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Best free/cheap software for playing a Blu-ray disc directly on a windows 7 HTPC?

post #1 of 47
4/23/12 at 9:40am
Thread Starter 
Has anyone found anything that works well to play original Blu-ray discs in Windows 7?
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post #2 of 47
4/23/12 at 9:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by freetvEE View Post

Has anyone found anything that works well to play original Blu-ray discs in Windows 7?

WindDVD Pro is my own choice. You'll get lots of opinions, but it's the easiest, most trouble free, and cheapest of the options in my view.
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post #3 of 47
4/23/12 at 10:01am
To play original blu-ray discs on Win 7 you have three options:

PowerDVD
TMT5
WindDVD

That is all and none of them are free. Which one is best is a personal choice but TMT5 seems to be more popular.

Now, if you want to play a ripped (DRM removed, movie only) blu-ray then there are free options with MPC-HC being one of the best (my opinion) options out there.
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post #4 of 47
4/23/12 at 10:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zagor View Post

To play original blu-ray discs on Win 7 you have three options:

PowerDVD
TMT5
WindDVD

That is all and none of them are free. Which one is best is a personal choice but TMT5 seems to be more popular.

Now, if you want to play a ripped (DRM removed, movie only) blu-ray then there are free options with MPC-HC being one of the best (my opinion) options out there.

I agree that TMT and PDVD are more popular (PowerDVD because a stripped down purposely crippled version is provided with most BD drives) mostly because they have traditionally been better at playing ripped movies than WinDVD.

WinDVD is half the price and I think a lot less troublesome if all you want to do is pop in a disk and play it.
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post #5 of 47
4/23/12 at 11:04am
The cheapest way (and what I do) is: Rip to MKV using MakeMKV (free in beta) -> Playback using MPC-HC. Looks better than PowerDVD/TMT/etc with MadVR.

Only downside is no 3D bluray support, but MakeMKV supports MVC in MKV now, so we are just waiting on playback software to catch up.
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post #6 of 47
4/23/12 at 11:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by nxsfan View Post

The cheapest way (and what I do) is: Rip to MKV using MakeMKV (free in beta) -> Playback using MPC-HC. Looks better than PowerDVD/TMT/etc with MadVR.

Only downside is no 3D bluray support, but MakeMKV supports MVC in MKV now, so we are just waiting on playback software to catch up.

Not quite the "only" downside.

You have a disk in your hand. Maybe someone brought it over to the house. People want to watch it. They want to watch it now. They don't want to wait around while you rip it to your hard disk before anyone can start watching it.

Or maybe you simply say to yourself "There is zero chance I will ever watch this movie more than once. I just want to watch it, not save it forever."
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post #7 of 47
4/23/12 at 11:27am
Thread Starter 
Thanks folks!

Does it matter if my TV hooked to my HTPC is HDCP or not-will any of these work with a non HDCP monitor?
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post #8 of 47
4/23/12 at 11:47am
In reference to discs, not rips, then yes, your tv does need to be hdcp compliant. If not, the movie may start, but will be cut off within seconds, with a message about how your tv is not compliant. Ask me how I know.

For rips, it doesn't matter.
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post #9 of 47
4/23/12 at 11:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zon2020 View Post

Not quite the "only" downside.

You have a disk in your hand. Maybe someone brought it over to the house. People want to watch it. They want to watch it now. They don't want to wait around while you rip it to your hard disk before anyone can start watching it.

Or maybe you simply say to yourself "There is zero chance I will ever watch this movie more than once. I just want to watch it, not save it forever."

Although it requires a little bit of foresight I've had friends over to watch a movie and it's easy to kill the 30-40 mins while it rips, I'm sure it will be less time with a more recent bluray drive.

That aside, MakeMKV actually has a stream function that lets you watch the movie off the disc in realtime (although I haven't played with it).
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post #10 of 47
4/23/12 at 12:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nxsfan View Post

Although it requires a little bit of foresight I've had friends over to watch a movie and it's easy to kill the 30-40 mins while it rips, I'm sure it will be less time with a more recent bluray drive.

That aside, MakeMKV actually has a stream function that lets you watch the movie off the disc in realtime (although I haven't played with it).

