3D Blu-Ray Playback using PowerDVD 10 Mark II

[cybereality]

So I finally decided to enter the 21st century and get myself a Blu-Ray player for my PC. I got a LITE-ON BD-ROM drive for around $65, although I saw a cheaper model for $50. I also got all three 3D discs that are commercially available: Monster House, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and My Bloody Valentine 3D. The discs were a tad expensive, at $35 a pop, but such is the price of living on the cutting edge. Installation into my PC was a snap, and Vista 32-bit recognized the drive without any need for drivers or anything. So far, so good.

Initially I had assumed that Blu-Ray playback was not supported on my monitor: the Zalman Trimon 22" (ZM-M220W). This is due to the fact that is doesn't support HDCP. However this is not the end of the story. I found out that Blu-Ray playback can still be done, just not on the digital connection (DVI). So if I use the analog connection (VGA) then it works just fine (albeit at a slightly lower quality). Beyond that I also found out that AnyDVD HD can be used to lift some of these restrictions. Right now I am just using the demo, but it has allowed me to use the DVI connection on the Zalman and get the highest digital quality. This software is also needed on the first-gen 3D Vision 120Hz monitors, which will not support HDCP at 120Hz. So the 22" Zalman can very well play 3D Blu-Rays.

Let me just say that PowerDVD 10 Mark II is a fine piece of software. It supports the playback of Blu-Ray 3D discs, and also has a real-time 2D->3D conversion algorithm for regular video files. I tried the 3D conversion and it was OK. Maybe even a little better than the TriDef conversion software, but its hard to say. Might be interesting for a bit but I can't imagine watching a whole movie like that. Anyway, on to the Blu-Ray 3D. I tried a little of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and it looked really good. The quality was great, everything was nice and sharp and colorful. The 3D also looked really good. In some ways, I think the 3D was even more impressive than when I saw it in the theaters. There wasn't too much crazy pop-out or anything, but the depth looked nice. Everything just felt solid and objects were clearly defined in space. You would think this would look better in a theater, but I am not so sure. Something about the quality on the Zalman just made it pop more. Then I tried some of My Bloody Valentine 3D and it also looked pretty good. I think live-action 3D also has a different feel to it which makes it more realistic. Even though the Zalman isn't full-HD quality, it still looked really good although I'm sure 1080P would be better (like on the newer Zalman models or 3D Vision). Even so, I am happy with the quality.

BluRay3D_CWACOM.jpg

Now for the bad part. It seems my PC is not up to the task of decoding the 3D Blu-Ray MVC codec in real-time. I mean, it comes damn near close but not close enough. Basically everything looks great for the first minute or so. Then slowly the video goes out of sync with the audio. So while there is not any choppiness or stutter, the video starts to lag behind the audio. It seems to get progressively worse as the movie goes along. Pausing it and playing again (or skipping around) seems to fix it, but only momentarily. So a full movie is completely un-watchable with my current hardware. Keep in mind I am running a Core2Duo E8400 overclocked to 3.6Ghz on a 780i mainboard with a GTX 285 and 4GB of DDR2 RAM. The GTX 285 is no help since all the decoding takes place on the CPU. I will need a GTX 400 series card to take advantage of hardware decoding. I am looking at getting the GTX 470. So what started as a cheap PC upgrade just to play Blu-Rays is turning into a full overhaul. If you have a newer quad core i7 or something comparable you should probably be alright with decoding on the CPU. Like I said, my system was just barely not passing. So anything remotely better would probably suffice. I am not really ready to get a new computer right now, but upgrading the GPU should be OK. The GTX 285 is still worth good money, so I should recoup some costs with a trade-in. So its not so bad.

Also, I was thinking about it and I think Power DVD 10 will support a good number of solutions with their interlaced output. Meaning that if you can currently run the iz3D driver in interlaced mode with your old-school shutter glasses, then you will probably be able to play 3D Blu-Ray. This means CRTs and even old 85Hz DLP projectors. If your shutter glasses have the line-blanking mode used on interlace output then you should be good. Of course, you will need a modern PC, so don't think you legacy machine is going to cut it. However this could be a nice option for people with old-school projector set-ups.

