Have computer with Blu-Ray - what's CURRENTL the cheapest, easy way to watch Blu-Ray?

[jdoggg12]

Since the movie industry believes that anyone watching a movie on a computer has every intent to rip/steal/distribute them, it seems that even in 2015 there's no cheap AND easy way to get my Blu-Ray player/burner to play a movie. I'm hoping that I'm wrong and that there's a free/cheap (cheap being ~$25 or less) software to play movies as easily as it is to fire up VLC and play a MKV from my HDD.

I appreciate any input!

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

http://www.dvdfab.cn/promotion.htm
Specifically:
DVDFab Passkey Lifetime Giveaway Round Two

DVDFab Passkey is a DVD/Blu-ray universal decrypter that can help you access any copy-protected DVD disc and BD. According to the strong repercussion in the last Passkey Giveaway, we determine to kick off the Passkey Lifetime Giveaway Round Two to show our gratitude. All you need is just type in your valid E-mail address in the below textbox and submit it to DVDFab.

 

[jdoggg12]

Seems too good to be true - what's the catch? haha

Used my aol email addres that I created in 1993 until I switched to Gmail. It's my junk mail account for this type of thing. If it seems like a marketing ploy to get my contact info so they can sell it to mailing lists, AOL.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

They've offered this before. I got it the first time. The only spam I've gotten from them since was for this new promo. If there's more of a catch than that it hasn't hit yet.

 

[Binky]

Easy = regular hardware blu-ray player. Sad, but true.

 

[smitbret]

Rip it to .mkv with MakeMKV and then play it back with VLC.

Your other option would be dedicated BD playback software like Cyberlink PowerDVD.

 

[Zodiark1593]

With that free DVDFab Passkey code, you should be able to play blu ray directly in software like VLC and MPC. Currently checking out it it will work with software like imgburn to rip .iso files from blu ray. If it can be encoded in handbrake, then I have me a free MakeMKV replacement.

Edit: Personally, I much prefer MakeMKV, and it is truly an awesome piece of software for this DRM-induced mess called Blu Ray, but I so rarely have a need of it that the asking price is much too high for my liking, and dealing with expired trial keys that may no longer exist in the future is a bit of a pain.

On the other hand, DVDFab Passkey seems to work with IMGBurn for ripping .ISOs. My concern is the potential internet connection requirement that I am checking out. AKA, no blu ray decryption without an internet connection. Also, pulling the video files directly for .mkv may be a bit of a pain compared to the one-click solution of MakeMKV.

edit 2: Do be careful in downloading IMGBurn. Nasty case of Adware from the particular mirror I used. A shame, I don't remember having this issue some 5 years ago.

 

[crashtech]

Rip it to .mkv with MakeMKV and then play it back with VLC.

This is what I do with my Blu-Rays.

 

[Dirigible]

With that free DVDFab Passkey code, you should be able to play blu ray directly in software like VLC and MPC. Currently checking out it it will work with software like imgburn to rip .iso files from blu ray. If it can be encoded in handbrake, then I have me a free MakeMKV replacement.

Edit: Personally, I much prefer MakeMKV, and it is truly an awesome piece of software for this DRM-induced mess called Blu Ray, but I so rarely have a need of it that the asking price is much too high for my liking, and dealing with expired trial keys that may no longer exist in the future is a bit of a pain.

On the other hand, DVDFab Passkey seems to work with IMGBurn for ripping .ISOs. My concern is the potential internet connection requirement that I am checking out. AKA, no blu ray decryption without an internet connection. Also, pulling the video files directly for .mkv may be a bit of a pain compared to the one-click solution of MakeMKV.

edit 2: Do be careful in downloading IMGBurn. Nasty case of Adware from the particular mirror I used. A shame, I don't remember having this issue some 5 years ago.

You can rip to ISO just using dvdfab passkey. Nothing additional is needed.

 

[Zodiark1593]

You can rip to ISO just using dvdfab passkey. Nothing additional is needed.

Ha, realized that later yesterday. For some reason, I just assumed it was decrypt only when I saw the other duplicating software on their website.

 

[smitbret]

You can rip to ISO just using dvdfab passkey. Nothing additional is needed.

Still haven't covered playback, though.

