Snowblind

Well,

1: Are there any computer drives that can both play and burn blu-ray, for anything <=$250? Newegg is empty in this regard, so far as I can tell.

-don't care if it can play/burn regular DvDs or HD-DVD. Blu-ray is the only format I'm looking for.

2: Can blu-ray disks act as all-purpose disks, like regular DvDs? I'm a total noob in this regard. Can I burn computer programs onto Blu-ray disks and use the disks to reinstall? An example would be burning the Windows Vista or Win7 operating systems onto a blu-ray disk, and using those disks for installation.

3: What does it mean, a double-layer blu-ray disk?

4: Are there any video disadvantages to using adapters? Will video performance suffer at all if I use a DVI-I->HDMI adapter, as opposed to using a straight HDMI connection?

5: Any recommended software that can play blu-ray video? Does Windows 7 Ultimate come with software that can handle blu-ray?

L3gacy

1.There are dvd drives that can burn and play blu ray

2.You can use a blu-ray's like a dvd drive and save stuff on it but only a computer with a blu-ray drive can read it but this isnt reasonable because they cost more and blu-ray drives can burn normal dvd's aswell unless you get rewritable blu-ray disks

3.double layer means it has 2 layers in the disk blu ray is like 54 Gigs it has 2 layers each one can hold 27 Gigs of data,think of it this way its like 2 blu ray discs stacked up on eachother and the burner burns data on one layer then the rest on second layer

A dual-layer disc differs from its usual DVD counterpart by employing a second physical layer within the disc itself. The drive with dual-layer capability accesses the second layer by shining the laser through the first semi-transparent layer. The layer change can exhibit a noticeable pause in some DVD players, up to several seconds

5.Power Dvd 9

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nathris

No it isn't: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-175-_-Product

I'm pretty sure you can, but blu-ray drives read data slower than DVDs so using one for anything other than storage isn't a good idea.

2 layers of data, so 50GB/disk

Nope, digital is digital, all you're losing out on is the audio (unless you're using an ATI card)

http://www.cyberlink.com/products/po...iew_en_US.html

Cyberlink PowerDVD is probably the norm. There is still no native support for Blu-Ray in Windows unfortunately, so Media Center and Media Player won't do it (at least out of the box).

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stumped

in before someone says "vlc/cccp+mpc-hc plays anything" for blu-ray questions.

HDMI is the same video format as DVI, except the newer revisions of HDMI can handle video of higher resolutions. Also, HDMI can carry audio (hence the HD Multimedia interface).

As for your blu-ray playback software, PowerDVD9 is one method, TotalMedia Theatre is another method. You just have to make sure you have the right version that enable playback of blu-ray. I personally use powerdvd9. Also, makre sure you use video drivers that have been whql'd (i.e official drivers) and have a tv/monitor that supports HDCP.

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Snowblind

Excellent answers. One last question!

What's the purpose of multiple HDMI inputs?

nathris

Connecting multiple devices...

Eg. My cable box is connected through HDMI 1 and my 360 is connected through HDMI 2.

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Snowblind

Well. yeah - multiple devices is a given. I was wondering if inserting several would increase the video or sound quality; for example, by having both the audio and video being routed through separate HDMI inputs.

I suppose it just doesn't matter. I honestly didn't know jack about HDMI before making this thread.