Bluray plugins

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aznativekurt

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Bluray plugins

#1

Post by aznativekurt » Thu Apr 23, 2015 12:39 am

Hi, I know this topic has been addressed in the past but I was having a hard time finding any current info. I have my htpc dialed in working great with WMC for everything except playing blurays. I used to have TMT but they went out of business and stopped supporting aacs patches. I have looked at windvd pro and cyberlinks powerdvd and they both charge for aacs patches AND really are not wmc friendly.

Is there a WMC solution for bluray that keeps up to date aacs codes that is free or can be purchased 1 time? I have the feeling everything keeps pointing me to a store bought bluray solution. I want to do my best to stay above board when it comes to watching bluray rentals without having to rip them to watch them or buy a separate bluray player.

Thanks for your help.

mercblue281

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#2

Post by mercblue281 » Fri Apr 24, 2015 2:35 pm

I have the same problem - I have mymovies working fantastic on my Home Server and on the HTPC/extender.

TMT is so incredibly slow to load and play the ISO. Also the playback never resumes properly.

Need a better solution for Blu-Ray ISO playback.

Anyone have any ideas?

JTScribe

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#3

Post by JTScribe » Fri Apr 24, 2015 4:24 pm

I've ripped all of mine to MKV with Make MKV and have them play with Media Player Classic. Much faster then waiting for TMT, which can also play MKVs but sometime doesn't render them properly, tearing the image.

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#4

Post by aznativekurt » Fri Apr 24, 2015 6:06 pm

I have wmc set to play mkv's but as the original post says, I want to be able to play bluray rentals without ripping them. So looking for a solution equal to a separate standalone bluray that is incorporated into wmc.

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#5

Post by JTScribe » Fri Apr 24, 2015 6:35 pm

Ah, sorry missed that part. Unfortunately your best bet is probably going to be keep using TMT to play the physical disks alongside something like AnyDVD HD, which is pretty frequently updated.

Darren Blake

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#6

Post by Darren Blake » Thu May 05, 2016 9:47 am

Not sure if resurrecting this thread is the way to go, but I am looking for a native Blu-ray solution for WMC rather than jumping wholesale to a different media player. I had pretty much settled on Corel WinDVD Pro but I have read so many negative reviews about its long-term stability that I am really unsure whether to go for it. I have a post on the Corel user forum and even there no body is singing its praises.

I must admit I am totally confused about the whole aacs patches thing. Why are these constant updates required for software players? If I bought a stand alone player there would be no quick and easy way to update the firmware, nor would most end users expect to have to do so, so why is it apparently different for software players? Is the licensing model different? I ask because based on what I have read, it appears to be the aacs patches downloads which eventually breaks WinDVD.

The only alternative seems to be PowerDVD, but the demo version I downloaded was bloatware, slow and very unstable on my machine and felt more like using shareware rather than a paid for professional suite.

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Scallica

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#7

Post by Scallica » Thu May 05, 2016 12:13 pm

Darren Blake wrote:I must admit I am totally confused about the whole aacs patches thing. Why are these constant updates required for software players? If I bought a stand alone player there would be no quick and easy way to update the firmware, nor would most end users expect to have to do so, so why is it apparently different for software players? Is the licensing model different? I ask because based on what I have read, it appears to be the aacs patches downloads which eventually breaks WinDVD.
Publishers continually update the keys used to protect Blu-ray disks. Therefore, Blu-ray players must be updated periodically with the latest keys. Most Blu-ray players have Internet connectivity (wifi or ethernet) so updating firmware is painless and can be done in the system menu. I bet some players update automatically.

