Blu-ray on a G5?
I have recently bought a 24" LCD monitor for my G5 (early 2005, dual 2.5GHz, PCI-X, 8GB RAM). The display is used but in excellent condition. Now that I have more screen "real estate" on which to view movies, I have been thinking about purchasing a Blu-ray drive. Does anybody have any clues as to what hardware "bottlenecks" might exist when attaching such newer technology to an older computer? The monitor is a HP LP2465 (1920 x 1200) with DVI input. It is about 3 to 4 years old. My current graphics card is an AGP ATI Radeon 9600 XT, which came with the G5. Would this handle what I would assume to be a higher rate of data being sent to the monitor? Would the monitor be able to keep up? Are there any hardware compliance requirements I need to be aware of?
I haven't decided yet whether to settle for an external drive attached through either USB or FireWire 800 (as well as the built-in port, I have installed a FW800 PCI card), or to replace the internal DVD-burner with the proposed Blu-ray drive. If I go internal, I would need to install a SATA PCI card (I have one available) as all the Blu-ray drives I have looked at on the internet and eBay seem to only have SATA connectors (not IDE).
If anyone has done what I am hoping to do, I would be pleased to hear your experiences and suggestions, even if it's something as simple as which brands/models to recommend or avoid, compatibility concerns, practical matters, etc. I don't want to rush in blindly. All useful information is welcomed.
PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.4.11), G5, DP 2.5 GHz