m1530 Blu-Ray Playback Issues

Does anybody have issues getting movies to play on their m1530 blu-ray drives?

I've tried Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Cars, and The Fifth Element, and only The Fifth Element plays correctly (although without 5.1 surround sound...)

I got Pirates to play somehow, but both Pirates and Cars have issues loading the menus. Cars wouldn't play past the previews. The previews play fine, the audio is 5.1 surround sound, and the picture clarity is stunning, but once it tries to load the menus, the thing just sits there. The disc isn't even spinning in the drive.

I have currently only used the media direct player.

After a call to Dell, they claim that it's a compatibility issue with an update to the blu-ray spec in October, and that they'll have a patch in April/May. (they seriously couldn't have had this patch out earlier?)

Is anyone else having these issues or what? It seems as if hardly anyone has the blu-ray drive, and calling dell tech support is like driving nails into my skull.

I'd try it out with more movies, but they are very expensive, and I don't want to sit in the video rental store trying out all their discs to see which ones work and which don't.

If you've had issues with blu-ray playback, or if it works great for you, please post here about it. If you'd just like to chime in on how overpriced the blu-ray drive is, please start your own thread.

Thanks.

 

only PowerDVD Ultra will playback movies correctly on PC

 

Good to know, then. I think they offered to send it once, but I'll ask them again to see if they can.

It's quite ridiculous advertising a blu-ray player, yet having the crappiest functionality with it. I guess it's something I've come to expect from them, but geez...

 

Weird, I haven't had any problems at all.

 

let me know what blu-ray player you got, make and model if possible.

just curious

 

MATSH*TA BD-RE UJ-225S ATA Device

This is somewhat upsetting now, since other people seem to have no issues at all whatsoever.

I do have a "non-standard" video driver installed, as it was the only one that allowed 1920x1080 output via HDMI and any sort of BD playback. (The one on the dell site 'cripples' the HDMI port so that I can only output something like 1280x768...)

Honestly, the next 'issue' this computer has this week means it's going back. Or at the very least, perhaps dell can call it a 'lemon' and send me a new one.

 

My experience with playing blu-ray movies using PowerDVD Ultra + Lite-on DH-4O1S is very problematic, depending on many things.

- OS: Vista or XP. Implementation of hardware video acceleration can be different depending on the graphics card. Especially with relatively older AGP cards, e.g. 7600GT AGP. VC1 acceleration does not work in XP.

- Driver versions: Both ATI and Nvidia drivers still have drivers with acceleration problems. Pirates of Caribbean 3 had blank video using a X1950XT on XP with Catalyst 8.3 drivers.

- PowerDVD Ultra does not work well with SPDIF out on Vista. It freezes every time I try to output sound with optical SPDIF with a Soundblaster Audigy SE.

- Playing one movie does not mean all other will play well. I can play Planet Earth great on my X1950XT with XP, but as I said PoC3 is not playing at all.

If I were you, I would wait several more months before I try to resolve all these issues. It is a waste of time since Blu-ray on PC, IMHO, is not ready for prime time. It might work now with a couple of movies, upgrade the video driver one day or buy a new movie, ooops ....

I was so much frustrated installing/uninstalling/testing combinations of XP/VISTA/video_drivers/sound_drivers, I finally sold my HTPC piece by piece on Ebay and bought a Playstation 3. Serenity now It plays everything *easily* and in *better quality* than PowerDVD ULTRA.

 

you sure its a BD-RE? does that mean its a blu-ray recorder?

 

i'm thinking of getting a 2.5, 256 8600M gt, with blu ray, and i plan on connecting it to my hdtv through hdmi alot, is this really such a problem, that i shouldnt get it?

 

Yes, the slot-loading Blu-Ray drives in the M1530 are Blu-Ray writers. That's pretty much copy/paste from device manager.

If it weren't a laptop, I'd say wait, but if you need the laptop, don't mind paying extra $$ for Blu-Ray, and don't mind waiting for issues to resolve themselves, then go ahead. If you really want Blu-Ray and you can wait to buy a laptop, then do that. Let the prices fall.

Honestly, though, I can't tell you if everyone with the Blu-Ray drive on the M1530 is having these problems as either nobody has a Blu-Ray drive, or if nobody ever chimes in.

From what has worked for me, the quality alone on the laptop screen is way better than regular DVD, and on a HDTV, it's stunning. There will be some people who say it's 'impossible' to distinguish (especially on the laptop screen), but I'll almost guarantee that you'll see a difference.

If you want audio out, either make sure that you have a receiver with HDMI that will actually process the audio (not just pass-through), or get a $30 USB optical audio adapter (Turtle Beach makes one.)

Eventually, setting up a HDTV with a laptop and watching Blu-Ray movies will be a breeze (Perhaps when Apple starts putting BD drives in their computers...), but as of right now things seem to be less than smooth.