As for software Blu-ray players, there aren't too many options other than WinDVD and PowerDVD. There used to be Arcsoft Total Media Theater but it is now discontinued. However, there are "other" options which are not permitted for discussion on this forum.
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Darren Blake

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#8

Post by Darren Blake » Thu May 05, 2016 8:26 pm

Scallica wrote: Publishers continually update the keys used to protect Blu-ray disks. Therefore, Blu-ray players must be updated periodically with the latest keys. Most Blu-ray players have Internet connectivity (wifi or ethernet) so updating firmware is painless and can be done in the system menu. I bet some players update automatically.
Hmmm. That will come as a shock to my parents, then. They have a Blu-ray player but are not even on the internet! Not calling you a liar, a quick Google confirmed this is "a thing" but also suggested that some players can update themselves using data from the disc itself? Anyway, its a shame if its a true limitation.

Anyway, tonight I tried to test a demo version of Corel WinDVD and PowerDVD (downloaded only a few days ago) with a legitimate store-bought copy of The Force Awakens and it would not play on either. At All. If the whole thing is that flaky I'm giving up on it and sticking with DVD. I understand this is all DRM-related, but why Corel and Cyberlink cannot just make it work if they expect us to pay for their software, God only knows.

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Scallica

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#9

Post by Scallica » Thu May 05, 2016 8:47 pm

Darren Blake wrote:
Scallica wrote: Publishers continually update the keys used to protect Blu-ray disks. Therefore, Blu-ray players must be updated periodically with the latest keys. Most Blu-ray players have Internet connectivity (wifi or ethernet) so updating firmware is painless and can be done in the system menu. I bet some players update automatically.
Hmmm. That will come as a shock to my parents, then. They have a Blu-ray player but are not even on the internet! Not calling you a liar, a quick Google confirmed this is "a thing" but also suggested that some players can update themselves using data from the disc itself? Anyway, its a shame if its a true limitation.
You can also upgrade the player's firmware using a USB thumb drive, if an Internet connection is not available.
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Darren Blake

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#10

Post by Darren Blake » Sat May 07, 2016 1:49 pm

Darren Blake wrote: Anyway, tonight I tried to test a demo version of Corel WinDVD and PowerDVD (downloaded only a few days ago) with a legitimate store-bought copy of The Force Awakens and it would not play on either. At All. If the whole thing is that flaky I'm giving up on it and sticking with DVD. I understand this is all DRM-related, but why Corel and Cyberlink cannot just make it work if they expect us to pay for their software, God only knows.
Against my expectations Corel responded to my support ticket on this so if I can get some clarity on what's going wrong I may still give it a whirl.

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DavidinCT

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#11

Post by DavidinCT » Sat May 07, 2016 3:41 pm

Darren Blake wrote:
Scallica wrote: Publishers continually update the keys used to protect Blu-ray disks. Therefore, Blu-ray players must be updated periodically with the latest keys. Most Blu-ray players have Internet connectivity (wifi or ethernet) so updating firmware is painless and can be done in the system menu. I bet some players update automatically.
Hmmm. That will come as a shock to my parents, then. They have a Blu-ray player but are not even on the internet! Not calling you a liar, a quick Google confirmed this is "a thing" but also suggested that some players can update themselves using data from the disc itself? Anyway, its a shame if its a true limitation.

Anyway, tonight I tried to test a demo version of Corel WinDVD and PowerDVD (downloaded only a few days ago) with a legitimate store-bought copy of The Force Awakens and it would not play on either. At All. If the whole thing is that flaky I'm giving up on it and sticking with DVD. I understand this is all DRM-related, but why Corel and Cyberlink cannot just make it work if they expect us to pay for their software, God only knows.
There is ways to do this but, You do need EXTERNAL software like ANYDVD HD. Get your new star wars movie, download a demo of ANYDVD HD (30 day trial) with one of your software packages and see if it will play back.

Truth be told, even in WMC's active day, Blu-ray software for WMC has always been a little hit or miss. It's never been 100% in my eyes, or about the only way I got it really stable at one point was when someone was coming over with a movie, RDC to my HTPC, update the software I was using, and cross my fingers that there would not be issue with the new movie. On a HTPC it was never stable like a $40 Blu-ray player in my eyes.

