Originally Posted by FifthFreedom
The single best way to play Bluray DVD's is via a HTPC without a doubt.
Actually I have been looking at this option as an alternative, as I could replace my DVD player before the TV, and check I can the HDMI & coaxial outputs functioning through my amp & current TV.
I am currently looking at:
Chassis: Silverstone SST-LC20
PSU: Corsair 550W
Motherboard: Asus P5E-VM HDMI
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E8500
RAM: 2x2GB OCZ DDR2 PC6400
Graphics: Asus Radeon HD 3650 512MB DDR2 Silent
HDD: Samsung SpinPoint T166 400GB SATA2
TV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR1100MCE
OS: Vista x86 Home Premium
(the above comes pre-built from Komplett, as I am lazy, and the items below would be added by me)
Player: LG GGW-H20L Blu-Ray-writer HD-DVD reader
WLAN: D-Link RangeBooster N USB Adapter, 802.11n
Software: AnyDVD HD, PowerDVD
Aiming for quiet, powerful, DVD/HD-DVD/blu-ray playback and completely region-free.
(While the micro-ATX board has a G35 IGP, it's not got acceleration for blu-ray HD playback so I figured a fanless PCI-E card would be useful.)
The wireless networking gives options for streaming FRAPS movies from my file server (I already have a Squeezebox for MP3s), the TV tuner is for possible future use.
With 6x3.5" bays I might also look at expansion for PVR capabilities later, but recording TV isn't something I have done for years.
That's the current theory anyway, I have plenty more research to do, and not in any particular rush.