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scbauer

3 Posts

11324

January 17th, 2008 06:00

Playing Blu-Ray in Vista Media Center on XPS 420

Hey everyone, looking for some help here.  I just purchased an XPS 420 without the Blu-Ray option.  I quickly changed my mind an purchased the Blu-Ray ROM drive.  The drive is installed and everything works fine using PowerDVD, but I am planning on using this PC primarily via Media Center.  I need to find out how I can click "Watch a DVD" through Media Center and have it play my Blu-Ray movies. 
 
I'm assuming this is how it would have worked if I had simply included the Blu-Ray drive when I originally purchased the unit instead of adding it on later...
 
Thanks for any help you can offer!
 
-Scott

ThePug628

200 Posts

January 17th, 2008 18:00

As far as I know, you will need to use PowerDVD. If you want to have playback of Blu Ray from your harddrive, you will have to upgrade the the Ultimate version. You will also have to upgrade if you want more than 2.1 sound.

scbauer

3 Posts

January 17th, 2008 19:00

Yea, I currently have PowerDVD Ultra...  the issue I'm having (and maybe I wasn't very clear) is that I can't just click "Play DVD" from within Vista Media Center.  My understanding was that Dell had a small utility that they had built into Media Center that allowed users to simply click "Play DVD" from Media Center and it would play a Blu-Ray disc.  Currently, when I click "Play DVD" in Media Center, it gives me an error saying "There is no software installed to play Blu-Ray disc's" (or something like that).
 
Hopefully the Dell folks could let me know if this is true or not.  Thanks!
 
-Scott

chai613

39 Posts

January 18th, 2008 01:00

I have the Dell installed BluRay drive as well as an additional DVD burner/player.
When I launch Windows Media Center I have an option of going either to the BluRay OR to the DVD player. 

scbauer

3 Posts

January 18th, 2008 03:00

Thanks, that's EXACTLY what I was looking for.  That tells me it is possible, I just don't have the right software.  So how does media center react when you select Blu-Ray?  Does it open a separate player (PowerDVD), or does it still look just like Vista Media Center?
 
For the Dell folks, is there a way to upgrade my software (either upgrade Media Center or install a Dell add-in) so I too can play Blu-Ray through Vista Media Center on my new XPS 420?
 
Thanks!

yann.r

20 Posts

January 18th, 2008 05:00

Hi,
 
When purchasing the Blue-Ray drive with the XPS 420, we have a "dedicated" PowerDVD software provided with it. Meaning there is a variant of PowerDVD which is tightly integrated and have the Media Center user interface. That's "PowerDVD DX" once intalled and provided to me on a CD called "For Reinstalling Cyberlink PowerDVD 7.0 Software for Blue-ray Disc".
 
I didn't try, yet, to reinstall my PowerDVD Ultra licence but I wonder if the two players can co-exist on the same system.

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