TMT and PowerDVD worked but, the newest version of PowerDVD (16), does not come with a WMC plugin any more. Version 15 did come with a WMC plugin. BTW
-Dave
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Darren Blake

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#12

Post by Darren Blake » Sat May 07, 2016 8:12 pm

Well annoyingly / amazingly, depending on how you look at it, I re-installed WinDVD today as a spur of the moment thing, bunged in my Star Wars BD and it played. Ejected, back in, played. Repeat to fade. God knows what happened before but neither WinDVD nor PowerDVD would play it. I did some chapter jumps, scrubbed back and forth using the bar, but I couldn't seem to break it just by normal use.

The only thing I can think if is that I may have changed a setting in my previous install which somehow broke it, and maybe installing PowerDVD on top of WinDVD meant that neither would work. Uninstalling both and re-installing WinDVD seems to have fixed it for now. I was going to watch the full movie tonight but got sidetracked so will hopefully give it proper workout tomorrow.

As I understand it, WinDVD shouldn't really need AnyDVD to work as they both should be able to decode discs if they are both up to date. I believe that AnyDVD is updated more often than WinDVD (the latter hasn't been updated since Sepember 2015 according to Corel's website). Also AnyDVD's future and pricing is looking a bit shakey from what I've read on other AV forums...

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DavidinCT

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#13

Post by DavidinCT » Fri May 13, 2016 3:54 pm

Darren Blake wrote:Well annoyingly / amazingly, depending on how you look at it, I re-installed WinDVD today as a spur of the moment thing, bunged in my Star Wars BD and it played. Ejected, back in, played. Repeat to fade. God knows what happened before but neither WinDVD nor PowerDVD would play it. I did some chapter jumps, scrubbed back and forth using the bar, but I couldn't seem to break it just by normal use.
I have seen this issue many times. with TMT and PowerDVD, you can put in a movie and it will give some type of error, pull out the movie and drop it in and it works.

The ONLY way to make it almost 100% is to add something like AnyDVDHD, as it decripts the disc as soon as you load it and by the time the software sees it, It's treating it as a home movie blu-ray.
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#14

Post by mismjy1 » Fri May 13, 2016 4:09 pm

DavidinCT wrote:The ONLY way to make it almost 100% is to add something like AnyDVDHD, as it decripts the disc as soon as you load it and by the time the software sees it, It's treating it as a home movie blu-ray.
Despite the fact the Slysoft folks now seem to have setup shop in Belize and changed their name to RedFox, the software continues to work and get updates. They've also designed it so you can install on multiple machines on the same LAN (though only one can be active at a time). Works fine with Kodi for playback. Truly a no-brainer purchase IMHO.

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#15

Post by Darren Blake » Thu May 19, 2016 8:47 pm

DavidinCT wrote: I have seen this issue many times. with TMT and PowerDVD, you can put in a movie and it will give some type of error, pull out the movie and drop it in and it works.
I've figured out why this was happening. It looks like you need to make sure you launch WinDVD before you insert the disc, not after. As long as I do this it all works fine.
I suspect this might have something to do with autoplay settings but I've not had a play with it yet.

Now running the full version of WinDVD and it seems OK despite having some issues getting the paid for version to install properly.

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DavidinCT

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#16

Post by DavidinCT » Mon May 23, 2016 11:39 pm

Darren Blake wrote:
DavidinCT wrote: I have seen this issue many times. with TMT and PowerDVD, you can put in a movie and it will give some type of error, pull out the movie and drop it in and it works.
I've figured out why this was happening. It looks like you need to make sure you launch WinDVD before you insert the disc, not after. As long as I do this it all works fine.
I suspect this might have something to do with autoplay settings but I've not had a play with it yet.

Now running the full version of WinDVD and it seems OK despite having some issues getting the paid for version to install properly.
Yea, that is always not an option. Someone gives me a Blu-ray, I drop it in, it should automatically start playing. I guess there is a work-around but, running with ANYDVD HD.... It works like it SHOULD, not needing to open a app, or any other TRICK to get it to work...
-Dave
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