Blu-ray on PC?

[DCWalt]

Basically all I want to do is watch Blu-ray movies on my computer without being forced to spend an absurd amount of money on software. If any one can tell me how to do it for free (I don't want to here about VLC. I've tried that mod multiple times on multiple computers and it doesn't work.) please let me know.

 

But here's my real question. If I pay for a Blu-ray drive and then I pay for a movie on Blue-ray... Shouldn't I then be able to watch said Blu-ray with said Blu-ray dive? I've spent quite a long time trying to figure this one out and the only conclusion I can come to is that in order to watch a Blu-ray disk on windows you not only have to buy the drive, but the software as well witch I find entirely ridicules.

 

On the surface it may seem simple enough. The drive manufacturer doesn't ship the drive with software because they would have to pay royalties on the Blu-ray codec. Sure, Makes sense. Until you think about Blu-ray players for your TV. Many of the companies making Blu-ray players also make Blu-ray PC drives.

 

Take LG for example, They sell a player (the PB300) for $89.00. it plays Blu-ray discs right out of the box. It has a GUI that lets you go between playing a disc to the USB input and even watch Netflix or Hulu with it's built in WiFi. For all intents and purposes it's a computer with it's own Processor and RAM. LG also sells a PC drive (the WH16NS40) for $79.99. It doesn't have built in WiFi, it's not a self contained computer with it's own processor and RAM and it doesn't play Blu-ray discs out of the box.

 

So, if it where the royalty costs preventing companies from shipping PC drives with the ability to play Blu-ray movies out of the box, How then can the same company manage to make and ship Blu-ray players with so much more hardware and the ability to play movies for only ten dollars more.

 

Most Blu-ray playback software costs as much as the drives do or more and company that makes the drive doesn't see any of that money. I could kind of understand it if Sony wanted the monopoly on drives that come with the ability to play Blu-ray discs out of the box, forcing costumers of other companies to have to spend twice the money. But as far as I can tell Sony doesn't actually make a PC Blu-ray drive. I can't even find one on there own website.

 

There's supposed to be a mod to make VLC media player play Blu-Rays but I’ve never been able to get it to work after the MANY times I’ve tried.

 

So, even though I own a Blu-ray drive and I've payed for the movie giving me the legal right to view it, I still can't without spending another fifty to sixty dollars.

 

Maybe i'm way off base here. Maybe I've missed something completely obvious and if that's the case PLEASE feel free to call me an idiot and show me what I missed.

[defunkt]

Eh? Just get a blue ray drive.

[Langdon]

Eh? Just get a blue ray drive.

You clearly have not read the thread properly.

I'm sure there is free open source software, OP. But I have no experience with this.

[CwGoh]

Eh? Just get a blue ray drive.

The problem is not that he does not have a drive, the problem is that he has no software to play it. 

[CwGoh]

This website may be of help. http://vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name/

[ixiboneheadixi]

No idea honestly, never messed with blu rays, I would have assumed you buy the drive and it works through windows media player or VLC or something, maybe torrent the software you need

[Prince32780]

I never realized how complicated it is to watch a blu-ray on pc.

 

Try Potplayer http://www.videohelp.com/tools/PotPlayer

I found it on lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/5870977/five-best-blu+ray-playback-suites

[knight_40k]

XBMC has a great built-in Bluray player. Give that a try?

[Guest]

Eh? Just get a blue ray drive.

blu*

[DCWalt]

XBMX sees a disc but won't play it and PotPlayer doesn't seem to play discs at all.

[Me1z]

I'm curious about this as well, back when I was looking up parts and planning my current build I wanted to get a blu ray drive, but I never did because I couldn't find a simple solution. Why isn't the software included with the drive? I would willingly shell out the extra $10 for LG/ Sony/ whatever company to make the drive read discs right out of the box. If it costs more than $10 then they're clearly doing something wrong because thats exactly what they charge for their stand alone players like OP said.

[7850OC]

i add the blu-ray LG to my PC  :wub: (i love it, but to play movies you will need all this)

 

you will "need" a 1080p monitor (yes, no less that 1080p) and i buy a Samsung 24" for this (monitor/tv)

 

you will "need" a HDMI or a DVI-I on the monitor (my Samsung don't have DVI-i but it have the HDMI)

 

 

 

you will need install the software that came with the LG blu-ray (to see BD movies)

 

you will download the software after you give they the key that come with the blu-ray from they webpage

 

you will "need" be online for the installation (you may be need disable and configure some things after this)

 

 

 

after all this, you will be ready to see BD movies  :lol:

 

they will offer upgrade the software, but i always skip this part 

 

i don't need it, and ho knows if they will ask more cash for that upgrade to  <_<

 

so yea, i stay with the PowerDVD 10 that came with the blu-ray  B)

 

 

 

but keep in mind that "not all 1080p monitors" can play BD movies (and bypass the copyright restriction)

