Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

Over the last year, the clear leader in Blu-ray and HD-DVD playback on a computer has been Cyberlink’s PowerDVD Ultra. Finally, this month someone else has thrown their hat into the HD realm: Arcsoft with their release of TotalMedia Theatre. According to Arcsoft, TotalMedia Theatre supports Blu-ray discs, AVCHDs, CDs, VCDs, and a variety of multimedia files, including QuickTime, RealPlayer, DVR-MS, WMV HD, and H.264 HD formats.

While the Vista Media Center still does not offer native Blu-ray and HD-DVD support, TotalMedia Theatre does include a plug-in that integrates into Media Center. From Arcsoft’s website:

The program comes with a Windows Media Center Edition plug-in built right in! The plug-in provides a “10 foot” user experience: big buttons and compatibility with your remote control mean you can use TotalMedia Theatre to watch your HD DVD and Blu-ray movies from the comfort of your couch.

The plug-in allows users to launch movies from the MCE interface, though it does launch a non-Media Center video player.

A quick look over at AVSForums indicates that TotalMedia Theatre has potential but is still a work in progress. Here are some of the issues identified:

• Lack of BD+ support
• High CPU usage
• Audio issues with X-Fi based sound cards

TotalMedia Theatre is something you should keep an eye on if you are looking for Blu-ray and HD-DVD playback. However, you might want to wait for some of its kinks to be worked out.