LG GGC-H20L "Super MultiBlue"

intuitionsys

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Aug 17, 2006
60
0
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
We decided to get this drive for our home theatre PC and I'm very pleased with our decision over a standalone player. It came bundled with CyberLink DVD Ultra that worked fine out of the box. We only have a 720P projector but still the picture is fantastic. I'm not crazy about the CyberLink UI but it works fine and every hotkey can be mapped to our Logitech Harmony 1000 remote through an IR keyboard interface I already had, so for the most part it integrates nicely.

We've only viewed a whopping 3 HD movies so far (Rush Hour 3 and Stealth in Blu-Ray and Under Siege in HDDVD). The Blu-Ray movies seem to be recognized a tad faster than HDDVDs but the difference is negligible. Although I'm sure the mastering of "Under Siege" wasn't as well done as many other HDDVDs, there was a marked difference in quality between it and the two Blu-Ray movies that were absolutely crystal clear.

The drive performed flawlessly and the software worked without a hitch with Vista 64bit on an Asus Crosshair motherboard (using the built-in SPDIF out at 24bit/48kHz) with an Athlon64 FX-62 @ 3GHz and 4GB PC6400 RAM. When playing a movie, the CPU (both cores) show between 15% to 25% usage. The computer is in a project recording studio in the other half of the room so it is far enough away that fan noise isn't an issue.

Both DTS and Dolby soundtracks were pumped out the SPDIF port (ADI 1988B SupremeFX) and recognized by the receiver without any problems. The Crosshair motherboard provides both coaxial (RCA) and optical outputs but I used the coaxial output and a high quality audio cable because the computer is so far away from the receiver.

Surround did not work properly though until I patched the software installed from the included CD with a free patch available from the Cyberlink website. No bigee.

The only hitch was that the 8600GT does not support HDCP but movies will play just fine if you are using the analog VGA or HDTV dongle (component). Our projector only has VGA and Component inputs anyway so it didn't matter. When we upgrade to a true 1080P projector we'll have to change the videocard though. The component output will go as high as 1080i but the cables are long enough that it would be a bit blurry at that resolution even though they are very high quality. You can only squeeze so much from an analog signal!

One small annoyance is that because the drive is on a "dual duty" PC with standard LCD monitors (used in the aforementioned recording studio) it opens up on monitor 1 so you have to drag the window over to the HDTV (projector) display before it will allow you to play a Blu-Ray or HDDVD movie. I may figure out a way to force the CyberLink window to open on monitor 3 (the HDTV monitor) but for now it's a small annoyance and only needs to be done once.

So all that to say if you've been looking at this drive, you won't be disappointed! And although my wife and I are both Blu-Ray fans and will be buying/renting Blu-Ray format whenever possible, it's still nice to have the option to watch HDDVDs when the Blu-Ray version is not available.

Just don't use it on an 8 year old P3 500 rig with 256MB of RAM :)
 
Glad, thanks for the review, how much did it cost you, and how was the install?
Was it buggy? Did it give you an issues at all? Or did it go smoothly with no issues?
 
PowerDVD Ultra had problems with "Enemy of the State" on Blu-Ray initially for some reason, but after a few restarts (of PowerDVD not the PC) it just fixed itself. So it's not perfectly bug free, but that's the only frustration from PowerDVD itself so far.

One thing I don't like about the way it works is that some options don't work unless the DVD/HDDVD/Blu-Ray is already playing, like "Root/Title Menu" and "Popup Menu".

They also don't tell you what all the hotkeys actually are. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to integrate a remote or even just a wireless keyboard. I had to Google for them.

Programming the Logitech Harmony 1000 with the hotkeys for PowerDVD is proving more difficult but I'm close to getting that worked out with a combination of a hotkey manager and/or mouse/keyboard macro recorder. The Harmony records single keypresses properly from the IR keyboard but doesn't record anything properly that requres a Ctrl key combination. Recording a macro assigned to a single key that isn't used should work fine. There aren't that many commands that require Ctrl, but a few of them are crutial, like the popup menu for Blu-Ray discs. My wife is "technically challenged" so I want the remote to be as foolproof as possible.

