Blu Ray player software.
- Thread starter MasterGoa
- Start date
DigitalDemon
New member
I use DVDFab Passkey, an AACS on the fly decrypter, then just VLC or whatever I want to play it or rip it with.
I have PowerDVD. Version 15, I think. It's a few years old. It's fully functional with every disc I've thrown at it. So, it's good on that end. All the menus work properly. The best out of anything I've tried.
But, for actual playback, I hate it. You get ad pop-ups when you first start up. It sometimes doesn't start the disc.
The worst thing is that it's terrible when you let it idle. Usually I like to pop in the disc and then walk away for a few minutes because you can't skip through the previews/ads/FBI warnings. So I'll go off and take my pre-movie dump, and then come back and the menu is playing, but when I try to do anything, it locks up and then I have to restart the disc and sit through all the bullshit anyways.
And, if you pause the movie for more than like 10 seconds, when you restart the disc will spin up, the video will pause while the audio still plays and then you get that very fast video playback while it resyncs. Same thing if you want to step back a few seconds. They don't have options to step back 10 seconds, so you kind of have to blindly click the progress bar. Maybe they've improved that in recent versions.
I've tried the VLC with aacs. It's very hit or miss. I hate using VLC, generally. And I think it kind of sucks for Blu-Ray playback. Menus are somewhat functional (for example, selecting the audio commentary from the menu just played the movie normally). I found the video playback itself to be poor. Very jittery, and the video breaks up occasionally.
On the plus side, you have the option to play the menus or just the video file itself. But, when you play without the menus, VLC selects the longest video track by default (which might play things out of order if you're playing a TV series since the episodes are different lengths). You can select the videos from a track list VLC provides, but it's a bit of a guessing game.
If you're going to try the aacs option, try Kodi. Obviously, it'll be hit and miss like VLC since you're using the same keys file. Version 18 just added decent menu support. It seems on par with VLC (some menus work, some don't, I couldn't change audio tracks, for example), or even toggle audio tracks during playback when menus were enabled. But if you play without the menus you can toggle audio tracks.
For playback, I found Kodi had the best experience. The video looks good, and plays back smoothly. At least on par with PowerDVD, which were both better than VLC. Kodi gives you the option to play with menus or without. Kodi also gives you a list of video files to play before you start, which I found easy to use for a TV series.
Kodi was also the best at seeking. If you want to step back or skip to a much earlier part of the video, it does it instantly and begins playing back smoothly.
Another player I had was DVDFAB Media Player 2. I don't know if they make it anymore. At one point they gave out free keys. So it was a decent free option, and played played everything I tried. Menu support wasn't as good as PowerDVD.
Both VLC and Kodi work on Linux as well, if that matters to you. PowerDVD and DVDFAB do not.
But, for actual playback, I hate it. You get ad pop-ups when you first start up. It sometimes doesn't start the disc.
The worst thing is that it's terrible when you let it idle. Usually I like to pop in the disc and then walk away for a few minutes because you can't skip through the previews/ads/FBI warnings. So I'll go off and take my pre-movie dump, and then come back and the menu is playing, but when I try to do anything, it locks up and then I have to restart the disc and sit through all the bullshit anyways.
And, if you pause the movie for more than like 10 seconds, when you restart the disc will spin up, the video will pause while the audio still plays and then you get that very fast video playback while it resyncs. Same thing if you want to step back a few seconds. They don't have options to step back 10 seconds, so you kind of have to blindly click the progress bar. Maybe they've improved that in recent versions.
I've tried the VLC with aacs. It's very hit or miss. I hate using VLC, generally. And I think it kind of sucks for Blu-Ray playback. Menus are somewhat functional (for example, selecting the audio commentary from the menu just played the movie normally). I found the video playback itself to be poor. Very jittery, and the video breaks up occasionally.
On the plus side, you have the option to play the menus or just the video file itself. But, when you play without the menus, VLC selects the longest video track by default (which might play things out of order if you're playing a TV series since the episodes are different lengths). You can select the videos from a track list VLC provides, but it's a bit of a guessing game.
If you're going to try the aacs option, try Kodi. Obviously, it'll be hit and miss like VLC since you're using the same keys file. Version 18 just added decent menu support. It seems on par with VLC (some menus work, some don't, I couldn't change audio tracks, for example), or even toggle audio tracks during playback when menus were enabled. But if you play without the menus you can toggle audio tracks.
For playback, I found Kodi had the best experience. The video looks good, and plays back smoothly. At least on par with PowerDVD, which were both better than VLC. Kodi gives you the option to play with menus or without. Kodi also gives you a list of video files to play before you start, which I found easy to use for a TV series.
Kodi was also the best at seeking. If you want to step back or skip to a much earlier part of the video, it does it instantly and begins playing back smoothly.
Another player I had was DVDFAB Media Player 2. I don't know if they make it anymore. At one point they gave out free keys. So it was a decent free option, and played played everything I tried. Menu support wasn't as good as PowerDVD.
Both VLC and Kodi work on Linux as well, if that matters to you. PowerDVD and DVDFAB do not.
MasterGoa
New member
A few people on Technet suggests this:
http://www.ufusoft.com/blu-ray-player/
And a video editor on Youtube suggests this:
https://www.leawo.com/blu-ray-player/
http://www.ufusoft.com/blu-ray-player/
And a video editor on Youtube suggests this:
https://www.leawo.com/blu-ray-player/
MasterGoa
New member
Okay so after testing:
WinDVD is no go, artifacts everywhere.
Leawo is ok, nothing major interface wise, great image quality and needs little resources,
however the disk often spins full speed.
PowerDvd, good interface, nice image quality and throttles the disk to the point
I do not know it is spinning, with the laptop on my thighs.
I poped a question over to Leawo about the interface, but as of now:
Leawo is ok but free
PowerDvd is really nice but 50$, so I will continue the trial to see any bugs.
Cheers!
WinDVD is no go, artifacts everywhere.
Leawo is ok, nothing major interface wise, great image quality and needs little resources,
however the disk often spins full speed.
PowerDvd, good interface, nice image quality and throttles the disk to the point
I do not know it is spinning, with the laptop on my thighs.
I poped a question over to Leawo about the interface, but as of now:
Leawo is ok but free
PowerDvd is really nice but 50$, so I will continue the trial to see any bugs.
Cheers!
Silent-Runner
Noli timere messorem
i've always used PowerDvD without any issues, although that's a lot of years back now, can't tell for current Version though.
