The word is out; Blu-Ray and HD-DVD playback will be possible in Windows XP!

In the last few weeks the first HD-DVD and Blu-Ray drives for PC's have slowly trickled onto the market, but up to now it has not been clear what system you need to actually be able to play HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs on your PC. The operating system was the main cause of concern; many rumors cropped up that the new generation of video discs would not work under Windows XP. We put the question to Cyberlink, the company behind Power DVD, if the lack of a protected videopath like in Windows XP would make it impossible to enable HD-DVD or Blu-Ray playback. They have answered our questions and given us a complete checklist of what you need to play Blu-Ray and HD-DVD movies in HD resolutions on your home PC.

1. Blu-ray or HD-DVD drive

Pretty obvious point. Important to know is that all current first generation HD-DVD and Blu-Ray drives are suitable to play video discs, so no problems there.

2. Graphics card, driver and monitor have to be HDCP compatible

To enable HD resolution playback of an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray videodisc your monitor, graphics card and the driver you use have to be compatibe with the HDCP standard. Nowadays the majority of new TFT monitors will feature HDCP support, but most of the older models unfortunately do not. Graphics cards are even worse, there is only a handfull of cards out there that sport HDCP support. When your system lacks HDCP compatibility, it will not be possible to play the content in full HD resolution. Future releases of software will be able to play Blu-Ray and HD-DVD movies on a system without HDCP support, but only in standard resolutions. The purchase of a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player will therefore have no added value to a normal DVD player without HDCP.

3. Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista

Playback of Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs is possible in Windows Vista as well as Windows XP SP2.

4. Dual-core processor + 256 MB graphics card

HD content from a Blu-ray or HD-DVD disc requires quite a bit of processing power; Cyberlink recommends using a dual-core processor like the Intel Pentium D, Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon X2. As a graphics card you should at least use a nVidia GeForce 7600 or ATI Radeon X1600 series with a minimum of 256MB video memory.

If you want to know if your systems is powerfull enough to play HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray discs Cyberlink has released BD/HD Advisor, a small program that checks your system. The program can be downloaded here.

Tags: blu-ray geforce hdcp hddvd radeon vista core2 athlon

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