Blu-Ray software

[Harrison]

What PC software would you recommend to play BluRay movies from disc?

I just got hold of a Sony Optiarc BD RW BD-5300S which is a great drive, but the bundled software was Cyberlink Power DVD, which I've never liked much but as it came free with the drive I thought I would give it a go.

Installed it and fired it up. Put the Avatar BD into the drive and PowerDVD won't play it, saying the software needs to update.. so I click ok.. it reports it has updated.. so click ok again.. try to play the disc again and it loops back to needed to update every time. Looked online and everyone is having this issue with PowerDVD not being able to play any BD released since 2010. oh:

WinDVD is also now meant to support BD playback, but I never cared much for that either. Always use VLC for DVD playback, but according to their website they are not allowed to support BD playback because of some exclusive copyright playback owned by the commercial playback software makers. Grr...

Did some googling and came across ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5, which looks promising, so downloading tthe trial at the moment to give it a go.

Any other software available? Anything free? And what are your experiences with BD drives and video playback?

Plus what BD-R discs would you recommend? I always buy Verbatim blank media for a very long time so might grab some of their blanks to try out. However all discs by any company seem to only be 4x still. The drive is 12x so will it burn these discs faster than their rated speed? Or are they just not available. I was pleasently surprised at how much BD-R 25GB discs have dropped in price. I've seen them at a number of places under £20 for a spindle of 10, some some lessor makes I wouldn't touch at £10. So at £1-2 a disc they are worth experimenting with, unlike when they first came out and were £10 each.

 

[Justin]

windvd, is very flawed
PowerDVD has an automatic speeding up issue

the only one that actually works as it should is this one

http://www.arcsoft.com/totalmedia-theatre/

 

[keropi]

Can't you play BR movies (like dvd ones) with media player classic + some codec pack?
(I have no idea just asking...)

 

[Harrison]

@Justin. Yep, that's the one I've just downloaded the trial for. About to test it out.

@Keropi. BD movies have annoying copy protection and you can't run the discs from most software. Its the reason VLC won't play them. The only way is to rip the discs to HDD and then strip the protection from them. Something I don't want to do as it removes the blu-ray menu system and extras.

 

[Ed.D]

I use PowerDVD version10 with Bluray movies and find it's ok.

However I have to reconnect the monitor with a VGA or HDMI cable or lower the screen res to 1920x1200, otherwise the copy protection says it cannot play the disk.

 

[Harrison]

I've tried out "ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5" now and that worked perfectly. Ran a couple of Blu-Ray movies perfectly and scaled it down well to 1080 res. I'm only on a 15 day trial at the moment though, and the full software is way over priced. I could buy a standalone BD player for the same.

 

[slk486]

I swear by Arcsoft TMT3. Power DVD used to be bloatware - if it still is I don't know. TMT3 has never failed me though

 

[Harrison]

Still is bloatware. Installed a ton of junk I never needed such as label creators. That's all getting removed later. Nero went the same way. When all you want is a program to play movies, or a program to burn discs, why are they bundling all this rubbish.

 

[BrooksterMax]

I've used TMT for HD DVD playback and it has been perfectly adequate.

I would assume Blu Ray playback will be good too on this basis.

 

[slk486]

... all you want is a program to play movies, or a program to burn discs, why are they bundling all this rubbish.

Exactly what you get with tmt3. Also noteworthy is it also contains an wmc version and can play blu-rays from folders.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[scrappysphinx]

Hi all, sorry to dig up an old thread.

Someone donated me a dead laptop yesterday which had a bluray drive in it so i thought i'd try it out on my laptop.

My Specs are Core i5-3210M@2.5Ghz with 4Gb Ram Intel HD 4000 Graphics and Win7 Home Premium x64.

Well i didn't want to take my current laptop apart since its in warranty (i know its usually only 1 screw but still) so i thought i'd chuck the drive in an external dvd case i have and give it a try through USB.

Got the drive hooked up and inserted The Godfather bluray and windows detects it.

The 15 day trial of the above mentioned TotalMedia Theatre is installed and picks up the disc and starts to play it but i have artifacts all over the screen.
By artifacts i mean Big Blocks of Grey/Black Bars across the screen and scrambled faces like they show on Crimewatch

Do you guys think i'd have more success if i installed the drive directly in place of the DVD-RW i have now or is the Integrated Intel 4000 HD just not man enough to playback blurays?

 

[Justin]

you know i am not sure USB can handle blu ray (big time guess mind!)

Hi all, sorry to dig up an old thread.

Someone donated me a dead laptop yesterday which had a bluray drive in it so i thought i'd try it out on my laptop.

My Specs are Core i5-3210M@2.5Ghz with 4Gb Ram Intel HD 4000 Graphics and Win7 Home Premium x64.

Well i didn't want to take my current laptop apart since its in warranty (i know its usually only 1 screw but still) so i thought i'd chuck the drive in an external dvd case i have and give it a try through USB.

Got the drive hooked up and inserted The Godfather bluray and windows detects it.

The 15 day trial of the above mentioned TotalMedia Theatre is installed and picks up the disc and starts to play it but i have artifacts all over the screen.
By artifacts i mean Big Blocks of Grey/Black Bars across the screen and scrambled faces like they show on Crimewatch

Do you guys think i'd have more success if i installed the drive directly in place of the DVD-RW i have now or is the Integrated Intel 4000 HD just not man enough to playback blurays?

 

[AmiNeo]

Tried VLC mediaplayer? Its great for DVDs, and is freeware, should support BluRay by now.

 

[Justin]

Tried VLC mediaplayer? Its great for DVDs, and is freeware, should support BluRay by now.

nope, doesn't support blu ray menus yet

 

[AmiNeo]

Really? Dayum theyre taking their time...

 

[scrappysphinx]

tried installing the bluray drive directly into the laptop and got the same problem using the TotalMedia Theater software.

However downloaded the trial version of PowerDVD 12 and bluray is playing fine.

I'm gonna pull the drive and try it usb again before i install it permanently

*EDIT*

Tried the drive across USB again and it works fine there too. Movie taking a little longer to load but once its loaded, playback was smooth and clear in clarity.

Installed the drive directly now anyway and will put the dvdrw in the external case.

I was reasonably confident the Intel 4000 would be fine since when ordering i had the option of upgrading the optical drive to bluray for additional cost.