If you want to feed a DVI/HDMI monitor/projector DO NOT buy an XFX 8600GT; it supports HD video playback and even has a component output but lacks HDCP support. You'll need the next model up for that. I believe the XFX 8600GTS and XXX have HDCP support as do most of the ATI cards but MAKE SURE! I didn't originally buy the card with blu-ray playback in mind anyway so it's not a huge deal. Also, if you need a component dongle, XFX will mail you one for free if you ask them. It took about three weeks to ship from the US to Ottawa.

One more note about using the Logitech Harmony remotes with Vista (64-bit at least but probably applies to both): Never just unplug the remote without using the "Safely remove hardware" tool or Vista will blue screen. It's a bit odd too because when you're programming the RF extender the software removes it for you but for the remote itself you'll need to do it manually.

One more thing I found out last night: because the computer is actually the workhorse for a recording studio, there are already two monitors plugged into the two DVI connectors on the XFX card. Vista and/or the card itself will not support both monitors and the HDTV all at the same time. I have to unplug the 2nd monitor before booting up or the HDTV output wouldn't work.

Just as a side note the HDDVD selection at BestBuy absolutely sucked last night. Probably just picked clean for the holidays but the Blu-Ray rack was still packed full. You could read that two ways I guess :)

Also interesting was on Christmas Eve I was in FutureShop to pick something up and noticed they had three pallettes on the floor about four feet high each full of Samsung Blu-Ray players and one was already half empty.
 
intuitionsys,
There is no need to buy a new video card if your current one can output 1080p. Slysoft has software called AnyDVD HD that will allow any video card (up to specs, of course) to output a HDPC compliant signal.
 
That's good info thanks! Right now I'm using the component feed anyway but it's good to know I can use my otherwise superb video card with a 1080P HDMI projector (next Christmas...?)
 
Slysoft has software called AnyDVD HD that will allow any video card (up to specs, of course) to output a HDPC compliant signal.
That's not quite true.
AnyDVD will strip AACS protection from HD/BD discs.
This in turn will eliminate the need for HDCP compliance at the monitor end.

You won't be that lucky with movies using BD+ (FOX movies).
AnyDVD can't strip it yet.

Diogen.
 
That's not quite true.
AnyDVD will strip AACS protection from HD/BD discs.
This in turn will eliminate the need for HDCP compliance at the monitor end.

You won't be that lucky with movies using BD+ (FOX movies).
AnyDVD can't strip it yet.

Diogen.
Thanks for the clarification, diogen. :up
 
I found something else new - PowerDVD Ultra isn't the greatest for DVDs. It forces the resolution down to 720x480, the aspect ratio is slightly off, and it doesn't completely use the entire screen (almost but not quite). A great solution is Nero Showtime as it allows any resolution and almost all the hotkeys are the same. If Nero could handle Blu-Ray/HDDVD I'd use it exclusively as it is a much more polished product.
 
Have you tried TheaterTek and/or ZoomPlayer?
Try TT (they have a trial version) in exclusive renderless mode (it comes with NV PureVideo codecs).
Neither of those players have an AACS/BD+ license but I believe they are head and shoulders above other DVD players.

Diogen.
 
The reason I want to keep the resolution fixed is because the nVidia driver for some reason doesn't allow adjusting the display (size/position) at the lowest resolution (720x480) and when fed to my projector the display is slightly off (not much but enough to be annoying). None of the other resolutions have this restriction.

If you have a Harmony 1000 remote, ensure you upgrade to the latest version (7.3.2). There are some issues regarding custom devices that croke when you try to add them to an activity on older versions.

Thanks for the recommendations diogen I'll check them out...

