How to watch Blu-rays on macOS?

[Malarkey]

Aiseesoft Blu-ray Player for Mac also works for watching movies. Thanks to miretogo for this post, as it motivated me to figure out which software I actually own and lost track of, which software I needed to update registration with, etc. (I haven't watched Blu-rays on my Mac as much as I intended to). Aiseesoft Blu-ray Player is one I purchased a "lifetime subscription" of about five years ago, but when I got a new iMac, the registration broke. Emailed them yesterday and they reset my registration, so it works now. Testing it with my Boogie Nights Blu-ray. Aiseesoft Blu-ray Player is on sale right now at $34.30 for a "lifetime" license on one computer.

https://www.aiseesoft.com/mac-blu-ray-player/

 

[Spacetime Anomaly]

Search for Leawo Blu-Ray player* on the App store. It's free and plays almost all of the Blu-Rays I have tried.

The only downside is that it's 32bit, so it wont work on Catalina. In that case, you'll need to dual boot into a Mojave volume (as I do) or run it through a virtual machine.

*I see it’s already been mentioned. Ignore this post

 

[esatamacmodular]

Not a big market for player or ripping software for Mac Anymore, so we will get older looking interfaces with software just updated (hopefully) to work with the new OS. Bluray still has a market (though apple and others try still to kill it). Still a market in players (non computers) to hook up to TV etc.

Toast (Corel) has come out with barely anything concerning their DVD-Bluray software over the last years and they are to date up to version 18 (I have). Version 17 and 18 is buggy as they attempted to go with all 64-bit and a slightly new interface. I still go back to Toast 11 to do most of my work. Toast 11 is solid with literally no issues. Use it on OS X Yosemite and El Capitan still. I guess technically it should work with Mojave being it is the last to house 32-bit code (though not all 32-bit apps work).

I have been very disappointed with Corel (was a heavy user way back...), as it use to be one of the go-to companies for Graphics back in the day...but with all of the owner and employee turn-overs, they do nothing but put out the same software with minor or really no program Upgrades (just barely adjustments for compatibility) and sell the same offering. Even the interface of their software still looks like the early 90’s. Probably any coders who know the apps are gone, so whomever is their coder now probably does not know what they are looking at and just adjust or add coding for compatibility and sell the same app over and over....

They had great programs in the day...but dropped the ball years ago. Going to the subscription model put the nail in the coffin for many, especially with pathetic upgrades...and the high costs for their suite (combined) apps is a joke now. Don’t care for Adobe anymore as they have chanced too over the years. Other apps out their are good, but Adobe got the industry some years ago, so sometimes a must to play.

thx. I'm wanting to stay with mojave for stuff like this too (some well made 32 bit apps like toast 11). The only problem is my partner updated her iphone to the latest iOS. Now iTunes says I can't back up the iphone data unless I upgrade our shared iMac to Catalina 10.15.

 

[phrehdd]

Hello guys. Without playing the Blu-ray first how do you check for a forced subtitle track, track numbers on TV shows, and the correct audio track?

Thanks for the feedback.

Subtitles are perhaps the most hit and miss part of all this. Forced subs can be their own track or be a subset of the main language track. Sometimes you have to check forums to see how others handled the challenge if there is one and it can save you lots of time experimenting. Here is a really cool site that can save some time in your efforts. (It is a SAFE google spreadsheet of info on movies and subtitles. It has some tabs at the bottom so make sure you select the right spreadsheet page.)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...jg1ZXlORnRaM3ZhTks4Z3FrYlE&usp=sharing#gid=12

Last I checked, you don't need a special blu-ray player for just blu-ray movies. The correct player and firmware is for blu-ray UHD (4k) movies.

In some instance, as most know, there may be a digital copy included with your blu ray purchase. You may want to check into when that might too be of value (though it is never quite as good as the real deal disc but often pleasantly good for computer screens).

 

[badawat]

thx. I'm wanting to stay with mojave for stuff like this too (some well made 32 bit apps like toast 11). The only problem is my partner updated her iphone to the latest iOS. Now iTunes says I can't back up the iphone data unless I upgrade our shared iMac to Catalina 10.15.

The new partition system which shares OS space works well for Catalina/Mojave dual boot - I may have incorrectly stated the share name but if you didn't know about it already, there's plenty of online tutorials so keeping Mojave and adding Catalina should work nicely and as I understand it, only add extra space for the 2nd OS with shared space for data - but I may have misunderstood that however it's worth exploring for sure I'd say!

 

[phrehdd]

Hello guys. Without playing the Blu-ray first how do you check for a forced subtitle track, track numbers on TV shows, and the correct audio track?

Thanks for the feedback.

Subtitles is a bit of a craft to find the correct track. Sometimes, MKV forum and RedFox forums will offer up the correct track and go as far as to where the disc was sourced (example typical purchase vs Redox or Netflix etc.). One of the best methods I used in the past that worked with Windows 7 and earlier was a combo freeware app (it was composed of a few apps and ran with a supplied script). The software would scan your files and generate audio files, video and separate out the subtitle (you pick the language). The best part is that sometimes the subtitle is a subset of a "CC" style file and this app would find the subtitle and separate it into a different file. Once done, the audio, video and the correct subtitle track can be merged back (on Windows TSmuxer was another free software that merged all the files back perfectly. The app was called Clownbd I believe. It has been a few years. I made at the time m2ts file backups. I suggest going to MakeMKV forums and ask away there. No need to reinvent the wheel.