I'm looking to get a new blu-ray playback software for my PC, as mine was accidentally wiped from my HDD. There are a ton out there, so I was just wondering what my fellow CAGs would recommend. Looking for cheapest possible, but need it to work and be recent. Any help?

Are there a ton really? Last time I checked I thought there was only 3-4? And all ranged around the 80 dollar range. Power DVD, WinDVD, and a few others. If there are more and they are cheaper I would love to know because the blu ray software was wiped when HP did some dumb update to the laptop and quickplay stopped supporting.

I don't really know. I'm just looking to get some input, as I have no experience with this stuff.

Well, I will give you the limited info I know. When I did research I only found 3 main blu ray players for PC:

http://www.cyberlink.com/products/po...n_US.html?&r=1

http://www.corel.com/corel/product/i...anguageCode=en

www.arcsoft.com/totalmedia-theatre/

They all offer trials so you can test them out and see which one you like best. I've exhausted the trial on PowerDVD and WinDVD and like them both. They are both 59.99 right now with PowerDVD maybe the best deal since it is the Ultra edition.

This thread here probably sums it up the best:

http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/2...aying-software

Thanks! That gives me a little help, but I'm still unsure...

Well, cheapest would be either Power DVD or Win DVD. I'm not sure what you are unsure about? They all tend to be pretty expensive, but those are the main three I've ever seen and all get a lot of good reviews and some bad reviews. I think the best bet would be to download the trial for each, test them out, and then choose the one you feel better with/more intuitive to you, better features, etc.

I'm partial to PowerDVD but some people swear by the other two as well.

Well, I've read reviews of all on amazon, and they say that CS is terrible on almost all of them. Guess I'll just have to get the trials to make sure. Was hoping to get some more input from others who owned them...

Honestly Bluray is best left to a dedicated player. Not because PCs are not capable, they obviously are, but because the software is expensive and generally doesn't include updates that come quite frequently to Bluray.

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Originally Posted by Mugatu Honestly Bluray is best left to a dedicated player. Not because PCs are not capable, they obviously are, but because the software is expensive and generally doesn't include updates that come quite frequently to Bluray.

Well, I thought about that, but then I'll have wasted money on my BD drive, so it's about the same to me...

Have you tried VLC? It should support blu-ray playback. Not sure if it covers everything you were wanting in a player though.

Originally Posted by Draekon Have you tried VLC? It should support blu-ray playback. Not sure if it covers everything you were wanting in a player though.

I actually have, and I found that it was a little too involved for me. I really just need a set of software that would be the closest thing to WMP having BD capabilities.

Originally Posted by Mr Dude65 Well, I thought about that, but then I'll have wasted money on my BD drive, so it's about the same to me...

I could be wrong but that has been my experience anyway. It's a shame too IMO.

You can try with this:

http://powerdvd.softonic.com/

Official website:
http://es.cyberlink.com/products/powerdv…

kinda old thread but i just ran into this problem myself. installed powerdvd that came with my drive (powerdvd8) only to discover that it doesn't play blu-rays without a patch and their servers are slow as (15kb/s) and unstable. failed to download like 6 times before it worked. then i discovered it won't play new blu-rays because they stopped updating it so they could sell their next version which i believe is powerdvd11. BUT you don't get full support unless you buy the ultra edition. so off to google i went.

i ended up with full versions of powerdvd and total media theatre:
powerdvd is a piece of shit. even the ultra edition. it'll play your movies and thats about it. no screenshots or anything.

TMT is not much better and is very slow to buffer (must be a software thing since powerdvd does it twice as fast), but you can take screenshots and they don't you out of updates so at least you'll be able to play the latest blu-rays.

The best option I found, however, was to just copy the movie and play in vlc.

Originally Posted by crystalklear64 kinda old thread but i just ran into this problem myself. installed powerdvd that came with my drive (powerdvd8) only to discover that it doesn't play blu-rays without a patch and their servers are slow as (15kb/s) and unstable. failed to download like 6 times before it worked. then i discovered it won't play new blu-rays because they stopped updating it so they could sell their next version which i believe is powerdvd11. BUT you don't get full support unless you buy the ultra edition. so off to google i went. i ended up with full versions of powerdvd and total media theatre: powerdvd is a piece of shit. even the ultra edition. it'll play your movies and thats about it. no screenshots or anything. TMT is not much better and is very slow to buffer (must be a software thing since powerdvd does it twice as fast), but you can take screenshots and they don't you out of updates so at least you'll be able to play the latest blu-rays. The best option I found, however, was to just copy the movie and play in vlc.

Could you possibly explain how VLC works? I have no experience... Do you just open the files on disc and copy them into the player? Or does it take something else? I really want it to play in HD, so if it doesn't do that, I'm out. I'm really thinking of just getting PowerDVD, as I only want to watch the movies, and am not really into screenshots and the like. Why the Hell can't MS just pay up and include Blus in WMP?!?!

use free program to make .m2ts file of your movie.
i suggest MakeMKV

vlc player can play .m2ts files.

its full quality. you'll need like 40gb free per movie though.

Originally Posted by crystalklear64 use free program to make .m2ts file of your movie. i suggest MakeMKV vlc player can play .m2ts files. its full quality. you'll need like 40gb free per movie though.

About how long does the process take?

depends on your processor. i5-2500k takes me about 10-15 mins.

Might try that then! Any links to the software would be amazing! Sorry for all the questions, but this is my first foray into blus, and apparently, I'm in a little too deep, lol!