I noticed I didn't answer icewolf's question about cost; the drive was just over $300 tax/ship incl. from 1click2computers.com. The only other thing I had to buy was a $15 USB keyboard from FutureShop so I could use my IR keyboard that is PS/2 only and a normal keyboard at the same time since the computer is mainly meant for use in the recording studio. I think the keyboard was a good deal too, a decent ergonomic MS one (I insist on ergonomic keyboards since I've gotten used to them).

With the combination of "HotKeys" (freeware) and my old BTC IR keyboard, the Harmony 1000 controls both PowerDVD Ultra and Nero Showtime 3 very nicely. It occasionally repeats some commands but if I adjust the delay settings that problem will hopefully disappear.

We briefly tried MS Media Center for playing DVDs and my wife and I both detested it but I guess that's a personal preference more than anything.
 
The reason I want to keep the resolution fixed is because the nVidia driver for some reason doesn't allow adjusting the display (size/position) at the lowest resolution (720x480)...
Are you saying you are feeding your 720p projector DVD native resolution of 720x480 from your PC and let the projector scale it? You should try the exact opposite.
Let the PC do the scaling and feed your projectors its native resolution picture, i.e. 1280x720.
First, you will have no problem running 1280x720 on any modern video card.
Second, the PC is a much better scaler than anything below the $5K price mark.
Third, with the horsepower your rig has, you can try fancy ffdshow scaling that will make DVDs look closer to hidef than any upconverting standalone.
Keep in mind, when going ffdshow, the video card assistance in decoding is out the window but for your PC and DVD playback this shouldn't be a problem.

Diogen.
 
The exact opposite IS what I'm doing :)

I guess I didn't explain very well. Anyhoo yeah I agree 100% the computer should do a much better job of scaling - and does. We noted a marked improvement with Nero Showtime scaling up to 720p on the few DVDs we've watched so far.

The problem before was PowerDVD Ultra forcing the output down to 720x480p with no option not to; in fact it gives you an error if you try.

I haven't messed around with tons of options yet but so far so good...
 
Well I got around to installing SlySoft AnyDVD HD. This little gem is a godsend. All the stupid workarounds I've been trying just to watch DVDs we already own are now no longer necessary - I can now use PowerDVD for both BluRay/HDDVD and DVD and not have a complicated sequence of workarounds just to watch our rather huge DVD collection until we amass more Blu-Ray titles. I'll definitely be buying this product before the trial period ends! I rate this app as 100/100. Way to go SlySoft!
 
Well I got around to installing SlySoft AnyDVD HD. This little gem is a godsend. All the stupid workarounds I've been trying just to watch DVDs we already own are now no longer necessary - I can now use PowerDVD for both BluRay/HDDVD and DVD and not have a complicated sequence of workarounds just to watch our rather huge DVD collection until we amass more Blu-Ray titles. I'll definitely be buying this product before the trial period ends! I rate this app as 100/100. Way to go SlySoft!
You will be happy with SlySoft. They continually update their software to keep up with new encryption. The SlySoft forums have some great info as well.
 
SlySoft's AnyDVD HD is fantastic. They publish updates very frequently and it makes all my expensive hardware and Blu-Ray (and a few HD DVDs) that I Bought fair and square work flawlessly. I'll eventually get an HDCP capable card and projector but until then it's a godsend.

I've received a few updates to PowerDVD that did fix some annoying bugs but it does crash once in a while for seemingly no reason. No jiggies or skips or anything beforehand it just dies. Play back from before the same spot and it plays through no problem. It doesn't happen enough to be a deal breaker but it is annoying. It happens maybe once every three or four movies we've bought or rented so far.
 
Sunshine is a Fox Blu-Ray. I expect it to suck. Seriously they were the absolute worst studio out there until they released Master and Commander and Patton.

Slysoft gets delayed by new iterations of BD+. They eventually overcome it, but it takes awhile. (Often 6 weeks after a new release.)
 

BD30 owners, opinions wanted

Valley of Elah and DTSHD SQ

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)

Latest posts