I gotta agree with Zon, sometimes you just wanna play the dang movie and not mess around with rips. For all the money that's spent on htpc's, a little more for this feature doesn't seem out of line.

I haven't tried all of them, just TMT5. That was a complete waste of money.

OP - Consider saving yourself the trouble and just buy a cheap blu-ray player from costco. Will cost about the same or less than TMT5 software, and works about a million times better. I love htpc's but this whole blu-ray fiasco is a joke, and unfortunately with all our heads together we still can't get a reasonable way to play discs on them.
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post #11 of 47
4/23/12 at 12:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sievers View Post

...

OP - Consider saving yourself the trouble and just buy a cheap blu-ray player from costco. Will cost about the same or less than TMT5 software, and works about a million times better. I love htpc's but this whole blu-ray fiasco is a joke, and unfortunately with all our heads together we still can't get a reasonable way to play discs on them.

Totally agree with this. I love my HTPC and use it for just about everything but when it comes to blu-ray, it doesn't even have a BD drive. The BD drive is on my main PC for ripping purposes so that all of my rips can go on the server. Should the need arise to watch a disc without ripping it first then my PS3 will do the job.
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post #12 of 47
4/23/12 at 1:54pm
you guys forgot that, for perfect film mode playback of Blu-ray, you need a software that turns refresh rate to 24fps if your GPU supports that.
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post #13 of 47
4/23/12 at 2:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by CHRIS650 View Post

you guys forgot that, for perfect film mode playback of Blu-ray, you need a software that turns refresh rate to 24fps if your GPU supports that.

For those who care about 24p or have the hardware to support it.
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post #14 of 47
4/23/12 at 3:16pm
Thread Starter 
Have the ripped part covered with MB and MCM, but was just looking for the best and most convenient way to pop in a Blu-ray real quick... Free software if possible, but it seems like even the pay options are not the greatest. Surprising that something that seems like it should be so easy-is so difficult?!?
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post #15 of 47
4/23/12 at 3:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by freetvEE View Post

Have the ripped part covered with MB and MCM, but was just looking for the best and most convenient way to pop in a Blu-ray real quick... Free software if possible, but it seems like even the pay options are not the greatest. Surprising that something that seems like it should be so easy-is so difficult?!?

There are no free ones. The three identified are your three choices.

WinDVD is fine for what you're asking. It's not difficult at all.
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post #16 of 47
4/23/12 at 3:37pm
Best/cheapest way to play Blu Ray disc is a standalone player. I know you don't wanna hear that but it is what it is.
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post #17 of 47
4/23/12 at 7:47pm
+1
When you can pick up a new SA player for $70, it doesn't make sense to go the HTPC route if all you want to do is play discs...
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post #18 of 47
4/23/12 at 7:50pm
I have a Panasonic Bluray player.

Its in my garage somewhere (I rip to MKV on my server).

I agree though. For disc playback standalone players are the easiest and cheapest option.
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post #19 of 47
4/23/12 at 7:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zon2020 View Post

I agree that TMT and PDVD are more popular (PowerDVD because a stripped down purposely crippled version is provided with most BD drives) mostly because they have traditionally been better at playing ripped movies than WinDVD.

WinDVD is half the price and I think a lot less troublesome if all you want to do is pop in a disk and play it.

Its $100 bucks on the website, you can buy a stand alone blue ray player for that price. Personally I just decided its to much money and hassle and so rent DVD's instead. I think the only reasonable way to watch blue ray on HTPC is to rip and playback in xbmc, its funny how the recording industry always works to encourage piracy through their policies.
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post #20 of 47
4/23/12 at 7:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rockytt View Post

+1
When you can pick up a new SA player for $70, it doesn't make sense to go the HTPC route if all you want to do is play discs...

Yup
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post #21 of 47
4/23/12 at 7:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by freetvEE View Post

Have the ripped part covered with MB and MCM, but was just looking for the best and most convenient way to pop in a Blu-ray real quick... Free software if possible, but it seems like even the pay options are not the greatest. Surprising that something that seems like it should be so easy-is so difficult?!?

Its basically the fault of Sony's licensing agreements.
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post #22 of 47
4/24/12 at 8:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffkro View Post

Its $100 bucks on the website, you can buy a stand alone blue ray player for that price. Personally I just decided its to much money and hassle and so rent DVD's instead. I think the only reasonable way to watch blue ray on HTPC is to rip and playback in xbmc, its funny how the recording industry always works to encourage piracy through their policies.

