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Using Blu-Ray writer to watch Blu Ray movies?
- Thread starter BrittQ
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Thanks Caveman,
I have come across many informative threads by you.
If I wanted to watch Blu Ray w/o ripping it, would an external blu ray drive (burner) do the job? Or is it better to play them in a different device. Currently I have a PS3 that I have only used for Blu Ray movies. But, I am hoping to sell it and replace it with an external blu ray burner if feasible
Thoughts?
I have come across many informative threads by you.
If I wanted to watch Blu Ray w/o ripping it, would an external blu ray drive (burner) do the job? Or is it better to play them in a different device. Currently I have a PS3 that I have only used for Blu Ray movies. But, I am hoping to sell it and replace it with an external blu ray burner if feasible
Thoughts?
For encrypted and HDCP-enabled Blu-ray disc playback you need:
1. A Blu-ray drive that is HDCP-compliant (all of them are, even the BD-ROM drives)
2. An HDCP-compliant video card in your computer
3. An HDCP-compliant display (the exception seems to be notebook displays)
If you defeat encryption and HDCP (with, for example, AnyDVD HD), then you can play on any hardware without restriction at 1080p resolution. What I've done with the few Blu-ray discs I own is rip them to my hard drive using AnyDVD HD on Windows under Boot Camp, thus removing HDCP and encryption. I then use Plex to play the resulting m2ts rips on my Mac Mini at 1080p with Dolby Digital or DTS audio.
This is the only solution on the Mac side that I am aware of.
1. A Blu-ray drive that is HDCP-compliant (all of them are, even the BD-ROM drives)
2. An HDCP-compliant video card in your computer
3. An HDCP-compliant display (the exception seems to be notebook displays)
If you defeat encryption and HDCP (with, for example, AnyDVD HD), then you can play on any hardware without restriction at 1080p resolution. What I've done with the few Blu-ray discs I own is rip them to my hard drive using AnyDVD HD on Windows under Boot Camp, thus removing HDCP and encryption. I then use Plex to play the resulting m2ts rips on my Mac Mini at 1080p with Dolby Digital or DTS audio.
This is the only solution on the Mac side that I am aware of.
Yes, you can, and I have. But it's a bit clunky since I have to set up my MBP and external BR drive, then connect to the TV (DVI to HDMI) and optical audio (Toslink) to the receiver. And then it really gets fun. I have drill down about 5 or 6 layers of Windows control panels to find the NVidia controller, then switch to a tab, then from a pull-down menu turn off my MBP display and turn on the external display, AND THEN I can watch the movie straight from the disc. No a Mac experience, that's for sure.
Wow Apple is sure making it difficult to allow us to watch our own Blu-ray movies on their machines. I love spending $3k on a Mac Pro and not be able to watch a movie.
There's a lot of software overhead ("baggage") that comes with HDCP and Blu-ray encryption. This can dramatically impact the OS performance since it is in the OS (and not the Blu-ray playback software). I think Steve's right on this. Make the studios cave.
what bluray drive do you have? The only external ones i have found seem to be burners as well with a price tag way outta my range. Just looking for somting to hook up to my imac and watch bluray directly.
I have Sony's Blu-ray ROM drive (from Circuit City, about $130) and it's in a Vantec USB2 enclosure (internal SATA interface, about $40). I see NewEgg now has several BD ROM drives for about that range and even lower.