Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

Missingremote.com has a great article on how to add a HD-DVD or Blu-ray drive to your media center computer. Computer drives for the next generation of DVDs have dropped and price and are actually somewhat reasonable. Based on the article this is what you need to watch the next generation of DVDs on you computer:

1. Microsoft Vista (XP can work but is limited)
2. A video card that supports HDCP (if you want to use your DVI/HDMI connector)
3. Cyberlink’s PowerDVD Ultra Player
4. A HD-DVD or Blu-ray drive (the article uses the Xbox 360 add-on drive connected to a PC).

One thing I learned from the article is that Cyberlink has a Blu-ray or HD-DVD advisor tool to see if your current hardware set-up can play those movies. The article did not discuss how to rip HD-DVD or Blu-ray discs to a computer, something that is very useful for a media center. Maybe that will be their next guide.