Blu-Ray ROM: Software for playback

[StarsFan4Life]

I finally picked up a Lite-On Blu-Ray ROM for about $60 (oem). What I didn't realize is that my solid media player (VLC Player) does NOT support Blu-Ray discs.

What is a cheap/free good Blu-Ray disc player for the PC, Windows 7 64-bit?

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Three months ago I bought an OEM BD-ROM drive with the Cyberlink Blu-ray edition software suite for $99. Got it at Microcenter. Maybe return the drive and find an oem drive+s/w for about the same.

 

[jdjbuffalo]

cheap/free != Blu-ray playback.

There are some solutions out there but most require you to get the Blu-ray move from less than legal means.

The best I've found is Total Media Theatre (TMT3). They have specials often for 20-40% off. I bought the Premium version for around $75 but they do sell other versions that support Blu-rays for less as long as you don't need all the extra features.

 

[StarsFan4Life]

So there are no free blu-ray rom players out there?

 

[Binky]

There is no such thing as a blu-ray free player. The codec license itself costs money. Unless I'm remembering it wrong, M$ was nice enough to finally include a native DVD codec in Vista-Win7, but the blu-ray codec is still new and therefore expensive.

Three options that I know of:
PowerDVD
Total Media Theater
WinDVD

The bundled players are often castrated in some way. The PowerDVD included in many player/software bundles can only play 2 channel sound.

You could try ebay. I'm sure there are a ton of fake copies for sale on ebay for $10-$30, but my original copy of PowerDVD came from ebay for about $10. I have upgraded it through Cyberlink twice now (~$60 each time). Whether or not that original copy was legit will be forever unknown, but it did upgrade to a legit copy!

 

[abaez]

If you have AnyDVD, you can play BR's in VLC.