 

i hope this help you  (just keep in mind that my works perfect, and i use a Samsung monitor/tv Serie 3)

[DCWalt]

 

i add the blu-ray LG to my PC  :wub: (i love it, but to play movies you will need all this)

 

you will "need" a 1080p monitor (yes, no less that 1080p) and i buy a Samsung 24" for this (monitor/tv)

 

you will "need" a HDMI or a DVI-I on the monitor (my Samsung don't have DVI-i but it have the HDMI)

 

 

 

you will need install the software that came with the LG blu-ray (to see BD movies)

 

you will download the software after you give they the key that come with the blu-ray from they webpage

 

you will "need" be online for the installation (you may be need disable and configure some things after this)

 

 

 

after all this, you will be ready to see BD movies  :lol:

 

they will offer upgrade the software, but i always skip this part 

 

i don't need it, and ho knows if they will ask more cash for that upgrade to  <_<

 

so yea, i stay with the PowerDVD 10 that came with the blu-ray  B)

 

 

 

but keep in mind that "not all 1080p monitors" can play BD movies (and bypass the copyright restriction)

 

i hope this help you  (just keep in mind that my works perfect, and i use a Samsung monitor/tv Serie 3)

 

First you don't "need" a 1080p monitor. you can play Blu-rays on what ever monitor or TV you want it just wont display in full HD if your monitor isn't 1080p or higher. It's kind of a moot point anyway sense just about every one on the face of the planet has a 1080p monitor. Mine happens to 1440p.

 

And I've never known a monitor or TV that couldn't play Blu-rays because of copyright protection. There would be no point. Copyright protection is to prevent people from copying the movie, not from them viewing it in the first place. if there where monitors or TVs out there that couldn't display content because of copyright protection, one, they would never sell any, and two, no one would be able to use a PS3 because all of it's content is protected.

 

Beyond that you basically just said buy a new Blu-ray drive and install the software that comes with it witch kind of defeats the point when i could just buy the software for the same price as the drive.

 

The point was that most Blu-ray drives don't come with software (like my ASUS drive) forcing me to spend even more money than i should have to. And PowerDVD isn't LGs software, they just bundle it. so maybe comparing LGs products like i did wasn't the best brand to use as an example but my point still stands. These companies should have there own software that comes with every drive or Sony needs to start letting programs like VLC or even windows media player use there codecs for free.

[xox]

I'd just advise people to get a Blu-Ray player with Blu-Ray Software.

 

Alas, I did the same thing. So try this:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Cyberlink-DVD-0D00-IWU0-00-PowerDVD-Ultra-Download/dp/B00CBISACE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388601698&sr=8-1&keywords=powerDVD+11

[select Deluxe Edition]

[Ja Krispie]

Eh? Just get a blue ray drive.

it's spell Blu-ray not blue ray.

 

Also to do it legally for free I'm not sure, I just paid about 50 bucks for Power DVD 13 Ultra software. Unfortunately when you buy OEM you're on your own for the software

[Legion]

Why anyone would skip on a bluray player that comes bundled with software. I know when I was buying mine i'd the choice between an OEM one from LG and for literally 5 euro more the choice of an LG one that came bundled with powerdvd.

 

I've since updated it to PowerDVD13 because it was on sale and I didn't mind paying for the extra features.

[DCWalt]

Why anyone would skip on a bluray player that comes bundled with software. I know when I was buying mine i'd the choice between an OEM one from LG and for literally 5 euro more the choice of an LG one that came bundled with powerdvd.

 

I've since updated it to PowerDVD13 because it was on sale and I didn't mind paying for the extra features.

I got mine because i love ASUS as a brand. But i guess you're right, it was wrong of me to assume a company would support the functionality of there own product.

[7850OC]

First you don't "need" a 1080p monitor. you can play Blu-rays on what ever monitor or TV you want it just wont display in full HD if your monitor isn't 1080p or higher. It's kind of a moot point anyway sense just about every one on the face of the planet has a 1080p monitor. Mine happens to 1440p.

 

And I've never known a monitor or TV that couldn't play Blu-rays because of copyright protection. There would be no point. Copyright protection is to prevent people from copying the movie, not from them viewing it in the first place. if there where monitors or TVs out there that couldn't display content because of copyright protection, one, they would never sell any, and two, no one would be able to use a PS3 because all of it's content is protected.

 

Beyond that you basically just said buy a new Blu-ray drive and install the software that comes with it witch kind of defeats the point when i could just buy the software for the same price as the drive.

 

The point was that most Blu-ray drives don't come with software (like my ASUS drive) forcing me to spend even more money than i should have to. And PowerDVD isn't LGs software, they just bundle it. so maybe comparing LGs products like i did wasn't the best brand to use as an example but my point still stands. These companies should have there own software that comes with every drive or Sony needs to start letting programs like VLC or even windows media player use there codecs for free.

