Pioneer will soon release the first 4K Blu-ray drive for PC

[WYP]

Pioneer will soon release the first 4K Blu-ray drive for PC, though the player comes with a catch, requiring a new Intel Kaby Lake CPU to function.



Read more on Pioneer's 4K Blu-ray drives for PC.

 

[Greenback]

TBh if I was in the market for a 4k player I'd hook it up to a 4k TV so I could sit n the sofa to watch

 

[SuB]

Lol, selling this when people just aren't using DVD/Bluray drives any more seems.. nonsensical, especially when they'll release at the 500 GBP pricepoint like all new Disc tech does. (I'll happily take that back when prices are available). Add to that the cost of a 7th gen CPU, board, etc..

Just buy a 4k bluray player for less, job done.

New tech is great, but it just seems silly, is there even really a market for this? The spec list is basically because of DRM... as for audio, 7.1 is 7.1 I know there's now Atmos, but the setup costs for that alone are bonkers, and people won't be plugging any of that into a PC, it'l be done via a proper player + receiver...

Just seems.. like a non thing to me?

When was the last time you actually wanted to put a disc in your PC?

With literally *everything* moving to software as a service these days, including even Windows, there's just no place for these is there?

 

[jimma47]

Lol, selling this when people just aren't using DVD/Bluray drives any more seems.. nonsensical, especially when they'll release at the 500 GBP pricepoint like all new Disc tech does. (I'll happily take that back when prices are available). Add to that the cost of a 7th gen CPU, board, etc..

Just buy a 4k bluray player for less, job done.

New tech is great, but it just seems silly, is there even really a market for this? The spec list is basically because of DRM... as for audio, 7.1 is 7.1 I know there's now Atmos, but the setup costs for that alone are bonkers, and people won't be plugging any of that into a PC, it'l be done via a proper player + receiver...

Just seems.. like a non thing to me?

When was the last time you actually wanted to put a disc in your PC?

With literally *everything* moving to software as a service these days, including even Windows, there's just no place for these is there?

Well some people like to legitimately back up their own media so that would be a reason. Also some people live in countries with poor internet speeds so it's not viable to download that much. I get about 2MB/s download (25Mb plan as i'm cheap) so it takes hours or even overnight to download a new game.

I'll be buying an XBone as my 4K player when I update my 10 year old Plasma to a 4k panel as they're just super cheap right now. I have a bluray writer in a box in case I need to use it or I have accessed my laptop over the network to use its optical drive for my PC.

 

[Daiyus]

Lol, selling this when people just aren't using DVD/Bluray drives any more seems.. nonsensical, especially when they'll release at the 500 GBP pricepoint like all new Disc tech does. (I'll happily take that back when prices are available). Add to that the cost of a 7th gen CPU, board, etc..

Just buy a 4k bluray player for less, job done.

New tech is great, but it just seems silly, is there even really a market for this? The spec list is basically because of DRM... as for audio, 7.1 is 7.1 I know there's now Atmos, but the setup costs for that alone are bonkers, and people won't be plugging any of that into a PC, it'l be done via a proper player + receiver...

Just seems.. like a non thing to me?

When was the last time you actually wanted to put a disc in your PC?

With literally *everything* moving to software as a service these days, including even Windows, there's just no place for these is there?

I still use physical media on a daily basis. All of my favourite music, films & TV shows are on CD/DVD/BD on my shelf ready to be watched/listened to whenever I want. No worries about if my NAS breaks. No worries about if Netflix/Amazon/etc is still hosting it. And no worries about the quality either. It also means guaranteed subtitles for my wife.

Simply put I really don't understand this "streaming has replaced physical media" mentality these days. Streaming just doesn't cut it for me for everything; why watch/listen to a questionable quality version of something I love that soaks up bandwidth when I can have it in top quality with no worries?

The beauty of a HTPC is it'll do anything; it's my stereo, DVD player, BD player, streaming service provider (for the stuff that we want to watch but don't love enough to worry about quality) and even provides gaming.

I'd absolutely love to move to UHD Blu-ray at some point apart from the ridiculous DRM requirements and I have no reason to replace my TV for a UHD one until it breaks. It's a shame that it'll be cheaper and easier to buy a separate UHD Blu-player at that point than to integrate UHD into my HTPC.

 

[AlienALX]

I bought a BR drive way back when. Pretty sure it was a Sony. Then I realised I had to use some pony software and never did bother using it.

The only optical drives I have now are the slim slot load in my Triad rig and an external for everything else. I do still rip CDs though so would need at least one.

 

[SuB]

The 'included software' for these is often not the full versions either, when I last bought a drive that included powerDVD it didn't include surround sound decoding and a bunch of other stuff, which you had to pay quite a bit extra to get.

 

[AlienALX]

The 'included software' for these is often not the full versions either, when I last bought a drive that included powerDVD it didn't include surround sound decoding and a bunch of other stuff, which you had to pay quite a bit extra to get.

