| Saaket Unadkat – Blog

How To Watch HD Movies Without Blu-Ray Player

// July 9th, 2009 // TechBytes, Tutorials

Ever since the successful triumph of the Blu-Ray disc format over the HD-DVD, all the new movies now have DVD and a Blu-Ray releases. Since the latter offers almost 10 times the storage compared to the average DVDs we use, the picture quality can be scaled up to very high levels and still make it possible to store the entire movie on one single disc. But getting that awesome quality not only requires one to buy a Blu-Ray copy of the movie, but also needs special hardware in terms of the video player. And those don’t exactly come cheap.

A standard DVD today costs around Rs.12-15 and unbranded ones come for Rs.10. But a bland Blu-Ray disc  come for Rs.250. Steep. Also, to make a custom disc, one would again need a Blu-Ray writer. But there are people who have amazingly fast internet connections or those don’t mind waiting for a couple of days for the download to complete, make use of the numerous torrent sites and get the High Definition rips of movies/TV shows, but end up watching them on their computers.

If you’re one of the lucky few who own a big LCD TV  ( >=42″ ) with HDMI inputs and with minimum 5.1 channel audio coupled with a laptop with an HDMI output, read on:

Aim: To watch 1080p/720p rips in full Hi-Def without and special h/w

Apparatus :

1. LCD TV  ( >=42″ ) with HDMI input and full HD support.
2. Minimum 5.1 channel audio
3. Laptop with an HDMI output
4. HDMI cable (They cost about Rs.1200 in proper stores Lamington Road will offer them waay cheaper)
5. Auxilliary audio splitter cable (from normal 3.5mm to Red and White)
   • I used my old 5G iPod video out cable which used the 3.5mm jack on the iPod for outputs. Same works with the headphone jack from the laptop.
6. Any random DVD player ( The one which is hooked up to the 5.1 audio )

Procedure :

I am assuming that you already have the required rip of the movie of you choice on your laptop. Eg :

Notice the file size ? Also, you need to know that the HDMI port from laptops cannot transmit audio. Hence the need for the audio cable.

Step1: Connect the HDMI cable from laptop to TV.

Step2: On your DVD  player, connect the Red and White ends of the audio cable to the Audio-In section. Connect the 3.5mm end to the laptop earphone jack.

Step 3: Power on your DVD player and enter Video mode (Not the DVD play mode). This will eventually transmit the audio-in signal to the 5.1 speakers.

Step 4: Adjust the multiple monitor settings on the laptop to suit your needs. With optimum resolution in place, start the movie. I would suggest you update to the latest codecs before playing these huge files. They often cause Windows Explorer to crash. You’re ready to roll. Enjoy the best movie experience from the comfort of your home.

Here’s what it looks like on my TV. Please excuse the low-res shot. The lighting was not right. But you should get the idea:

Do let me know if you were successful.

Related posts:

1. And, Finally I Foray Onto The Other Side
2. Jailbreaking The iPhone
3. Why people need the geeks…