My experience decrypting and playing blu-ray disks

[jwmorrice]

Recently I purchased a Pioneer blu-ray drive in order to watch high definition movies on my computer. (I don't have a tv of any sort.) The drive came with Cyberlink's PowerDVD v8. I thought I would just have to plop a blu-ray disk in the drive, run the Cyberlink programme and all would be well. After all, I have an HMDI compliant monitor and connection so what could go wrong?

With the first disk, I get a message from PowerDVD that the use of a mouse, i.e. a computer running plain vanilla XP, is not supported. Grrrr, fucking Sony! Yeah, it was one of their films.

Not to be deterred, I downloaded a trial version of DVDFab's blu-ray decrypter and put the movie on one of my hard drives. Great! It worked when I played it with PowerDVD. Second movie and the same deal. Third movie, and while it looked great, no sound. Not a peep. I fiddled with all the PowerDVD controls but it made no difference.

I then decided to download Slysoft's AnyDVD. Using that, I burned another copy of the movie to the external drive. However, again looked great but there was no sound. Now I was getting really pissed. I removed PowerDVD and reinstalled. No difference.

Finally, out of a sense of wtf, I downloaded a trial version of Arcsoft's TMT3 Platinum. Hallelujah, everything played!!! I'll be upgrading my DVDFab and purchasing TMT3.

Anyway, I hope this helps anyone out there who's in my situation.

jwm

 

[WoodPeckr]

Thanks for the report.
Had a sneaking suspicion something like that may happen.
Gotta love technology.....

 

[jwmorrice]

I should add that using AnyDVD allowed me to play a disk in my blu-ray drive using PowerDVD but the picture was jerky. I never bothered to try this with the Arcsoft programme.

jwm

 

[tboy]

Just so you know: I bought an LG dvd player for my media computer and then was finally able to play my Iron Man Blu Ray....WRONG.....wouldn't play....needed an updated firmware for the drive from cyberlink, cyberlink's site was down that weekend, contacted LG they said "they have no control over cyberlink's site" I said but your NAME is all over the software! they basically said TFB......

 

[jwmorrice]

I should add that using AnyDVD allowed me to play a disk in my blu-ray drive using PowerDVD but the picture was jerky. I never bothered to try this with the Arcsoft programme.

jwm

A couple further notes:

I found that AnyDVD and the Arcsoft programme allow me to view a blu-ray disk in my blu-ray drive and it looks just great. Dolby sound is disabled but stereo is just fine by me. Everything else seems to work fine.

One problem that I haven't been able to solve is the lack of subtitles when viewing a blu-ray file from my hard drive. That presents a problem even with some american films, e.g. Kill Bill. I'm guessing it's also fucked with respect to any foreign language flicks I might store.

It's possible that Corel's Win-DVD might get around this problem but unfortunately they don't offer a free trial download that plays blu-ray so who knows.

jwm

 

[Berlin]

After all, I have an HMDI compliant monitor and connection

J what is the size of your monitor ?

 

[jwmorrice]

J what is the size of your monitor ?

24"

jwm

 

[jwmorrice]

A couple further notes:

I found that AnyDVD and the Arcsoft programme allow me to view a blu-ray disk in my blu-ray drive and it looks just great. Dolby sound is disabled but stereo is just fine by me. Everything else seems to work fine.

One problem that I haven't been able to solve is the lack of subtitles when viewing a blu-ray file from my hard drive. That presents a problem even with some american films, e.g. Kill Bill. I'm guessing it's also fucked with respect to any foreign language flicks I might store.

It's possible that Corel's Win-DVD might get around this problem but unfortunately they don't offer a free trial download that plays blu-ray so who knows.

jwm

It seems that the problem with subtitles and the lack of chapters is solvable by installing a virtual drive and then burning the blu-ray file(s) to it as an ISO. At least I think that's what I should be doing. Haven't tried it yet. I'll post when I do.

jwm

 

[jwmorrice]

It seems that the problem with subtitles and the lack of chapters is solvable by installing a virtual drive and then burning the blu-ray file(s) to it as an ISO. At least I think that's what I should be doing. Haven't tried it yet. I'll post when I do.

jwm

Okay, so I got things sorted out with saving and playing Blu-ray movies. What I do is, using AnyDVD HD, I burn the movie as an ISO to one of my hard drives. It's an option with that programme.

I also installed Virtual Clone Drive (freeware) from Slysoft. That's another necessary step but don't ask me why. LOL.

Now when I want to play the Blu-ray file, I simply go to the hard drive where I stored it, right click on it and "mount" it. Everything then works with PowerDVD which came with my Blu-Ray drive. PowerDVD comes on automatically. Chapters, subtitles, it's all there along with the beautiful picture and sound.

In the past I've used DVDFab Platinum to burn regular DVDs to my hard drive. Actually, I still use it for that purpose. However, with respect to Blu-ray disks, I was disappointed with what their high definition option would do. True, subtitles were there but they'd pop up onto the screen and then disappear almost before you could read them. So, my recommendation is either to go with AnyDVD HD or wait a while. I'm sure DVDFab will catch up eventually.

Now I just have to think about getting yet another terabyte drive. The Blu-ray movies take up anywhere from 20 something to almost 40 gigs.

I hope this is useful to folks out there.

jwm

 

[Berlin]

AnyDVD has been very consistent from my experience, always does what it is supposed to do . Just remember to install their frequent updates.

J I understand that you're happy with your current set up for watching flicks, do consider getting a larger monitor such as 37" at least, should real estate allow. If not, go for a 32". Viewing BR titles on small mon does not do you justice.