That was it ! PowerDVD trial. And there was no way to hack it because it did all sorts of nasty crap to your registry. I didn't bother in the end.

Thankfully I only paid like £45 for the drive so I just sold it on.

 

[realneil]

I have a few BluRay players connected to my TVs.
And I have three BluRay drives in my PCs.

Even though my internet is pretty quick, I don't download much 4K content.
I do have a lot of BluRay disks of the movies I really like.

 

[RobM]

kind limiting sales in an already shrinking market by tying it to kabylake lol

 

[SuB]

That was it ! PowerDVD trial. And there was no way to hack it because it did all sorts of nasty crap to your registry. I didn't bother in the end.

Thankfully I only paid like £45 for the drive so I just sold it on.

exactly, it was awful software

 

[notcool]

Never buy blu rays drives they force you to buy/use software otherwise you can't watch the discs. There's plenty of torrent sites still around one major one I use isn't even blocked on my ISP just make sure you got good A/V protection.

 

[JOEL791e]

Finally know i can backup my 4k blueray

 

[Daiyus]

Never buy blu rays drives they force you to buy/use software otherwise you can't watch the discs. There's plenty of torrent sites still around one major one I use isn't even blocked on my ISP just make sure you got good A/V protection.

So, you're meeting excessive anti-piracy practices by doing exactly the thing that they're using as the reason to screw law abiding, paying customers.

Because that makes sense...

 

[notcool]

So, you're meeting excessive anti-piracy practices by doing exactly the thing that they're using as the reason to screw law abiding, paying customers.

Because that makes sense...

I have a blu ray and dvd drive, but for blu ray they force you to buy (yes you could get pirated software to play it) in order to play discs you have already paid for. DVD on the other hand requires no software to work.

I own several blu ray discs (which i paid for) only way I could get them to work without the software was to use a popular blu ray disc ripper.

This kind of bs is why people pirate in the first place that and overly greedy companies. I would happily pay for WWE Network if they put Raw and Smackdown the day after airing but sadly again they are just corporate whores so I go elsewhere.

 

[Daiyus]

I have a blu ray and dvd drive, but for blu ray they force you to buy (yes you could get pirated software to play it) in order to play discs you have already paid for. DVD on the other hand requires no software to work.

I own several blu ray discs (which i paid for) only way I could get them to work without the software was to use a popular blu ray disc ripper.

This kind of bs is why people pirate in the first place that and overly greedy companies. I would happily pay for WWE Network if they put Raw and Smackdown the day after airing but sadly again they are just corporate whores so I go elsewhere.

It's strange. I kind of see where you're coming from but I've been using the software that came with my first BD Drive for approaching five years now without a problem (minus a small hiccup when updating to Windows 10). Any decent BD Drive I've ever seen includes a licensed piece of software to play BD movies; no pirating necessary.

Thing is even DVD playback isn't natively supported in Windows 10 so you're in the same boat; it's not a Blu-Ray thing, just a PC software thing. You need software with the correct DRM management which most BD drives come with, and a BD drive is usually cheaper than a standalone BD player.

The issue I have with UHD Blu-Ray is that the DRM has now gone to a hardware level so I can't simply buy the drive with software and plug it into my current HTPC, I'd have to upgrade my entire platform, which is of course absolute insanity!

 

[AlienALX]

I hate to say this but I sort of agree. When I bought my BDROM I expected it to play Blu Rays, not to find out I had to shell out the same again or more just to watch movies on it.

It's not on really. It's kinda like Nvidia, who charge you extra to use 3DVision on a TV set.

I usually never condone piracy except for when it's in the face of greed. If a company release a game now for £50 and I can nick it I will. Mostly because £25-£30 was fine just over a year ago and now they are doing an Intel and seeing how much they can push their audience into spending more. I wouldn't mind paying £100 for a PC game *if* it was absolutely brilliant and ran better than it does on a console with no bugs etc.

Sadly that's hardly ever the case. I actually paid £35 for a Batman game and it was completely unplayable at any settings. 14 FPS is not enough to stop you hurling.

 

[Greenback]

Went in Aldi today they have a 49" 4k smart tv for £370

With more cases coming with out the optical bay and I'd suppose the majority of pc's using 1080p, with the added must have kaby lake I hope they only make about 200 of them.
I'm in the if I want to watch a good film I'd go watch it in the front room cuddled up to the Mrs and maybe get lucky and miss that 30 seconds of the movie like in the days b4 kids

 

[Dorset Yid]

I pretty much solely use my blu ray drive to rip cds,dvds and blu rays due to over zealous drm a lot of blu rays dont even play in my pc anymore (Im looking at you Fox Studios.

 

[Dawelio]

Well after reading all your comments, I'm glad I never pulled the trigger on any bluray/dvd combo reader then. If you also need software to read the discs as well? Nahh dude, that ain't cool...