After weeks of deliberating over which stand alone BDP to purchase, and lamenting over the inevitable inadequacies of each, I've decided just to build an HTPC. This hits just about every conceivable bird with one stone. After all, most of the BDPs these days are trying to ape the functionality of computers in various half-arsed ways: internet streaming, LAN streaming, USB connections, file support, browsers, VOIP etc. Why not just go the whole hog? My HTPC will also serve as my PVR/STB and more. I will purchase AnyDVD. So all I need is a software for playing back BD and DVD. Must have: - Competent downmixing of surround audio (including Dolby TrueHD and DTS HDMA) into stereo (2.0) with control over whether or not the LFE is included in the mix. - Ability to bitstream unaltered Dolby and DTS via HDMI, including TrueHD, HDMA etc. (for future HT upgrades). - Support for playing direct DVD and BD rips (ie. VIDEO_TS folder and BD equivalent) without compromising menus etc. - No problems outputting 24fps/Hz signal for 96Hz plasma, or playing 24fps on a 120Hz PC monitor. Also, an nVidia GPU will be used, so I guess ideally the software should be able to utilise the PureVideo engine/CUDA. 3D playback is of no importance. Suggestions would be appreciated.
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