Playing your Blu Ray films off a media pc

[pcslookout]

Does anyone else here play all their Blu Ray films off a pc dedicated for media ? What is the best player to use? I like to be able to play more than one film without having to get up and change the disc. Also helpful so I don't wear out, drop, or scratch the Blu Ray. I like to keep my films in order. Is it possible to use KMPlayer ? I got it to work but now my foreign films don't show the English subtitles for some reason. Finally got the audio working though but before only the video worked. If no one knows it is no big deal.

 

[erwos]

I'm surprised you could make mplayer work at all - BD+ should have been preventing that. You did play the disc you own and not some file that you nebulously downloaded off the Internet, right?

IIRC, your only two real choices are Arcsoft Total Theatre and PowerDVD.

 

[rsd]

As erwos said, you're main choices are TMT and PDVD. Both have a lot of bad points, but if I had to choose one (and I've tried both and bought one), then it'd be Arcsoft TMT. Until PDVD9 came out, TMT was the only one with a 10 foot UI that was remote controllable.

PDVD has horrendous customer support and frankly don't know what the customer wants. Arcsoft at least tries, but both are constricted by what the content owners (aka studios) tell them.

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: erwos
I'm surprised you could make mplayer work at all - BD+ should have been preventing that. You did play the disc you own and not some file that you nebulously downloaded off the Internet, right?

IIRC, your only two real choices are Arcsoft Total Theatre and PowerDVD.

lol not mplayer, KMPlayer, it is better than VLC Player, by far. Though the video played fine in VLC Player too but KMPlayer was the only one where I could get audio and video. Just no subtitles.

I tried Arcsoft Total Theatre but it wouldn't even open after installing it on Vista 64 bit

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: rsd
As erwos said, you're main choices are TMT and PDVD. Both have a lot of bad points, but if I had to choose one (and I've tried both and bought one), then it'd be Arcsoft TMT. Until PDVD9 came out, TMT was the only one with a 10 foot UI that was remote controllable.

PDVD has horrendous customer support and frankly don't know what the customer wants. Arcsoft at least tries, but both are constricted by what the content owners (aka studios) tell them.

Thanks year I would prefer use Arcsoft TMT as well but it is next to impossible to find the latest trial version. I found one but the program would not open at all on Vista 64 bit.

 

[abaez]

I like WinDVD because it still supports HDDVD without having to do silly crap.

As far as I can see, KMPlayer doesn't support BluRay or HDDVD playback, so curious to know how you got it working. You mention "video", so you ripped your Blu Ray? Which program and what codec?

 

[sportage]

If you buy the LG BR player drive at around $100, it comes with powerdvd that plays BR in 1080p. Powerdvd is flakey however. The oem that comes with the LG BR drive auto inserts its serial/key. But often this oem Pdvd will ask to activate via entering a serial number/key.
Since the Pdvd should be activated when installed with its own eom key, asking again to be activated is annoying. After a restart, ignoring the activation msg, the Pdvd runs fine.

Yes I too hate Pdvd. Oem or not.
But it does work in the 64 environment, unlike TMT.
I found it best to change settings for Pdvd to startup whenever the media pc boots up.
And to set pdvd to play in full screen mode.

This way, when you slip in the BR, Pdvd starts playing it in full screen. And you won?t get the activation error msg if Pdvd loads at bootup.

Even though this MCE setup works with the LG drive and the oem Pdvd BR player that comes with the drive, this OEM version does not play 5.1 audio. Just 2 channel stereo.
You have to upgrade-buy Pdvd HD to get the 5.1 audio feature.

I actually liked TMT best, but it would not work in the 64 environment. And in the 32 environment there were several BR disc's that TMT would not play.
I don?t think TMT is kept up to date like Pdvd.

Another thing. I use Win7 on my media pc. Pdvd works fine for the most part in 64 Win7.
TMT will not install in Win7 32 or 64.

DVDfab needs to come out with a nifty BR playing software. They would leave Pdvd and TMT in the dust and control the market. I can't believe Pdvd and TMT are the only real choices thus far.

 

[abaez]

WinDVD is just as good as powerdvd imho.

 

[erwos]

I didn't realize WinDVD was still an option - for whatever reason, I thought they hadn't done BR-D and HD-DVD playback yet. Interesting.

 

[abaez]

Yea, also native support for HDDVD (no workarounds like with PDVD). Works great with ISO's single file or file structure images, and it's much faster for me than PDVD or TMT. Really don't know why anyone would use PDVD over it.

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: sportage
If you buy the LG BR player drive at around $100, it comes with powerdvd that plays BR in 1080p. Powerdvd is flakey however. The oem that comes with the LG BR drive auto inserts its serial/key. But often this oem Pdvd will ask to activate via entering a serial number/key.
Since the Pdvd should be activated when installed with its own eom key, asking again to be activated is annoying. After a restart, ignoring the activation msg, the Pdvd runs fine.

Yes I too hate Pdvd. Oem or not.
But it does work in the 64 environment, unlike TMT.
I found it best to change settings for Pdvd to startup whenever the media pc boots up.
And to set pdvd to play in full screen mode.

This way, when you slip in the BR, Pdvd starts playing it in full screen. And you won?t get the activation error msg if Pdvd loads at bootup.

Even though this MCE setup works with the LG drive and the oem Pdvd BR player that comes with the drive, this OEM version does not play 5.1 audio. Just 2 channel stereo.
You have to upgrade-buy Pdvd HD to get the 5.1 audio feature.

I actually liked TMT best, but it would not work in the 64 environment. And in the 32 environment there were several BR disc's that TMT would not play.
I don?t think TMT is kept up to date like Pdvd.

Another thing. I use Win7 on my media pc. Pdvd works fine for the most part in 64 Win7.
TMT will not install in Win7 32 or 64.

DVDfab needs to come out with a nifty BR playing software. They would leave Pdvd and TMT in the dust and control the market. I can't believe Pdvd and TMT are the only real choices thus far.

Wow TMT doesn't work in a 64 bit OS at all ? That sucks.

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: abaez
Yea, also native support for HDDVD (no workarounds like with PDVD). Works great with ISO's single file or file structure images, and it's much faster for me than PDVD or TMT. Really don't know why anyone would use PDVD over it.

I tried WinDVD it would not work for me.

 

[pcslookout]

Does anyone know what options there is in linux to play blu ray ? Curious.

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: pcslookout
Wow TMT doesn't work in a 64 bit OS at all ? That sucks.

I'm running TME/TMT on Vista x64, and it's been fine. It's a version which came with the Hauppauge HDPVR (and self-updated).

 

[Nebor]

I use PowerDVD 8 on my HTPC. My father just built an HTPC of his own and bought PowerDVD 9 for $100. I'll probably buy it when I get back to my HTPC someday. Cyberlink as a company sucks as, but their product is the best.