 

[crashtech]

Yeah, the isos will have some form copy protection intact, I think. When I was still trying to play along by buying all the updated versions of PowerDVD (what a joke), Cinavia came along and ruined the way I handled Blu-rays at the time, which was to rip them to isos, then mount them and play them as if they were a regular disc. I have no doubt in my mind that this constitutes fair use and eliminates inadvertent scratching of the discs. Now mkv files with VLC playback are the rule, bye-bye Cyberlink.

 

[smitbret]

Yeah, the isos will have some form copy protection intact, I think. When I was still trying to play along by buying all the updated versions of PowerDVD (what a joke), Cinavia came along and ruined the way I handled Blu-rays at the time, which was to rip them to isos, then mount them and play them as if they were a regular disc. I have no doubt in my mind that this constitutes fair use and eliminates inadvertent scratching of the discs. Now mkv files with VLC playback are the rule, bye-bye Cyberlink.

Exactly. Any playback software has to be licensed in order to playback any BD image or disc and that isn't free. VLC and any of the free media players won't play your BD .iso. I still keep Cyberlink around, though so I can run my ripped .iso files through it and pull out the correct playlist before converting everything to.mkv. I rip to .iso using AnyDVD so there is no copy protection on my .iso files and SpeedMenu gives me the playlist to repackage/encode.

 

[Dirigible]

Still haven't covered playback, though.

Playback is no problem.

Rip with that free passkey or anyDVD, and the copy protection will be gone. Then you can play the blu ray ISO with free software. I use Kodi. Cinavia is not a problem this way either, because Kodi doesn't implement any cinavia stuff.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Still haven't covered playback, though.

With DVDFab running in the background, straight blu ray playback can/should be done on your media player of choice so long as it supports blu ray. VLC will do the trick.

 

[lupi]

I never checked but this has me interested, have a laptop with a BR drive I've watched movies from but don't recall any company logo appearing as the movie starts saying what the player is.

 

[truckerCLOCK]

Easy = regular hardware blu-ray player. Sad, but true.

Yup what he said.....

 

[smitbret]

With DVDFab running in the background, straight blu ray playback can/should be done on your media player of choice so long as it supports blu ray. VLC will do the trick.

What version of VLC do you have that will play a BD Disc or a BD .iso?

 

[Zodiark1593]

What version of VLC do you have that will play a BD Disc or a BD .iso?

2.0.4 and above support blu ray playback. It is important to note that VLC doesn't handle the decryption though. DVDFab will handle that in the background while you play the BD disc.

 

[Dirigible]

2.0.4 and above support blu ray playback. It is important to note that VLC doesn't handle the decryption though. DVDFab will handle that in the background while you play the BD disc.

This is a good point. Looks like the cheapest, easiest way now if you have a BD drive on your computer is to:
1) get dvdfab passkey for free
2) Put disc in computer.
3) Playback with free software like VLC or Kodi, with passkey doing the decryption.

That's free if you have a blu ray drive on your computer already, and pretty dang quick to playback.

Good work AT. Problem solved!

 

[pcslookout]

It is easy to get around Cinavia. There is a solution online that takes less than 5 mins.

That way I can play my .mkv Blu Ray rips from plex to the tv in the living room.

 

[smitbret]

It is easy to get around Cinavia. There is a solution online that takes less than 5 mins.

That way I can play my .mkv Blu Ray rips from plex to the tv in the living room.

Do share. This is news to me.

 

[poofyhairguy]

It is easy to get around Cinavia. There is a solution online that takes less than 5 mins.

That way I can play my .mkv Blu Ray rips from plex to the tv in the living room.

If you are talking about what I think you are talking about it doesn't work as it claims to work. The audio files are degraded.

But really with a HTPC and open source tools like VLC Cinavia isn't a problem.

 

[JimKiler]

Since the movie industry believes that anyone watching a movie on a computer has every intent to rip/steal/distribute them, it seems that even in 2015 there's no cheap AND easy way to get my Blu-Ray player/burner to play a movie. I'm hoping that I'm wrong and that there's a free/cheap (cheap being ~$25 or less) software to play movies as easily as it is to fire up VLC and play a MKV from my HDD.

I appreciate any input!

Where did you get your BD drive from? I bought an Asus on newegg and it came with free cyberlink powerDVD software to watch BD movies.

 

[crashtech]

Where did you get your BD drive from? I bought an Asus on newegg and it came with free cyberlink powerDVD software to watch BD movies.

If a person likes to rip their Blu-Ray discs to isos in order to avoid excess handling of the discs, PowerDVD will not play certain mounted isos that retain copy protection, like those encoded with Cinavia.