Are you talking about WinDVD because it's $59 on the Corel website and it's frequently under $50.

I frankly don't understand all the angst. I have a stand alone BD player in the same rack hooked to the same AVR as my main HTPC and I don't use it. WinDVD isn't a hassle at all. You install it, update it, pop in a disk, and it just works. Looks just as good as the Sony BD player and bitstreams everything perfectly. It's not any trouble at all. So I play my disks on my HTPC. By the way I use WinDVD Pro 10. Have never seen the need to upgrade to 11. I think I paid $39 for my copy.

On my other system I don't really have a choice. While on my main system my AVR has 6 HDMI inputs, on my other system my Yamaha AVR only has two -- one is for a DirecTV DVR, the other for an HTPC. It certainly isn't worth the hassle to deal with a stand alone disk player there. I'm sure others have the same situation where it's just easier to use the HTPC as a disk player too.
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post #23 of 47
4/24/12 at 8:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zon2020 View Post

Are you talking about WinDVD because it's $59 on the Corel website and it's frequently under $50.

I frankly don't understand all the angst. I have a stand alone BD player in the same rack hooked to the same AVR as my main HTPC and I don't use it. WinDVD isn't a hassle at all. You install it, update it, pop in a disk, and it just works. Looks just as good as the Sony BD player and bitstreams everything perfectly. It's not any trouble at all. So I play my disks on my HTPC. By the way I use WinDVD Pro 10. Have never seen the need to upgrade to 11. I think I paid $39 for my copy.

On my other system I don't really have a choice. While on my main system my AVR has 6 HDMI inputs, on my other system my Yamaha AVR only has two -- one is for a DirecTV DVR, the other for an HTPC. It certainly isn't worth the hassle to deal with a stand alone disk player there. I'm sure others have the same situation where it's just easier to use the HTPC as a disk player too.

What about remote control? How do you perform actions like pause, rewind, skip, tuning subtitles on and off etc. Can a standard ehome receiver be used and keys mapped to control WinDVD?
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post #24 of 47
4/24/12 at 8:28am
XBMC + MakeMKV is a free solution IMHO. Remove control works without issue..

http://lifehacker.com/5621471/how-to...ayback-in-xbmc

Of course MakeMKV may not be free forever...

This is NOT ripping. It uses MakeMKV to stream to XBMC.

xnappo
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post #25 of 47
4/24/12 at 9:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zagor View Post

What about remote control? How do you perform actions like pause, rewind, skip, tuning subtitles on and off etc. Can a standard ehome receiver be used and keys mapped to control WinDVD?

I assume yes, but I use small trackpad keyboards rather than remotes with my HTPCs. You should probably ask this in the WinDVD thread (there's a fairly long one on here somewhere).
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post #26 of 47
4/24/12 at 4:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zagor View Post

To play original blu-ray discs on Win 7 you have three options:

PowerDVD
TMT5
WindDVD

That is all and none of them are free.

JRiver Media Center also plays Blu-ray rips or discs. You also need to have a reader like AnyDVD HD.
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post #27 of 47
4/24/12 at 4:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffkro View Post

Its basically the fault of Sony's licensing agreements.

It's not Sony. It's the Blu-ray association. Sony is a member. It's an expensive club to join.
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post #28 of 47
4/24/12 at 6:01pm
Is free and now supports blu-ray and is windows compatible.





is
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post #29 of 47
4/24/12 at 6:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by raneil View Post

Is free and now supports blu-ray and is windows compatible.





is

I tried this the day it came out. Failed.

Is it fixed now?
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post #30 of 47
4/24/12 at 8:08pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by xnappo View Post

XBMC + MakeMKV is a free solution IMHO. Remove control works without issue..

http://lifehacker.com/5621471/how-to...ayback-in-xbmc

Of course MakeMKV may not be free forever...

This is NOT ripping. It uses MakeMKV to stream to XBMC.

xnappo

I appreciate the thought, but I am in WMC currently so looking for a solution in that or in windows 7. Maybe I will give XBMC a try some time in the future though.
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