BluRay Media Player

[x88x]

I would hope that PowerDVD only kicked me to basic mode because it's an old version...that seems like a pretty huge bug to not fix. I'm assuming it's because it couldn't use DX9.

As for system resources, imo 15% is still way too much for it to need unless you have a really weak CPU. I have DAPlayer running right now, playing a blu-ray disc, and it is currently using... 0% CPU and 32.256MB of RAM. I never actually watched the system resource usage with PowerDVD, but any time I started it, if I forgot to stop FAH running beforehand it would take about a full minute of Windows trying to figure out WTF it was supposed to be doing before the video finally started playing, and during that time my computer is entirely unresponsive. Even if FAH wasn't running it would take around 20-30 seconds. In contrast, DAPlayer starts right up in less than a second and takes about 2-3 seconds to load the BD-ROM. It's also a much sleeker, simpler UI that, imo, looks a lot better than PowerDVD's cluttered UI.

[OvRiDe]

I timed PowerDVD11 and it takes about 2 seconds to start on my system. I was being lazy at 15% .. that's actually my combined CPU usage. I had some updates running in the background at the time. I pulled up task manager and it bounces between 4-6% of one of my cores.

I agree on the PowerDVD's UI.. Like I said earlier.. I just want a player for BRD, but unfortunately I haven't found a Bluray available that works. (I only have rentals at the moment)

I just wish VLC would play them natively so I can be done with it.

[x88x]

I just wish VLC would play them natively so I can be done with it.

Haha, you and me both.

Most of the startup time for PowerDVD on my system is it switching to basic mode and recovering, so it makes sense that if yours doesn't do that it would start up faster....either way, I'm glad to be rid of it.

[TheMainMan]

Does DAplayer integrate itself with WMC7 at all? That's the single most frustrating thing about WMC is that MS left users up the creek on getting Blu-ray functionality.

[x88x]

Looks like no...at least, I can't figure out how to make it work. Fortunately I don't use WMC, so it doesn't bother me. *shrugs*

[TheMainMan]

Bummer, that would have been enough for me to go out and buy a Blu-ray drive. I guess I'll just keep using the PS3. Thanks for checking it out for me!