What software do you use for Blu Ray playback? Any that integrate with WMC 7?

[bovinda]

Posted this in software a few days back, but this is probably where I should've posted.

Is there any consensus on what software is best to play back blu ray (both rips and disks) these days? I was ripping my BR into iso files, mounting them to Virtual Clone Drive, and playing with an older version of Power DVD. Is that still pretty much where it's at?

Anything that integrates better with Windows 7 Media Center?

 

[bovinda]

Anybody...? Someone's gotta have thoughts on this...

 

[BornStar]

I used the demo of PowerDVD 10 for a little while and it integrated pretty well with 7MC. I ended up going back to PDVD 7 which came with my BD drive because I couldn't justify spending the extra money for features I mostly wasn't going to use. PDVD 10 worked very well for me but you should try the demo before you buy it. It's full featured so you should get a really good feel for it.

 

[velillen]

Theres total media theatre 3 that supposedly integrates into 7mc as well. just another option for ya.

 

[blackangst1]

I just use VLC player.

 

[Anubis]

I just use VLC player.

HOW?

someone always posts just use VLC. i cant figure out how to make it play BRs i have power DVD 9 installed and such but whenever i try and load BR in VLC it does nothing

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

HOW?

someone always posts just use VLC. i cant figure out how to make it play BRs i have power DVD 9 installed and such but whenever i try and load BR in VLC it does nothing

Supposedly it works when used in conjunction with AnyDVD HD. Requiring that negates the advantage of VLC being a free player since AnyDVD will cost you $100.

To the OP. There are basically 4 players you can use - PowerDVD, TotalMedia Theater, WinDVD Pro, or MPC-HC. The first 3 must be purchased. The first 3 also have 7MC integration, more or less, though none of them actually are native Media Center apps so their integration is not perfectly seamless. MPC-HC is free but you have to jump through some hoops to configure it properly and you'll also need AnyDVD HD to strip the content protection from the disk. I don't think it integrates very well with 7MC either.

I'm using TotalMedia Theater 5, which was just released. It works well enough but I wish MS would open up 7MC so we could simply purchase Blu-ray playback codecs from Cyberlink, Arcsoft, or Corel and have playback through the native player.

 

[bovinda]

Hey guys, thanks for the feedback. I'm just back from vacation and now seeing the posts. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing for the time-being; doesn't sound there's any better options out there yet.

 

[mu11et]

Theres total media theatre 3 that supposedly integrates into 7mc as well. just another option for ya.

I have that and I love it. Plays Blu Ray, HD-DVD, DVD with sharpness enhancers. I play a ton of stuff and never had a problem. My HTPC has a ATI 4670 1GB.

 

[Rio Rebel]

I rip my blu-rays to the hard drive as iso files (have to use anydvd), mount them with daemontools lite (free), put them in individual folders and collect the metadata with metabrowser (free), and play them in Windows Media Center through MediaBrowser (free). I integrate the blu-ray rips with the DVD rips, and use the movie poster to differentiate that it's a blu-ray.

NOW, to answer your question, Media Browser could use either PowerDVD or TMT to play the blu-ray. I use TMT - it is a much better experience. But I don't know that I would go out and pay $100 to buy TMT if I already had PowerDVD.

The key is to get Media Browser, and set the external player associated with blu-rays to whatever you're using (Powerdvd).

 

[Nebor]

I do the same thing as Rio Rebel, but I use PowerDVD 10 and 7MC's built in movie library.

 

[bovinda]

Rio Rebel and Nebor, that sounds almost perfect. The only problem is having to exit Media Center to mount the ISO files - that's my biggest hangup. I guess there's no way around that right now.

Any particular reason to use Daemon tools over Virtual Clone Drive?

 

[mu11et]

Use Media Portal It will use daemontools lite internally and will also let you use an external player like PowerDVD or TMT. It is a simple setup and works like a charm. Like in a picture below I click on the movie I want to play and it mounts the .iso and plays it with TMT in less then 3 seconds.

 

[Nebor]

Rio Rebel and Nebor, that sounds almost perfect. The only problem is having to exit Media Center to mount the ISO files - that's my biggest hangup. I guess there's no way around that right now.

Any particular reason to use Daemon tools over Virtual Clone Drive?

I use Virtual Clone Drive and there's a plugin for 7MC that automatically mounts the image when you choose it from "Movies."

 

[Destiny]

I just play or stream Blu-Ray ISOs on my media players - they both support blu-ray isos (except the Boxee Box)

 

[Nebor]

I just play or stream Blu-Ray ISOs on my media players - they both support blu-ray isos (except the Boxee Box)

What do you use to rip the blu-rays?

 

[bovinda]

I use Virtual Clone Drive and there's a plugin for 7MC that automatically mounts the image when you choose it from "Movies."

What plugin is that? I can't seem to find it with my limited googling skillz. That would be perfect.

 

[Nebor]

Did you try typing "media center automatically mount images" ?

http://mikinho.com/wmc/mount-image/

 

[bovinda]

Did you try typing "media center automatically mount images" ?

http://mikinho.com/wmc/mount-image/

No.

Although I did find some possibilities, I wasn't sure which one to choose. Plus I like knowing exactly what others have used if they've worked and had good experiences with it, and as it happened, none of the ones I saw was the one you linked.

Thanks for taking the time to paste the link. I'll give it a try.

EDIT: I guess I had stumbled across the one you linked to, but it's still helpful to know which it was.

 

[mikinho]

bovinda, let me know if you have any issues with my Mount Image. I haven't had any users report issues for quite some time.

 

[bovinda]

Hey Mikinho, it's working flawlessly for me; it's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for putting such a great little piece of software out there. :thumbsup: