Upgrading to Blu-Ray

[archbish99]

Apologies for what I would expect to be a common newbie question, but I'm not quickly finding a matching thread to steal my answer from. Feel free to redirect if I've missed something obvious.

I have a holdout Win7 Media Center machine with AnyDVD that records TV and plays back DVDs very nicely. However, the DVD playback has recently started abruptly stopping during playback, and I'm guessing that the DVD drive may have reached the end of its lifespan.

As long as I'm replacing the drive, I'd like to breathe a little new capability into this machine and add Blu-Ray playback, if that's feasible. I'm looking at the LG WH16NS40 for a drive, and obviously I'd want to catch the upgrade to AnyDVD HD (assuming the current "WTF?" can be sorted out). What other software would I need?

All the posts I can find about hooking Blu-Ray into Media Center are old and point to ArcSoft TMT3 as the best option, which is listed as "retired" on their manufacturer's website. Do I need to go buy PowerDVD, I presume? Anything else I need to know?

 

[Adbear]

If you are buying a new drive see if you can get the BH16NS55 as according to some forums that has the ability to read the new UHD Blu-ray discs as well, although PowerDVD hasn't been updated to play them back yet nor can AnyDVD HD strip the encryption yet, if it can read the new UHD Blu-rays it makes more sense to buy that model in case you decide to go down that route in the future
I'm hoping to confirm that it can at least read the discs on Monday when my BH16NS55 turns up, so if you do decide to get one I'd hold off until then and I'll confirm if mine can also read the UHD discs.

As you don't have an HD license for AnyDVD then you will need to purchase PowerDVD if you want to play back any Blu-rays you own as you won't be able to play them back in non commercial playback software. Again it may be worth holding off as PowerDVD normally updates to a new version around March April time, so version 16 may be about to come out, although depending on the LG drive they can come with a slightly cut down free older version of PowerDVD. I have a 'free' version of PowerDVD 12 that comes with LG drives over here but is locked to the LG drives so if you replace it with a different brand of drive it stops working

 

[Jeff R 1]

EDIT: Adbear beat me to it again. Adbear, I'm pretty 100% certain that the drive you're getting will see the files on a UHD disc.
@ archbish99, the drive Adbear talks about is a European model and is not available in North America, or at least I couldn't find a seller "here" for it.
Here's a link from a seller over in the UK that I happened upon, that ships world wide.

http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/p/LG-BH16NS55-525-inch-SATA-Blu-ray-Burner-bulk-black_55852.html

If you want full menu support for Blu-rays, you will need Power DVD _ it's a licensed player and has menu support.
If you're not really interested in menu support (and all the other stuff that comes along with it like trailers and FBI warning) then a free Blu-ray player will suffice, eg Media Player Classic-Home Cinema (MPC-HC) or Kodi, just to name two. There's JRiver, but even though it's not licensed, it's not free, but no where near as expensive as Power DVD.

The problem with un-licensed players is that they are just that, and require the circumvention of AACS and for this you will need AnyDVD HD, they also have a little trouble finding the correct playlist at times.
AnyDVD-HD is used to find the correct play list or you can use Power DVD and WIndows Process Monitor to find the correct one.

Here's a video tutorial on that from General1:

The LG WH16NS40 is a good choice for a Blu-ray drive and many would agree with me on that, but read this thread if you want to get into playing UHD-Blu-rays of your computer.
Note that even though some of the drives in the link can see the files on a UHD disc, there is still no confirmation that a computer based UHD player will be able to read the UHD Blu-ray as intended, just because the drive can see the files.

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/26-ho...c-bdxl-drive-test-request-3.html#post41583457

I started you at post 65 as that is the first person in that thread to report a BDXL drive seeing the files on an UHD disc. (read the whole thread after that)

 

[Adbear]

Didn't realise it wasn't available in the US, it's usually the other way round.

As Cyberlink joined the UHD Blu-ray Development group I'd be surprised if the next version didn't support UHD discs, especially after this press release
http://www.cyberlink.com/prog/company/press-news-content.do?pid=3926

The collaboration will help ensure the compatibility of Ultra HD Blu-ray titles across CE and PC-based playback environments.

.

