater.
http://www.arcsoft.com/products/totalmediatheatre/ People have reported mixed results with this software though. I know several people that have it working fine, and others say it just crashes. I personally haven't tried it yet.
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do I need ultra over the standard version? my htpc is an x2 3800 @ 2.5ghz 2gb ram, dfi sli-dr expert mb, 8600GT w/ hdcp running vista ultimate 64
 
You need the Ultra version for HDDVD/Blu-ray playback. And your setup looks fine for HD movie playback. The 8600 is a good card. I'm using one in my HTPC.
 
w1retap said:
You need the Ultra version for HDDVD/Blu-ray playback. And your setup looks fine for HD movie playback. The 8600 is a good card. I'm using one in my HTPC.
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Ahh okay, well then maybe it came with ultra, dunno.. gunna go install it all I suppose in my htpc now. have the lg drive, new hdd and the 8600gt to install tonight.
 
Another way to get HD/BR playback through Vista Media Center is a plugin called My Movies. I use it on my HTPC and although it doesn't have native playback in Media Center, it does do a pretty damn good job. What it does is minimize VMC when it detects an HD disc and then launches Power DVD, closing it when you want to switch back to the Media Center. It also has a pretty slick interface for sorting and playing ripped DVDs.

And I agree with wiretap, Power DVD is the way to go for high def movies. I tried Arcsoft and it just felt incomplete and sluggish in comparison. Plus, there is the chance that Cyberlink finally stopped down-sampling high resolution audio in the new update. That would be huge if proven true.
 
well have everything installed, it is powerdvd ultra that is with the lg drive btw.. but I have a problem. after installing the 8600gt (replaced a 6800) now my video playback jitters/flashes/stutters, but if I go to window mode in media center it will start to play fine, go back to full screen and it starts messing up again. I had 0 problems with the 6800. I uninstalled and reinstalled latest video drivers and so on.. no go. ideas?
 
An 8600gt is capable of offloading H.264 decoding from the CPU, but it won't do VC-1. Fortunately most BD/HD DVDs use H.264 and VC-1 requires less processing power. You can see what codec your movie uses from reviews on this site: http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/reviews.html Powerdvd will automatically use pure video and avivo (ATI's version).
 
well the stutter problem is not with a dvd, just an xvid file I ripped from one of my dvd's. have not even tried a blue-ray disc or anything yet.
 
if I run a video using windows media player it works fine, in full screen also. so I removed all the codecs on the system and reinstalled only ffdshow 64 bit to see if that helped.. no go..same problem.
 
well I am in the process now of reinstalling the os, see if a format/reinstall fixes the problem.. if not may try 32 bit instead of 64 bit.
 
Did you install all the updates for Powerdvd and update the firmware for the LG?
 
j3ff86 said:
Did you install all the updates for Powerdvd and update the firmware for the LG?
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I updated the firmware to 1.02 I think it was, where do you get the updates for power dvd, I did not see an option to check for updates in the program. The messed up playback though was now with powerdvd, did not even try powerdvd, it was playing an xvid file in media center.
 
Put a blu-ray/hd in, and load up powerdvd. It should have multiple popups come up in the program and by the system area in windows (by the clock) saying that you need critical updates.
 
j3ff86 said:
Put a blu-ray/hd in, and load up powerdvd. It should have multiple popups come up in the program and by the system area in windows (by the clock) saying that you need critical updates.
Click to expand...

ahh ok, just need to get a blu ray dvd then :p wonder if the blu-ray movie preview thingy that came with my ps3 will play on it.
 
Just get a codec pack, like cole2k or k-lite, and a player like media player classic or vlc.
 
Please, never suggest a codec pack like that again. It causes even more problems and grief with all sorts of dll file conflicts and playback conflicts.
 
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