I
f you think getting
high-definition (HD)
content onto your PC
is going to be as easy as
adding a drive, install-
ing the software player,
and making a run to
Best Buy, fugetaboutit.
My experience building
a Blu-ray-ready system
tells me it’s going to be a
pain in the butt.
My HD journey actu-
ally started two ways: the
first, an out-of-the-box
solution in the form of an
upgraded Toshiba Qosmio
notebook. The G35-
AV650 notebook is pretty
much the same unit we
reviewed in August, with
the addition of the proper
software and drive to play HD-DVD discs.
But knowing that there are many folks looking to add HD
capability to their PCs, I also built a machine using Pioneer’s
groundbreaking BDR-101A drive (reviewed on page 82). With a
beta version of Intervideo’s Blu-ray-enabled playback software
installed, I turned off the lights, grabbed the popcorn and was pre-
pared to enjoy some high-def content. But after three seconds of
playing, the Intervideo software abruptly stopped and flashed this
message: “Your display environment does not support protected
content playback.” Why, it didn’t say. Assuming that it was looking
for an HDCP videocard, I swapped the GeForce 7800 GTX card for
the HDCP-enabled GeForce 7950 GX2 card, grabbed the popcorn,
and turned off the lights again.
Error again. Damn it. Hmmmm, was it the monitor? Thinking
that Dell’s new 24-incher wasn’t HDCP-capable, I swapped the Dell
panel for a 24-inch Viewsonic that I knew to have HDCP support,
and bam—same error. OK, now what? We know that in any crime or
computer error, if you put the driver in the lineup, he’s the likely cul-
prit. After downloading the latest beta driver from Nzone.com, I was
finally in business—although after I spent all this time troubleshoot-
ing, the popcorn was stale.
But, still, all was not perfect. Using a 2.6GHz dual-core Athlon 64FX-60 and the 7950 card, we saw occasional stutters in playback.
Performance issues were the least of our concerns, though, as we
were thoroughly unimpressed by the output from the two movies
we watched: Crash and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Although
quality was better than with the standard DVD versions, it just
wasn’t satisfying. It left me wondering what the problem was.
Was it poor encoding or intentional gimping by the studios,
who are still frightened of HD? Or was it some mysterious configu-
ration issue that caused the player to down-sample the image?
Maybe you need an HDCP compliant keyboard and mouse? I
finally settled on an explanation: MPEG-2 encoding. The majority
of today’s Blu-ray movies are encoded using MPEG-2, not H.264
or VC-1 (aka WMV9).
And just to show you how well thought-out the whole thing
is: If you have a non-HDCP-capable monitor and you try to
play a Blu-ray or HD-DVD movie using the DVI input, it won’t
work. But use the
analog connector on
the monitor and vid-
eocard and it works
fine. In the immortal
words of Abraham
Lincoln: WTF?
My experience
with the Qosmio
laptop was a little
better—probably
because the monitor
is directly connected
to the PC—but I
still had concerns. I
could output high-
def video through
the notebook’s HDMI
port to the Dell 24-
inch monitor (which
is indeed HDCP
capable), but noth-
ing would come out
of the notebook’s analog port—at all. Interestingly, while the
Blu-ray version of Intervideo’s player isn’t multithreaded, the HD-
DVD version is. In a point for HD-DVD, my experience watching
Serenity was far more satisfying (unfortunately we couldn’t obtain
the same movies in both Blu-ray and HD-DVD). On the Qosmio,
the HD-DVD movie—encoded in VC-1—was more deserving of
the term high-definition. Some portions, especially scenes with
CG effects, looked stunning.
But HD-DVD land isn’t all roses, either. We saw clear signs
of color banding in playback, so something still isn’t right. Even
more entertaining was the half-assed print-screen protection.
The Intervideo HD-DVD player won’t play the video if it detects
screen-capture software, such as Fraps, on your PC. But when
we changed the name of fraps.exe to poop.exe, the player let us
play movies and capture video at the same time.
Clearly, both HD formats are far from perfect. In an informal
poll of our office, half the staff thinks both formats will fail, while
the other half thinks multiformat readers/burners that play both
Blu-ray and HD-DVD will eventually emerge. One thing is certain,
though: You’re better off waiting for the bugs, copy-protection
problems, and format war to settle down before adding any next-
gen optical drives to your PC.MAXIMUMPC october 2006
iH the F;< Real-WoRld testing: Results. analysis. Recommendations
No HD-DVD for you! Monitors without HDCP support won’t work with HD-DVD
content, even if you’re running it through an HDMI cable.GORDON MAH UNG
Kicks the
Tires on Next-Gen
Optical Discs
And discovers that the road to high-def movie content
on the PC is fraught with DRM landmines