If I buy a PC with a Blu-Ray ROM drive, will I be able to watch Blu-Ray movies on my PC or do I need special hardware? I currently have a DVI based graphics card and monitor.
Blu-ray
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/Blu-ray Blu-Ray is just a media, like CD or DVD. It has only 12.5 times more room than a DVD (4GB vs 50GB). Of course you can watch movies with your PC with it.
Ok thanks, there is something else I don't understand. Blu-Ray movies are written to the disc at higher resolution than a DVD, does this mean I need to switch my PC desktop to a higher resolution to view the movies?
You don't have to switch to a higher resolution, but you might want to if you want to see all the detail that's available.
Keep in mind: the drive itself is only part of the equation.
Both the video adapter and the monitor need to be HDCP compliant, or you may not be able to play back the video at high-def resolution.
(the current crop of movies will be OK, but the specifications allow the manufacturers to automatically down-sample the video to normal DVD resolution if you don't have HDCP, thereby throwing all advantage of the hiDef video out of the window.
(HDCP provides an encrypted video path, where the signal doesn't actually get decrypted until it reaches your monitor, supposedly keeping people from ripping the content at high-def. The only reason many of the curernt discs don't enforce it yet is because they were still battling it out with HD-DVD. Now that BluRay essentially won, expect the restrictions to start being imposed shortly)
Both the video adapter and the monitor need to be HDCP compliant, or you may not be able to play back the video at high-def resolution.
(the current crop of movies will be OK, but the specifications allow the manufacturers to automatically down-sample the video to normal DVD resolution if you don't have HDCP, thereby throwing all advantage of the hiDef video out of the window.
(HDCP provides an encrypted video path, where the signal doesn't actually get decrypted until it reaches your monitor, supposedly keeping people from ripping the content at high-def. The only reason many of the curernt discs don't enforce it yet is because they were still battling it out with HD-DVD. Now that BluRay essentially won, expect the restrictions to start being imposed shortly)