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Recomment Blu Ray software?

pete6032

pete6032

Diamond Member
Can anyone recommend a good Blu Ray playback software? The last time I used Blu Ray playback was probably in 2011-12 when I had an HTPC and there were just a shit ton of problems, HDCP, long loading times, etc. I was using Cyberlink Blu Ray software. How have things come along today? Is Blu Ray software just as good as using a Blu Ray player now-a-days?
 
Another vote for TMT, tried all the popular ones out there and likes this the most! It can play ISO images loaded on virtual drive, I use this feature a lot so that was a plus.
 
My friend is using Cyberlink PowerDVD 13 Ultra, and he suffers from insanely long load-up times, which he claims are around 5 minutes. I use ArcSoft's Total Media Theatre 5, and it works great. The only bad thing is that Total Media Theatre doesn't have big sales often, and the $100 price tag can seem quite steep. Even on the more common discounts, it's maybe $80. If you don't care about 3D content, you can go with a cheaper version of PowerDVD.
 
Personally I just can't bring myself to pay as much as a hardware BR player for software for playback. (And I don't mind paying a fair price for software one bit, but $80-$100 isn't fair IMO).

Last time I tried Cyberlink it was so-so. Sticking with my PS3.

Shame really. BR playback choice is a real downside of HTPCs
 
You can try JRiver for free. Usually see it for audio, but does a great job with BluRays and DVD's, and is being used by people as their main media center.
It is also half the cost of the others.
It also does not have all the bs that powerdvd has when you have to reinstall or upgrade.

AnyDVD HD is also something that you might need, as even thou I had all compatible hardware, nothing would work without this program.
 
^ Interesting. I'll have to try some of those. Didn't know about most of those options, even after searching in the past for BR player software.

Incidently, that's what I like about this forum. Always learn something new from people here.
 
I have a question for OP, most if not all the players listed above, specially something like VLC, will not be able to get past BRD encryption if we are talking about a movie, how do you plan to get past that?
 
DesiPower said:
I have a question for OP, most if not all the players listed above, specially something like VLC, will not be able to get past BRD encryption if we are talking about a movie, how do you plan to get past that?
Click to expand...

AnyDVD HD.

removes encryption, allows you to copy movies to your hard drive.

As I said before, for the $49 JRiver costs, it is the best program I have used to manage both my music and video collection. it does everything I need it to, and more.
Rips music into almost any format
converts music you have to almost any format, so I no longer need to have several copies of each song for different mobile play back devices.
(I now rip my music as Flac, which is a lossless format. Then use JRiver to convert to MP3's for my mobile devices)
Rips both DVD and BRD disks to my hard drive, (I do need AnyDVD HD to do this)

Check it out, you can make it as simple or as complex as you would like.
 
Esiuda said:
AnyDVD HD.

removes encryption, allows you to copy movies to your hard drive.

As I said before, for the $49 JRiver costs, it is the best program I have used to manage both my music and video collection. it does everything I need it to, and more.
Rips music into almost any format
converts music you have to almost any format, so I no longer need to have several copies of each song for different mobile play back devices.
(I now rip my music as Flac, which is a lossless format. Then use JRiver to convert to MP3's for my mobile devices)
Rips both DVD and BRD disks to my hard drive, (I do need AnyDVD HD to do this)

Check it out, you can make it as simple or as complex as you would like.
Click to expand...

I was just making sure that OP had taken that into consideration, as "buying" just a BRD player is not going to be enough, he will need a decrypted. AnyDVD is not exactly free either, its free/trial version will not do everything you need in the long run. So now you are paying for two software, unless you know some other tricks. Now, if you know other tricks and start going down the "grey" path, after a while, the "price" becomes irrelevant... just saying...
 
You can get Arcsoft TMT 6 for $70 using the coupon code ACTIVATION08. Still a high price for this software, even though it is easily the best for playing Blu-ray that I know of. I've seen it as low as $30 for one brief sale.

TMT has Cinavia detection these days, which is why I still use an older copy of TMT 5 before Cinavia was added in, and refuse to update it. So far, I haven't had any issues, but I don't buy that many new releases, and I always rip to the hard drive and play from there anyway.

You can rip Blu-ray for free using MakeMKV in Backup mode, but you'll need to update the beta key every six weeks or so. I generally use AnyDVD HD.
 
So am I understanding this correctly? Even using software like Aurora or JRiver etc. AnyDVD is also needed to decrypt the Bluray? (I haven't been home to try any of these and won't be for another week).

If so... man. I'm starting to understand the "Bag of Hurt" reference Steve Jobs used.
 
Well, you need to understand that what you doing is in the gray area, its not fully legal so to speak. BRDs are meant to be played on stand alone players only, the makers never said that you can play them on computers. There are digital version available to be viewed or played on computers. You are just using hacks and cracks to make it play on computers.
 
DesiPower said:
Well, you need to understand that what you doing is in the gray area, its not fully legal so to speak. BRDs are meant to be played on stand alone players only, the makers never said that you can play them on computers. There are digital version available to be viewed or played on computers. You are just using hacks and cracks to make it play on computers.
Click to expand...

Good summary. I never really thought about it this way but you're right.

I don't mind hacks at all to make things work... just usually I think of a hack as a way to save money, not have to spend gobs more of it. (If doing things legit, which I believe in when it comes to software.)
 
^I don't agree with the hacks and cracks statements. Arcsoft TMT, PowerDVD, WinDVD, and Nero Player are all authorized players for computers. They pay the AACS-LA for the right to play Blu-ray on computers, with full menu support. And they are updated to deal with changing encryption and BD+.

If you choose another player, that is your error.
 
I rip all my blu rays to my computer...using MakeMKV if you don't want the menu's. You can always make personal backups as you see fit. From a practical matter, no one is coming after you for personal use of media you buy. If you start selling/distributing/yada yada....different story.
 
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