Will this play ALL Blu-Rays?

[MichaelNorth]

I notice that on the features list it says "Decrypted Blu-Ray Movie playback with Subtitle support". Does this mean that I can play ANY Blu-Ray that I own (with menu support) regardless of whatever DRM they use? THAT is something you can't get from VLC and I would consider buying it if that is the case. Also don't discount controller support. Sometimes I just want to watch a movie from somewhere more comfortable than my desk chair.

Not to stray from the point though, will this program play all of my Blu-Rays the same as a Blu-Ray player would?

[romulous]

@Nivve: Yes, there are really two ways to go here. First is a program that strips the DRM from the Blu-Ray disk on-the-fly. This would be AnyDVD HD (the HD version handles Blu-Ray and HD-DVD as opposed to the non-HD version which is just for normal DVD's). It runs in the background, intercepts the data from the disk, strips the protection, and then sends the decrypted data onto the player. So the data on the disk itself is never physically modified, take the disk out of your PC and it still has the protection on it. The program has a good reputation - Blu-Ray protection changes often, so it has to release frequent new updates to keep up - but it is payware.

Second option is a ripper that actually makes an image of the disk onto your hard-drive. I'm not up to date with Blu-Ray ripping programs, but at least with DVD rippers, there were two types. The first type was one that would remove the protection from the files and leave you with the actual DVD files (.vob) with just the protection removed. These VOB files could then be loaded into most media playback software (they are just really MPEG2 streams). The second type was one that would actually convert the video from the disk into another format, minus the protection. I don't know about the first type for Blu-Ray, but I know there is at least one program of the second type: MakeMKV. It's still in Beta (has been for a while), but is free while it is in Beta (once it comes out of Beta, the author has stated it will become payware). MakeMKV will obviously (as per the name of it) convert the video to MKV format, which most media playback software should have no trouble in handling. Again, it has a good reputation, the only catch is that the Beta's only run for 60 days before updating to a new Beta is required.

Regards,

romulous

[hup]

AnyDVD works very well

And MakeMKV also very good

[romulous]

I haven't tried AnyDVD myself, but I have used MakeMKV, and it certainly did what I needed it to. Was pretty simple to use, generated the MKV from the disk, and played with no issues in Zoom afterwards. Can't really ask for more than that :)

romulous

[Nivve]

is there any quality loss by using those methods?

[Shadrach]

AnyDVD is an excellent complement to Zoom Player. The HD version is expensive at €59, but personally I think it's worth it for hassle-free playback of (almost) all DVDs and BD.

There is no free software which I know of that does the same, for the reason that it needs to be constantly updated with new DRM-stripping methods.

[romulous]

@Nivve: Technically, the second option (a transcoder like MakeMKV) would lead to a small loss in quality, as it has to convert the original video to another format. However, whether that loss is noticeable or not depends mostly on the ripping software, and to a smaller extent, how good your eyes are. In all likelihood, you won't notice the decrease - unless the software does a really poor job of converting.

The first option - AnyDVD - will not change the quality at all. See bLight's post just below.

@Shadrach: Yeah - I considered the software for my situation (I posted in another thread how 2 of the 3 main Blu-Ray playing software's will not recognise my Blu-Ray drive, and subsequently I have Blu-Ray disks, a Blu-Ray drive, but no software to decrypt and play them). The one thing that put me off AnyDVD was the relatively high price - for someone who rarely plays Blu-Ray disks (like myself), I didn't think the price was worth it at the time. Might re-visit it at some stage.

romulous

Edit: Confirmed AnyDVD does not affect video quality.

[bLight]

Just to confirm, using AnyDVD doesn't have any affect on the video quality, it only strips away the encryption and other forced limitations (some DVD discs prevent fast forward or rewind for some titles).

[HatefulMother]

@Devs. Maybe I am wrong, but, have you ever considered using kickstarter to cover the costs of the decryption licenses?

edit: Having (full) blu-ray playing software permanently associated with my steam account would be very useful.

[bLight]

kirtanloorii:
When blu-ray started popping up, I considered approaching cyberlink, who had a decoder for blu-ray and ask if I can license it. They wanted $150,000 up-front and more for every copy sold.

I'm not sure that even with a kick-starter campaign I could get it done as there's a ton of development involved, probably close to a half a million $, not to mention finding the right personal...

It's cheaper to just use AnyDVD HD.

[hup]

I have get anyDVD HD lifetime licens

1 payment all new version for free

[HatefulMother]

Publicado originalmente por bLight:

kirtanloorii:
When blu-ray started popping up, I considered approaching cyberlink, who had a decoder for blu-ray and ask if I can license it. They wanted $150,000 up-front and more for every copy sold.

I'm not sure that even with a kick-starter campaign I could get it done as there's a ton of development involved, probably close to a half a million $, not to mention finding the right personal...

It's cheaper to just use AnyDVD HD.

I'm sorry to hear that. It almost seems as if they want to make sure that only the biggest companies can sell it. Maybe it will be cheaper when blu-ray is phased out. Thanks for the reply though.

[Alexa Reizla]

Publicado originalmente por romulous:

Personally, I do have a Blu-Ray drive in my PC. Problem is, the DRM on the commercial Blu-Ray software (tried PowerDVD and WinDVD, haven't tried TMNT) prevent the playing software from actually working on my PC - neither of those programs like my make/model of Blu-Ray drive. So I have Blu-Ray disks, and a Blu-Ray drive...but no way to actually play them. Oh well.
#firstworldproblems

Damn, just bought a (2nd hand) BR R/W drive to watch my BR's on the PC. Looks like I should have read this first before hopping in to it. Oh well, #firstworldproblems as you said and at least I can use it to back up my stuff to the BR. Sadly, for watching movies it's back to the PS3 as well