Looking for blu-ray player software that supports Broadcom CrystalHD

[Red_Machine]

I recently upgraded my Dell Studio Hybrid, and that upgrade included a blu-ray drive. I already bought the decoder card, and confirmed it works when watching HD video on my NAS box using MPC-HC. However, MPC-HC fails to play blu-rays. I've been looking for softaware that supports the CrystalHD card for hardware acceleration, but come up empty so far. I tried the copy of PowerDVD 14 I own, but it refuses to play due to the Intel GMA driver being too old. I found the discs that originally came with the computer, and installed Dell MediaDirect which supports playing blu-rays, but it doesn't seem to use the decoder card and relies on the CPU to decode video. This is less than ideal, due to the weakness of the CPU and iGPU.

Put simply, does anyone know of any software that supports the CrystalHD for hardware accelerating blu-rays? My Google searches turn up nothing.

 

[95Viper]

Try Potplayer.
- Manual download link for Additional Audio Codec -
For x64: http://get.daum.net/PotPlayer/Codec/Ope ... etup64.exe
For x32: http://get.daum.net/PotPlayer/Codec/OpenCodecSetup.exe
PotPlayer Forum post link: Potplayer Official Download Link

Or, this is paid software: Splash 2.0 Overview
Splash 2.0 System requirements

Quoted from Splash site:

SD


Minimum
Low resolution video playback


System

Windows XP(SP3), Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10
DirectX and latest graphics card drivers

Ram memory

512MB

Graphics card

Video Overlay support or DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card

Sound card

DirectX compatible
SPDIF/HDMI output required for audio bitstreaming


CPU

Intel® Celeron® 1.4GHz or equivalent processor (SSE2 required)

Display

Monitor: 59/60Hz, resolution: 1366x768 or higher


HD


Recommended
HD Video playback


System

Windows XP(SP3), Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10
DirectX and latest graphics card drivers

Ram memory

1024MB (1GB)


Graphics card

DirectX 9.0c Compatible Graphics Card
AMD for GPU Hardware Acceleration AMD Radeon™ with UVD support
Intel® for GPU Hardware Acceleration Intel® HD Graphics with Intel® Clear Video support
NVIDIA® for GPU Hardware Acceleration NVIDIA GeForce® with NVIDIA® PureVideo® HD support
Broadcom® for GPU Hardware Acceleration Broadcom® Crystal HD


Hardware accelerated HEVC/H.265 video decoding

Minimum 4th generation Intel® Core™ Processor with Intel HD graphics. 6th generation Intel® Core™ Processor is recommended.
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 6XX or higher

H.264/AVC hardware accelerated video encoding for videos exporting

Intel® processor with Intel® Quick Sync Video support (up to 4k)
AMD Radeon™ with AMD APP support (up to 1080p)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 6XX or higher with NVIDIA NVENC support (up to 4K)


H.265/HEVC hardware accelerated video encoding for videos exporting

NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960, GTX 965M or higher with NVIDIA NVENC support (up to 4K). NVIDIA GPU driver R358 or above is required
The latest graphics drivers

Sound card

DirectX compatible
SPDIF/HDMI output required for audio bitstreaming
HDMI 1.3 output and Windows 7 is required for HD audio bitstreaming

CPU for Software HD Video Decoding

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2.0GHz or equivalent processor

Display

Monitor: 59/60Hz, resolution: 1366x768 or higher

 

[Red_Machine]

Thanks for the help, but Potplayer doesn't utilise the decoder card and while Splash does it freezes when I try to play a blu-ray.

 

[95Viper]

Only other one I can think of would be GOM Player. I don't know if the free version uses it or not. they have a plus version, too.

Guide for both versions

This quote was posted at VideoLAN forums: however, it was from May 2013:

I picked up one of these cards the other day and installed Broadcom drivers. I found the ONLY player that works for me is GOM Player!!!! All I had to do was go to Filters-->Advanced Settings-->Add Filter and chose Crystal HD Filter. Then still in advanced settings check "advanced customize filter priority and finally under Filters-->Disable Filters check "enable quick play mode"! That's it!

 

[RealNeil]

Try Leawo Blu Ray Player

 

[Red_Machine]

Thanks, but neither of those support the CrystalHD.

 

[95Viper]

Sorry, Red_Machine... I am out of ideas.
Maybe, someone else has some ideas or suggestions.

 

[SDFEWG]

Why not have a try on the f2fsoft Blu-ray player software, I have used it many times without trouble, free download, no Ads.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Checked Device Manager? Make sure the card has drivers installed and is functional? That driver/device exposes the decoders to software so without that, you'll get nowhere. With the driver installed, software should be able to select the decoder via VDPAU, VAAPI, or DXVA interfaces. You should be able to tell VLC to use one of those interfaces which in turn decodes the video stream using the Broadcom chip.

If you need the driver:
https://www.broadcom.com/support/do...om&pf=Legacy+Broadcom&pn=BCM70012&pa=&po=&dk=

If link doesn't work, search for BCM70012 or BCM70015.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Unfortunately i think you are SoL.

I had one of these cards on a laptop and i had it working with MPC-HC. i might of watched blu-ray rips but i dont think that is what you are looking for. Support for the card died a long time ago and i cant find anything online to help you. Those CrystalHD cards went in and out of existence really quick.

 

[sparomba]

This thread is old, I know.

Just want to point out the MPC-HC still does support the CrystalHD card. I'm still using this card in 2019.

0.) install the Broadcom CrystalHD Decoder Driver 3.7.20.0

In MPC-HC:
1.) go to View->Options->External Filters
2.) on the right side, click "Add Filter...", select "Broadcom Video Decoder", click "Ok"
3.) the decoder now shows up in the list of external filters, check it and click Ok (you might need to de-select all other external filters if there are any)

The decoder card is now enabled in MPC-HC.

Not sure if you need to restart MPC-HC or if it's active immediately. You can verify that MPC-HC is using the CrystalHD card by playing a video and running the "DTS_Info.exe" executable. The tool is located in the Broadcom drivers installation folder. Default location is either "C:\Program Files\Broadcom\Broadcom CrystalHD Decoder" or "C:\Program Files (x86)\Broadcom\Broadcom CrystalHD Decoder", depending if you installed the 32 or 64 bit driver. Start it. It will show up as Icon in the status bar.