As I said though, if he gets an LG drive there should be a way to get the free OEM version for LG drives only, which is usually good enough for most people playing from a PC

 

[Jeff R 1]

Yes, here's hoping that Cyberlink will release a UHD-Blu-ray version.
It's funny about that press release, it's been linked at AVS as well _ some are arguing that just because Cyberlink joined the UHDG, doesn't mean to say they are going to produce a version that will read UHD-Blu-ray.
I choose the see the glass of water half full.

I asked Cyberlink personally about this and this is what they said, so it looks promising, but they didn't say when, and that's the that sucks.
I also asked about AMD Fluid Motion and got a totally useless answer.


"Thank you for contacting CyberLink Technical support.

I understand that you want to knaow wants to know whether PowerDVD15 supports UHD blurays or it will be implemented in future versions.

Also, will PowerDVD 16 support AMD Fluid Motion at 2160p?

In regards to your concern, I would like to inform you that our engineer team is studying the new UHD Blu-ray movie feature for future product development.

By company policy, to implement the feature or not, and any schedule information are not available to the public.

We would report your concerns to product team for feature development reference.

For AMD Fluid Motion for 2160P video playback, due to the enhancement feature is provided by 3rd-party AMD VGA hardware. CyberLink is not able to comment for the feature compatibility which doesn't develop at CyberLink software side.

Please feel free to contact us back for any further clarification or for any assistance related to CyberLink Products. Use the below mentioned link to get back to us for your further queries:"

 

[archbish99]

Thanks -- drive ordered, and it sounds like PowerDVD is the way to go....

 

[Adbear]

If you don't get the free LG version of PowerDVD 12 with the drive let me know and I'll see if I can find the download link on the LG website

 

[archbish99]

The drive explicitly said there was no software, and the LG site explicitly says they can't offer PowerDVD for download; you have to contact support and they "may" be able to send you a replacement physical install disk. While I'm always happy to save some money, I suspect the right thing from a licensing standpoint is to just go buy it.

 

[roadworker]

Thanks -- drive ordered, and it sounds like PowerDVD is the way to go....

Alternative for 'normal' blu-rays,although not so full featured as PowerDvd :

http://www.leawo.com/blu-ray-player/

Free,and doesn't need additional software to run....

 

[Ch3vr0n]

Alternatives like that are hardly an option in my eyes until they add full menu support

Verstuurd vanaf mijn Nexus 5 met Tapatalk

 

[roadworker]

Alternatives like that are hardly an option in my eyes until they add full menu support

Understandable,but no-1 can deny that this 1 is superior to VLC or MPC-HD for the same price : €0
And you don't need a decrypter to play the movies and there's also a playlist menu,so you can choose your desired chapter...

 

[Jeff R 1]

Understandable,but no-1 can deny that this 1 is superior to VLC or MPC-HD for the same price : €0
And you don't need a decrypter to play the movies and there's also a playlist menu,so you can choose your desired chapter...

Really, you don't need a dectypter _ how does a free player manage to pull this off ?
If it's free, how does it get around AACS ?

 

[Adbear]

I tested it with some older discs and it does play them without AnyDVD HD running. Haven't tried it with any newer disc

 

[Jeff R 1]

Here's testing it _ I'll report back.

 

[Jeff R 1]

It seems to work, but also seems a little hoaky.
It played "A Bugs Life" and "X-Men, Days of Future Past", but would not play "The Peanuts Movie"
The developers must have found a way to circumvent AACS or they paid the license fee, which is unlikely.
With the lack of information out there about AACS 2.0, I can't ever see it playing UHD-Blu-rays, but maybe I'll be surprised one day.

 

[James]

It seems to work, but also seems a little hoaky.
It played "A Bugs Life" and "X-Men, Days of Future Past", but would not play "The Peanuts Movie"
The developers must have found a way to circumvent AACS or they paid the license fee, which is unlikely.
With the lack of information out there about AACS 2.0, I can't ever see it playing UHD-Blu-rays, but maybe I'll be surprised one day.

You should try if with AnyDVD HD.

 

[Jeff R 1]

You should try if with AnyDVD HD.

Are you joking James, even with Any DVD HD running, it won't play The Peanuts Movie _ it takes forever to read the disk and when it does it just sits there and freezes ?
Even when I point it at the correct play list it doesn't work.
Sigh....

And it doesn't have to work, I like MPC-HC, I can plug in my custom filters with that, I didn't check, but I don't think you can do that with this Leawo Player.