 

tell "that" to the Philips 1080p  <_< friend

[Skyhawk Delta]

The short answer is no, there is not a free and easy way to watch blu ray on PC without breaking the disc copy protection and ripping it.  The main problem with blu ray is, as I am sure you are aware of, the massive amount of copy protection on the disc.  I also searched for a free and open source method of watching blu rays on my PC.  While the drive I bought (a Samsung USB blu ray writer) came bundled with PowerDVD, I didn't install it.  Purely because I felt like sticking it to the man.

 

This article I found on lifehacker is basically what I used to rip a few blu rays a few months ago:

 

http://lifehacker.com/5559007/the-hassle+free-guide-to-ripping-your-blu+ray-collection

 

The key piece of software in the method described in this article is MakeMKV, which will be a pay program at some point (not overpriced like standalone PowerDVD), but since it is still in beta, it remains free.  It will stop working after 60 days and will try to uninstall itself, which might make your antivirus complain, but you can just redownload it again and it will work again for another 60 days.  Just so you know, haven't tried redownloading it yet (I have a very small blu ray collection atm) but supposedly that will get it working again.

 

Anyway, what MakeMKV does is break the copy protection of blu ray discs and allows you to see all the files available.  You select what you want to rip and it will encode it into an mkv file ready for compression.  The selection of which file to rip and encode can be a bit confusing as the files on disc are never properly labeled (they're not meant to be viewed by the end user), but usually you'll be able to tell which file is the movie file by the size.  It's usually the largest file (but not always).  The checklist it presents you can be daunting since all files are automatically checked and you have to manually uncheck them yourself, but once you get it down to the movie file and the audio and subtitles (as needed) that you want, the movie is ready to be ripped.  There's no guarantee that it will rip however.  I have one movie that I never got to work.  The good news is that once you have a ripped movie file, it's not watermarked in any way and will not self destruct even if you uninstall MakeMKV.  The file is yours to keep and back up forever.

 

You'll also need Handbrake, which is free and open source video transcoder that will be used for compression and it's pretty easy to use.  I used it a long time ago for making videos with the Source engine recorder.  I never got around to compressing the files since I have hard drive space to spare, but if you follow the instructions on the lifehacker article you should be fine.

 

Be aware of a couple of things.  The rip will take hours, optical drives are not that fast.  But it should require minimal processing power so you can keep using your PC while this is going on.  You also will need significant free space on your drive(s).  I recommend having at least 40 GB of free space.  The initial ripped and uncompressed file will be very large.  If you don't have that space, USB flash drives with 64 GB of space can be had for around 40-50 bucks.

 

Once you are done you'll have a video file that you are free to play in the video player of your choice.  I know this probably isn't the solution you were hoping for, but it's the best alternative to buying PowerDVD for PC blu ray viewing.  Plus you'll have a convienent, high quality file that you can skip around on.  It's not ASUS's fault that the corporations in charge of the blu ray format are greedy bastards about the implementation (read: codecs) of studio films on the format.

[jmohamed]

I've come across this same issue as well, I was able to pickup a Pioneer blu-ray drive for around $30 CDN. Fortunately I had a Dell Cyberlink PowerDVD (Blu-ray) key so I use that for now, however I'm fairly certain VLC has support for Blu-ray playback. That being said I've never been able to get it to work. 

 

(as was linked before)

http://vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name/

[toms94z71]

Thankfully my laptop came with cyberlink powerdvd which plays bluray just fine, but my drive is on its way out, it still ready and plays fine, but will not write any more, it started off getting picky on the disks and now will not write on anything now, from some research I have found it is a common thing with this particular drive, I don't use it all that often but I do miss burning cds on it for using in my truck.

[Blade of Grass]

First you don't "need" a 1080p monitor. you can play Blu-rays on what ever monitor or TV you want it just wont display in full HD if your monitor isn't 1080p or higher. It's kind of a moot point anyway sense just about every one on the face of the planet has a 1080p monitor. Mine happens to 1440p.

 

And I've never known a monitor or TV that couldn't play Blu-rays because of copyright protection. There would be no point. Copyright protection is to prevent people from copying the movie, not from them viewing it in the first place. if there where monitors or TVs out there that couldn't display content because of copyright protection, one, they would never sell any, and two, no one would be able to use a PS3 because all of it's content is protected.

 

Beyond that you basically just said buy a new Blu-ray drive and install the software that comes with it witch kind of defeats the point when i could just buy the software for the same price as the drive.

 

The point was that most Blu-ray drives don't come with software (like my ASUS drive) forcing me to spend even more money than i should have to. And PowerDVD isn't LGs software, they just bundle it. so maybe comparing LGs products like i did wasn't the best brand to use as an example but my point still stands. These companies should have there own software that comes with every drive or Sony needs to start letting programs like VLC or even windows media player use there codecs for free.

Actually, not every monitor/TV is able to play Blu-Ray content. For them to be able to play it, they need to be HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) compatible, otherwise, it will not let you view the content.