World's first PC Blu-ray ROM Drive

Hi, you may already know that the the world's first PC Blu-ray ROM drive has been released, Philips and Lite-On Solutions (PLDS, www.pldsnet.com) has launched the DH-401S.
It's around £125, it can read a wide range of media formats including all current Blu-ray formats, DVD discs and CDs.
It's a read only device but allows you to play high definition Blu-ray discs on your PC and can also be connected to your TV with a HDMI cable if you have that connection option so you can watch Blu-ray disc on your TV to.
It's due on sale in the UK in December

 

you might do a little searching before you post what you did! This is wrong
BD-Rom drives for PC's have been available for YEARS!

They've been a little costly for the average consumer, but they've still been available to anyone with the cash for over two years now.

 

That's what it said in the lastest PC mag i bought, perhaps its the first in the UK?
What would the picture be like on a standard CTR television playing Blu-ray, would there be a big difference or is it only worth it with HD tele's.

 

you would need a good display like a lcd also you would need a good video card

 

Bluray ROMs for the PC have been out for a long time here in Canada. Even the LG drive which reads BOTH Bluray and HDDVD has been out for awhile (I just picked one up yesterday).

If you played a Bluray disc on a regular TV set it would just look like DVD quality. All those extra lines of resolution are just going to get blurred down into the bigger lines of your TV's display.

Wait for the price drops after xmas and get both at the same time, since either is kinda useless without the other (or get the TV first if you can't afford both).

 

Thanx for your replies, very helpful and i will be upgrading to a HD television next year but i've been looking at a samsung HD Ready tv which is CRT and not LCD or Plasma, would this be a good idea or do you recomnmend LCD.

 

make sure that it has hdmi plugins more thain 2, also i would with lcd, overall a better tv screen don't use much power and nice and light

 

HD Ready sometimes means lacking tuners, in essence a monitor and not a TV. So be sure to check that. I wouldn't go the CRT route as that is old technology. Is this the one that still has the 4:3 screen aspect ratio, in others words is not widescreen? If so, I'd pass on that as well.