My first DVD player back in 1998 was the Creative Encore Dxr 2. A pc based dvd drive and decoder card outputting by composite or S-video to the tv. For the time it beat most players in video quality and cost $300. What I'm wondering will any company come out with a similar product for Blu-Ray or HD-DVD?

Yeah, there will be. Drives for both have been announced. Their MSRPs from what I recall are about identical to the standalone player's, namely $500 for HD-DVD and $1000 for Blu-Ray.

I understand that drives for both formats will be released for PC, but I haven't heard about a product specifically designed for output to tv by component or HDMI. A drive alone doesn't make a player.

HDMI out would require HDCP video cards -- none of which are available for purchase (and likely you'll be waiting for Vista). But certainly they will be available in the future.

Using one of today's component output cards, I don't see why a drive (which come with the software player software) wouldn't meet your needs.

I'm not looking for a hybred solution of software decoding from one company (PowerDVD, etc) and output by a standard video card from another. I'm looking for more of a complete package like the Creative Encore was. Drive, PCI decoder card (Video/Audio output), and software. Standard video cards tv outputs (Radeon, NVidia) lack the quality I'm seeking. Since the Toshiba HD-DVD player is essentially a computer, even using a Pentium processor I just don't see why a complete PC based, (drive, decoder card w\ HDMI, component, SPDIF passthrough) solution isn't possible.

I've outputed HD as well as standard definition material through my video card to my tv before (Using PowerDVD, WinDVD, WMP). I have comparied the same DVD from a standalone player and from output from a PC Radeon video card. The video while it looks great on a pc monitor is of signicantly lower quality on the tv. A complete solution designed for pc to tv output is required to match the quality of a standalone HD/Blu-Ray player.

The HDMI connection would not be used to connect to my computer monitor, but to my tv. There is no reason to have to wait for Vista support if output to the pc monitor is not required.

No offense intended, but if true, you are doing something very wrong (probably with the video settings). I won't say it's easy to get a HTPC looking as good as individual components, but it is certainly possible (I'm also assuming you have a fast computer).

My HTPC (with OTA HDTV or DVD sources) looks as good or better (in the case of OTA HDTV) than the individual components. [Specifically: DVDs played from my HTPC at 768p looks better than my Oppo DVDp at 720p. And OTA via ATSC tuner cards and played with MCE actually look better than OTA HDTV via my RCA ATSC21].

This is all through a component-out 6600GT. If done properly, HTPCs look just a good as standalone components (at least for DVD and OTA HDTV). And not to add that I can pixel-match and easily correct overscan with my HTPC.

The HDMI has to be HDCP compliant. There are no HDMI-HDCP cards on the market.

From XbitLabs:

Computers to Acquire Blu-Ray, HD DVD Playback Capability [UPDATED].
Graphics Cards Makers Prep HDCP, HDMI Compliant Graphics Card

The latest series of graphics processors from ATI – the Radeon X1300, X1600, X1800 and the yet-to-be-announced X1900 – already support decoding of H.264 codec, all the graphics cards makers need is to enable HDCP from the BIOS. Ujesh Desai, who is in charge of desktop graphics chips at Nvidia Corp. also said that a new driver version will enable H.264 decoding on graphics cards starting from the GeForce 6600. All Nvidia’s graphics chips starting from the GeForce FX support HDCP as well.

A problem for owners of graphics cards who manage to download appropriate BIOS will still be very rare availability of HDCP-supporting monitor, which are currently nearly unavailable on the market: to date we are aware of only three models that feature HDCP, including Dell 3007WFP, Gateway FPD2185W and HP F2105. It will be possible, however, to use an HD LCD TV-set, but users will need to either a DVI-to-HDMI cable, or a graphics card with HDMI outputs.

To date, only Sapphire Technology has developed a graphics card supporting HDMI connector and HDCP based on the Radeon X1600-series graphics processor for the mass market, whereas Sony uses a proprietary GeForce 6200-based board for its recently unveiled Vaio media center computer. But there should be more of them later this year, when the BD and HD DVD formats start to ramp.

“Add-in card partners can build HDCP-capable graphic adapters, all they need to do is order an HDCP compliant BIOS from us which includes the keys,” Mr. Froeleke said.



But still my question is, is a PC based Blu-Ray or HD-DVD Player (not just drive) being developed?

Yes, we've discussed these cards before. They claim HDCP compatibility, but as the quote shows, it isn't actually turned on or installed yet.

No, not that anyone has reported on.*

As for HDCP-complaint video cards... I've never heard of Xbitlabs, but the HDCP keys need to be installed in hardware from what I read on ArsTechnica (a source I have found very trustworthy). I wouldn't count on a BIOS upgrade to make any of today's cards HDCP compliant (even if it were technically possible, it sounds like the last thing today's video card manufacturers would be interested in doing -- they'd rather screw you over and have you buy a new card).

* = Since (for whatever reason) you wish to exclude drives which come with bundled software players. I'm unclear what the difference between your desired "PC-based HD-DVD player" and a drive with a software player is. It isn't like you'll need a MPEG decoder card like you did back in the early days of DVDs (because back then most PCs were not powerful enough to decode DVDs via software on the fly). Today's PCs are plenty fast enough to decode HD via software on the fly.