Turning your PC into a Blu Ray Player

If you're thinking about buying a Blu Ray player - wait! One option available is adding a Blu Ray player to an HTPC which you currently own. Doing this is an affordable way to gain Blu Ray capability, and it is easier than you might think

Going Blu-Ray, The Inexpensive Way

Now that Blu-Ray has won the war, prices on players have begun to drop dramatically as companies begin full-fledged attempts to establish themselves as the best in building Blu-Ray players. Blu-Ray players can be had for around $200 for a base model, which looks good compared to a year ago. Still, when compared to dime-a-dozen DVD players, the price of Blu-Ray is still expensive.

But there is an unexpected hero willing to fight for your pocketbook - your PC. Blu-Ray players for HTPCs have been around for some time, and their prices have dropped along with the prices for stand-alone units. Currently, it is possible to purchase a Blu-Ray player for your HTPC at a price of around $99 dollars, half that of basic stand-alone units. Thanks to this bargain pricing, turning your PC into a Blu-Ray player is an attractive solution, although there are some requirements you'll need to ensure your HTPC meets before you upgrade to a Blu-Ray player.

Preparing Your PC

The first roadblock you will need to clear on your path to cheap Blu-Ray enjoyment is the performance of your HTPC. Blu-Ray is not a format which will handle your PC with kid's gloves. Displaying large, high-detail images on a screen many times per second takes a significant amount of muscle, as does plowing through the encoding used to protect the disc from pirates and condense the video and audio into a more palatable size.

There are several areas of performance which you'll need to pay attention to. The first is your processor. A decent dual-core like an Athlon 64 or a Core 2 is recommended. Single-core processors and modern budget dual-cores like Intel's Celeron series may not be up to the challenge. Theoretically, the GPU - which I'll cover next - should be able to take most of the load off the processor. But theory does not always become practice. It is not unusual to see a moderately powerful Core 2 processor working heavily when displaying 1080p Blu-Ray content.

Secondly you'll want to check on your GPU. Having a GPU which is capable of taking on the task of displaying high-def video should take the burden off your processor, creating less strain on the system as a whole. In addition, a good GPU can offer HDMI-out abilities which allow you to run video and audio directly from your PC to your HDTV using a single cable. This makes hooking an HTPC up to your home theater system much easier. For Blu-Ray content, you'll probably want something from the Radeon 3000 series or newer, or an Nvidia card from the 9000 series or newer.