if i were to.....

[apatel25314]

if i built an htpc with a blu-ray drive would it perform as well as a standalone unit, also what do you think the cost would be on a decent video and sound card to handle everything?

 

[Warpdrv]

It would depend on the motherboard, or the video card to process that HD info out through the cables... with the right equipment, it should work just fine, and look great..

The drive through the motherboard isn't the issue, I highly recommend good quality parts... I used to build a bunch of high performance systems, but have been out of the loop as of late... computers have become a dime a dozen, and people don't really give that much a cr@p anymore.

Good motherboard, video card, and sound card.
Could be cheaper in the end to just buy a Blue Ray Player.

 

[2Channel4Ever]

be careful

several bd-drives/burners will only output blu-ray video through HDCP-compliant video cards to HDCP-compliant monitors. You can use it to burn discs all day long, but no movies without the HDCP. Last time I checked, HDCP-compliant video cards were a few hundred bucks. I remember some web site (arstechnica?) priced it out and found a stand-alone player to be cheaper.