Blu-ray on PC advice?
14 Jan 2014 0:06:06 UTC
Topic 197342
(moderation:
While I read daily and comment or question now and again on the crunching and problems boards here, I don't visit this cafe. And maybe this post is way out of line. But I guessed the latitude here was at a maximum. And there is negligible Einstein crunching or problem content to my question.
I don't have a TV set, and am accustomed to watching Netflix DVDs on my PC. I'd like the higher resolution of the Blu-Ray versions where available, have purchased a drive, and am ready to pay Netflix the extra fee. I plan to rebuild the host PC tomorrow, so this is a near-term interest.
I was wondering if any of you have specific advice among the Windows PC available options for software to enable watching Blu-ray movies? (the drive I bought is OEM, so no software is coming with it).
Fancy features are not of much interest to me, nor is ripping. Handling all formats likely to come to me (form Netflix at least) is important, as is graceful behavior with degraded disks, and easy resume from stopping point, and good picture and sound quality. (sound is stereo only--usually on headphones).
Some "review" sites seem just to be advertising for one option, such as UFSoft Windows Blu-ray player, or ArcSoft TotalMedia theatre. The old commercial standbys for DVDs, such as PowerDVD and WinDVD are clearly options. I'm not clear on whether my trusty GOM Player can be adapted to do the job with obtainable codes or not.
Negative advice is also valued, along with suggested option(s).
Thanks.
Blu-ray on PC advice?
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Seeing as all your pc's here are Windows ones I would try the default Windows players first and then branch out to the others if it doesn't fill your needs. If you just want to watch the default Windows ones are 'good enough', but when you want to do other things like ripping etc other brands can be more intuitive.
Late to the party... VLC
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Late to the party...
VLC is able to do it for free. But you have to Google the files and locations to add a library and another file to the installation.
I broke this machine on about 15th of January, and lost the exact set-up details...
When I get time I'll add VLC back on the new SSD...
dunx
I currently have Blu-Ray
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I currently have Blu-Ray viewing working, but stumbled several places on the way, so here are some notes in case they might help someone else with a similar interest who comes across this thread.
0. The easy part was the hardware. I chose the Asus BC-12B1ST, which will both read and write most flavors of CD and DVD, but only read (play) Blu-ray, not write. So far I have no regrets in this choice, and just ordered another for my personal PC.
1. No--Windows Media player as delivered on Windows 7 home Premium does not support Blu-Ray playback.
2. My first attempt to use a commercial player was WinDVD 11. To my surprise, when first installed it would not even play DVDs which would play on the same setup in GOM player or Windows Media Player. After much Googling and some experimentation I decided that it did not like my monitor, which although having a DVI connection was quite old, and was not HDCP compliant. Swapping for another of my monitors which Internet searches suggested was HDCP compliant fixed that problem.
3. But when my first Netflix Blu-ray disk arrived, WinDVD would not play it, giving a "media not supported" message. Web searches showed this to be a common failing, and I chased my tail for two days chasing some possible issues. The real issue, however, was that I had purchased the wrong version of WinDVD. WinDVD Pro 11 is advertised as supporting Blu-Ray playback. WinDVD 11 for twenty US dollars less, does not even mention Blu-Ray, which I suppose Corel considers to be adequate warning that it does not support it.
4. While the Corel purchase/download page prominently mentions a 30-day money back guarantee, they actually make it quite difficult to find the means to activate this. www.corel.com/return can get you started. I have requested my money back--no answer just yet.
5. While I could in theory have downloaded WinDVD Pro 11 in a free trial before purchase version, by this time I was ready to try something different. So I downloaded and installed a 15-day free trial version of ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 6, to which most review sites give good marks for function, but fault for being expensive.
Rather to my surprise, it just worked. I've watched "Captain Phillips" as distributed in Blu-Ray by Netflix, and eagerly await Hunger Games and Ben-Hur, both of which will probably arrive before I need to decide to pay. It is quite expensive, but after so much trouble I think I'll pay for something that just works, and whose interface so far pleases me.
6. I did come across the VLC possiblity in my travels, but harbored some doubt as to the provenance, stability, and legality of the add-ons required to get it to do Blu-ray.
RE: I currently have
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I for one appreciate the update, my wife is now bugging me about blu-rays thru Netflix too!
Have you tried to update the
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Have you tried to update the codecs on your computer? The Media Player Codec Pack contains, amongst others: Aditional file associations are applied to make Windows Media Player play BDMV (unencrypted BluRay/AVCHD), EVO (unencrypted HD-DVD), NOTE: BluRay and HD-DVD playback is very basic and requires both Slysoft AnyDVD HD and compatible hardware.
And from Techspot.com: By using SlySoft AnyDVD HD with this Codec Pack, Windows Vista and Windows 7 users can play: Protected Bluray, AVCHD, HD-DVD, DVD, CD.
Some further
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Some further updates:
Rather to my surprise, it somehow turns out that the ability of at least the common software players to perform the basic-seeming function of restarting at the last point played (instead of the beginning) depends on something about how the disc is coded. While one might think that the bookmark function offered by at least some players would be a way around this (at least for those who plan ahead), it also turns out that the form of bookmarks offered also depends on something about how the disc is coded, but not exactly the same something.
I think I've also already had my first case of a Netflix blu-ray delivered with enough scratching that the combination of my hardware reader and my software players had trouble handling it. This was a bit scary, as at first glance it looked far cleaner than have most of my Netflix DVDs. Only with light at the correct angle could I discern a curious set of parallel lines. Actual three sets, each in a different orientation. As it happens Arcsoft TMT 6 handled this a bit better than did WinDVD Pro 11--as I was able to start normal viewing a couple chapters into the movie on TMT6, while on WinDVD I never got more than a couple of seconds of content viewing before failure.
Whining aside, the visual sight of my first few blu-rays was pretty compelling. Clearly the format is capable (1920x1080?) of making much better use of a halfway decent PC monitor than is the limited native resolution of DVD (commonly 720x480 for those of us in 60Hz land, or 720x576 in 50Hz regions, I think)