Hi all. First time on this forum.

I've been using AnyDVD for years and am really impressed with it.
I'd now like to start using it with Blu Ray and have run CyberLink BD_Advisor which tells me(depressingly) that I need to upgrade most components in my PC.
So just had a few questions:

1. What's speed CPU/RAM etc is the minimum to have decent AnyDVD Blu Ray ripping/playback?

2. What's sort of graphics card would also give decent performance - I'm looking in the price range of a "Zotac 8800GT 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card" from eBuyer @ £90.

3. At the moment I'm not fussed about being able to burn Blu-Ray to blank Blu Ray discs(once they get to around the £2 mark I will). I would like to rip them to a hard drive though. Is this possible with a Blu Ray ROM drive such as "LG Electronics Blu-Ray & HD-DVD-Rom Combo 16x DVDRW Black SATA - Retail Box With Software £80" or do I need a drive capable of writing?

Thanks for answering my newbie questions.

I need to update my guide for my forum but here is a start. The only things I need to update is the drives. Plus you can use a DVI rather than HDMI if you use AnyDVD or a converter cable.

CPU (Processor)



System Memory (RAM)

1 GB is ok but 2+ gigs is recommended

By RAM we mean to be able to use DDR2 667 (PC2 5400) at the very minimum.

How do I know my optical drive is compatible for Blu-Ray?

Below is a small set of drives that continues to grow. More drives will hit the market soon enough

BenQ BW1000

LG GBW-H10N

Sony BWU-100A

Panasonic SW-5582

Samsung SH-BO22

Lite-On LX-2B1S

Plextor BD writer PXB900a

Pioneer BDR-202

Pioneer BDC-S02


What graphics card do I need to play Blu-ray Disc titles on my computer?

It is recommended that you have one of the graphics cards with the following graphics processor unit (GPU) installed on your computer in order to play Blu-ray Disc:

• Intel 965G, G33 graphics
• nVidia (minumum requirements): GeForce 7900 GX2, GeForce 7900 GTX, GeForce 7950 GX2, GeForce 8400 series,
• nVidia (recommended requirements) : GeForce 8500 series, GeForce 8600 series, GeForce 8800 series
• ATI (minumum requirements): ATI Radeon X1600 series, X1800 series,
  X1900 series
• ATI (recommended requirements): ATI Radeon HD 2400, 2600, 2900,
  3400, 3600, 3800 series

Also if you want true HD quality you'll need a card and a monitor capable to, so I have provided a pic of a card that contains the HDMI connection on it as a example and you'll need a following monitor to be able to use that connection too without degrading to a no HDCP monitor. Notice the word HDMI This is what you want. Also a card and Monitor must be able to put out a 1920×1080 pixels or higher, this is a 1080p quality picture as well as long as you use a HDMI connection or a DVI connection ( no VGA's as VGA's are analog ). I highly suggest to stay completely away from integrated graphics!

Video Card



Monitor connection Notice the HDMI again



Graphic Card Memory:

We recommend having at least 256 MB of video memory to ensure the smooth playback of Blu-ray Disc titles 512 or above of course is better.

Video RAM

256 MB graphics card memory or above


Note: If you want to use digital output during Blu-ray Disc playback (through DVI or HDMI connection), make sure the graphics card is HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) compatible. If your graphics card is not HDCP-compliant but with a DVI connector, you can use a DVI-to-VGA converter (or cable) to output the video in analog format. To determine whether your graphics card is HDCP-compliant, please visit the hardware manufacturer's Web site.


Display Devices

• HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) compliant display (DVI, HDMI connections) for digital output
• TV (composite, component, S-Video) or computer monitor (VGA) for analog output

Sound Card

(minumum requirements) A high-quality 5.1 surround, on board sound may pull more resources from the CPU and RAM compared to the PCI connection sounds cards.

(recommended requirements) A high-quality 7.1 surround optical out would be best.

To get the best out of the sound on Blu-Ray you'll want and optical out connection, coaxial may work but not sure. The better the card the better the TrueHD sound.

Operating Systems

Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed or Vista

Software to play on the PC

PowerDVD BD version. Note: An easy way to determine whether your version of PowerDVD supports Blu-ray Disc is to look for the Blu-ray Disc logo on the main screen of PowerDVD. If you don't see either of those logos, it is likely your version of PowerDVD doesn't support Blu-ray Disc title playback. CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra Purchase.

Or ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre™

ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre™ (VidaBox edition) [SOFT-ARCSOFT-HDBD] : $99.99 : Media Center & Home Theater PC / HTPC Systems - VidaBox - Home Entertainment Made Simple

Side Notes

Even though the minimum specs can play back, there can or will be playback issues.

With XP there isn't much to really offer in assistance to add more to it as the more installed applications require that you use more RAM etc.... Same applies with Blu-Ray DVD's too. So XP users need two things 1) More RAM around 4 gigs and 2) the UDF File System which I have no idea where to get that.


With Vista this means that you will need more RAM. If you bought a PC with vista installed most likely there isn't enough RAM there just enough to run the OS alone. This is normal for PC manufacturers.

Thanks for the comprehensive guide.

Gives me something to work on.

I just added an ATI 3850 AGP card to an ancient Athlon XP 2500+ machine so it can do Blu-ray playback. By no means do I recommend this solution, but, it was cheap and did the trick for me. I get occasional stuttering and dropped frames, but, what can you expect of such low end hardware? In any case, my main HTPC rig has an X2 4200+, 2 gigs of ram, an 8800 GT, and the aforementioned LG drive (read only for BD and HD DVD). The machine is more than capable of BD/HD DVD playback and didn't break the bank to build. The LG can rip ISO's to your hard drive that can be mounted using Virtual CloneDrive or Daemon Tools for playback in PowerDVD. This is how I do all mine. Much easier than getting my lazy ass out of the chair to get the disc off the shelf...I just mount the one I want to watch and I'm good to go.

Great Guide SamuriHL. Thanks

Yes I need to update my whole guide as it is now um about 2 years old?

It changes monthly. Consider that next month I may be getting a new laptop with the centrino 2 chipset with blu-ray burning built into it. That's some sick technology for a laptop.