I will update this post once I get my GTX 470, which will hopefully solve the problems I am having. If you have any questions or want me to test anything, please let me know. Also, if you are on the fence about 3D Blu-Ray, I can tell you right now that it is worth it. Now, I wouldn't say go out and buy a $2000 3D HDTV just to play a couple of 3D discs available. That might be a bit much. But if you already have a solution that will work with Blu-Ray (like the Zalman, Nvidia 3D Vision, etc.) then you owe it to yourself to get a Blu-Ray player. It is very affordable now and well worth it.

[Recostar]

Thanks for posting your findings cyber , it was very informative . I'm glad to hear that 3D Blu-Ray movies look good. I have been wondering about there quality for some time . Just out of curiosity ,would you mind telling me what audio card you have in your system? Back when the Core2Duo E8400 first came out it was fantastic for gaming mainly because you could over clock that CPU to hell and back. Some gamers were reporting that if you get yourself a good audio card with it to relive some extra CPU power it added some extra FPS to there games.

The GTX 470 is a fantastic card and if your going to get it to be able to play Blu-Rays it should work fine , But I wouldn't expect more then 20% increase in your FPS. The E8400 is a great CPU but it might bottle neck with it at 3.6, If you could get it to 4.g then you would be able to push out all the extra FPS that card can do. Some people are reporting that after pushing there E8400 to 4.0g they were able to gain an extra 15 -20 fps but there system started to become unstable .The power supply had become insufficient due to the extra demands of the card and the overclock.

I hope you get the audio problems fixed and without it costing you an arm and a leg.
Thanks,
Reco

[Dom]

Wow so it sounds like you got everything working. Right on! My self I just upgraded my cpu to a quad core for blu-ray 3d playback. It only cost me 130 dollars at the time and now I just bought a new gts 450 nvidia card that has the decoding chip. I am using it as a physx card with my gtx 285 and paid 155 dollars for it too. I just have not tried a blu-ray 3d movie working with it yet cause the good old anydvd hd wants to charge me around 90 bucks to buy it.... so I am gonna wait untill november when all those new 3d movies are gonna be here in canada.

Cybereality do you think in my current system how I have a gtx 285 and gts 450 that the blu-ray 3d will decode from the gts 450 card but I could output the display from my gtx 285?. Hopefully Nvidia did their homework.

[Likay]

Great news!
I'm still not certain that hdcp and stereo-3d (when thinking on compability for many screens and solutions) goes too well together. So maybe these simply aren't hdcp encrypted. Avatar for panasonic and other 3dbluray-exclusives will probably be though.

[cybereality]

Thanks guys.

@Recostar: I am just using the built-in audio on my motherboard. Audio quality is good enough for my 2 speaker setup so I haven't really looked into getting a dedicated audio card. Even with a sound card, though, I bet I'd still have problems just cause my CPU. I did try overclocking more when I first got it, and did get it to 4.0Ghz at one point but it just wasn't stable. I'm a lot more comfortable at 3.6. In terms of the performance boost going from a GTX 285 -> GTX 470, I know its not huge but it should be noticeable. Honestly, I am happy with my current card but I just want the hardware Blu-Ray decoding. Hopefully that will be all I need (really don't want to get a new machine right now).

@Dom: I think the GTS 450 should support the Blu-Ray decoding, but I am pretty sure you will need to be outputting from that card. I don't think you can offload the rendering to a card that is not connected to your primary display. I was thinking about trying this, it could be possible somehow, but I just doubt it will work.

@Likay: Oh yes, all the 3D Blu-Ray discs I have are indeed HDCP encrypted (which is why I had to use AnyDVD HD). I think pretty much all Blu-Ray discs are. Certainly any releases from major studios will be. Clearly this is an inconvenience to many people, especially combined stereo3d hardware (which is already troublesome to begin with). But what can you do?

[cybereality]

UPDATE:
I was just about to buy that GTX 470 when I decided to give ArcSoft's Total Media Theater 3 a shot. Good thing I did because TMT3 is playing back the Blu-Ray 3D at full speed with no sync problems! Yeah, baby. Just saved myself $300.

[Recostar]

UPDATE:
I was just about to buy that GTX 470 when I decided to give ArcSoft's Total Media Theater 3 a shot. Good thing I did because TMT3 is playing back the Blu-Ray 3D at full speed with no sync problems! Yeah, baby. Just saved myself $300.

That's great ! . I'm glad to hear that ArcSofts Total Media Theater 3 plays your 3D Blu-Ray movies with no problems. I'll check if they have a Trial period then I'll go rent a 3D Blu-Ray Movie and try it out on my system.