Watching Blu-ray on PC - how reliable is it?

riskyfrisky · 19 Feb 2014 at 10:30

Hi folks!

Pretty simple question but I'm not sure it's a simple answer- is it worth time and money to invest in a Blu-ray drive for the PC to watch films etc?

Is it a suitable replacement for a stand-alone Blu-ray player and is it as reliable? I've been doing some research and it seems there are people who have no issues at all, but then there are others who seem to have nothing but problems. Specifically by that I mean just getting the films to play reliably, even though the hardware is more than capable.

I noticed a drive is on the Today Only deal and it's rather tempting.

Just FYI the specs of the machine the drive would be connected to:

Windows 7, Phenom II X3 720, Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H, Radeon 5850, 4GB RAM, mechanical HDD.

Thanks!

David Bisset · 19 Feb 2014 at 10:34

As you observed - some people have no trouble, others do - it's hard to tell which camp you'd fall into!

I've got a blu-ray player on my laptop and it works just fine (every blu-ray I own worked, that's not to say I won't have trouble in future) so I guess I'd say it's a good idea, but I've no idea how common it is to have trouble.

bemaniac · 19 Feb 2014 at 10:35

In my experience getting a good piece of software for free is not possible as the ones you do get free have limitations and only run some discs. Upon buying a couple of bits of software the films I could get working properly don't look as good as they do from a standalone £39.99 argos bluray player on the same screen. Software that works properly with a decent picture quality seems to cost around £90 and even then you only have the licence for the latest version and a limited period of updates.

riskyfrisky · 19 Feb 2014 at 10:37

David Bisset said:
As you observed - some people have no trouble, others do - it's hard to tell which camp you'd fall into!

I've got a blu-ray player on my laptop and it works just fine (every blu-ray I own worked, that's not to say I won't have trouble in future) so I guess I'd say it's a good idea, but I've no idea how common it is to have trouble.

That's the thing, knowing my awful luck I'd have nothing but problems right from the start. I want the consistency that you get with a stand-alone player.

BinnsY · 19 Feb 2014 at 10:38

In my experience it's terrible. Mainly because the drive manufacturers don't keep the firmware on the drives upto date and then they stop playing new films basically forcing you to buy new drives. I've had this happen on two separate blu ray drives one made by dell the other by samsung. The samsung one was sported for longer than the dell one but both have come to the same fate. I've also had loads of issues with powerdvd. It I think most we're caused by the firmware being old on the drives. But I'm now in the state where both my blu ray drives won't play any blu rays at all as a newer disc has detected they don't have the right keys on them and then put a block on the drives until it gets them. But I can't get the new ones as the drive manufacturers don't make updates!

On top of that the software is slow and bloated. I'd be interested to here if people have had perfect experiences but personally I'd just recommend a cheap stand alone blu ray player instead. Despite all the issues on my PC my 5 year old 50 quid samsung player under the tv has been faultless.

riskyfrisky · 19 Feb 2014 at 10:40

bemaniac said:
In my experience getting a good piece of software for free is not possible as the ones you do get free have limitations and only run some discs. Upon buying a couple of bits of software the films I could get working properly don't look as good as they do from a standalone £39.99 argos bluray player on the same screen. Software that works properly with a decent picture quality seems to cost around £90 and even then you only have the licence for the latest version and a limited period of updates.

This is my biggest concern. I don't understand why I should have to pay for the software, even if it does allow me certain firmware updates etc. You don't have to pay extra for software with a retail Blu-ray player so I definitely wouldn't be happy if I had to pay for software for the PC.

riskyfrisky · 19 Feb 2014 at 10:51

BinnsY said:
In my experience it's terrible. Mainly because the drive manufacturers don't keep the firmware on the drives upto date and then they stop playing new films basically forcing you to buy new drives. I've had this happen on two separate blu ray drives one made by dell the other by samsung. The samsung one was sported for longer than the dell one but both have come to the same fate. I've also had loads of issues with powerdvd. It I think most we're caused by the firmware being old on the drives. But I'm now in the state where both my blu ray drives won't play any blu rays at all as a newer disc has detected they don't have the right keys on them and then put a block on the drives until it gets them. But I can't get the new ones as the drive manufacturers don't make updates!

On top of that the software is slow and bloated. I'd be interested to here if people have had perfect experiences but personally I'd just recommend a cheap stand alone blu ray player instead. Despite all the issues on my PC my 5 year old 50 quid samsung player under the tv has been faultless.

I think it's a disgrace that you've got two drives that won't play recent Blu-ray discs; I'd argue they aren't fit for purpose.

I wonder why manufacturers don't offer firmware updates for free through their websites?

pandem0nium · 19 Feb 2014 at 12:21

If you're willing to spend the time ripping and encoding the blu rays, then it'll work fine.

In my experience, it's difficult to get it playing well ad hoc from a blu ray drive without paying for Power dvd or similar. So I use my ps3.

los · 19 Feb 2014 at 12:31

Yeah you can do it with VLC via a hack, its a bit of a pain tbh. If I knew what a hastle it was I wouldnt have bought a blu ray writer, or if you do make sure it comes with software or as said above rip it first, but that kinda defeats the point to me

ThomasTheTankEngine · 19 Feb 2014 at 13:03

I have a bottom-of-the-range pioneer, and it works just fine.

Had some problems to begin with though. It barely functioned until I updated the firmware, and I went down the ooohh arrrrrrr! route to get decent software.

Doco · 19 Feb 2014 at 15:49

This seems like a total pain - was looking into this myself before but ended up getting bought a stand-alone blu ray player so never actually had to bite the bullet and see if I could get blu rays working on my pc

The Matrix · 19 Feb 2014 at 16:04

bemaniac said:
In my experience getting a good piece of software for free is not possible as the ones you do get free have limitations and only run some discs. Upon buying a couple of bits of software the films I could get working properly don't look as good as they do from a standalone £39.99 argos bluray player on the same screen. Software that works properly with a decent picture quality seems to cost around £90 and even then you only have the licence for the latest version and a limited period of updates.

I agree about getting good software is key, i had a load of problems in the past with Arcsoft total media theatre.

BinnsY · 19 Feb 2014 at 16:51

Like others have said if your willing to rip and encode the discs everything goes away. It's now actually easier for me to rip blu-rays using something like MakeMKV completley bypassing the copy protection than it is for me to play them with legitimate software.

I've basically given up, I just watch blu-rays downstairs now, or in the rare event I want to watch one upstairs I make an uncompressed rip 30 mins before I Want to start the film then just delete it when I'm done.

los · 19 Feb 2014 at 17:18

The Matrix said:
I agree about getting good software is key, i had a load of problems in the past with Arcsoft total media theatre.

What do you use now then and is it good?

setter · 19 Feb 2014 at 18:04

I done it for a while, but it is expensive and not without its issues. The software can be expensive and will need updated every year. I paid £50.00 for the drive and a further £90.00 for cyberlink power dvd ultra. Got fed up with compatibility issues with new films and the constant need to update software etc. Ended up buying a standalone blu ray player which cost far less and more importantly far less hassle.

hawkhench · 19 Feb 2014 at 18:26

If you have other options, just stick with a standalone. The hassle I had trying to play a disc was unbelievable. These days I just do what BinnsY said despite shelling out a fortune for software (volume was barely audible at 100% with no amplification options).

Sasahara · 19 Feb 2014 at 21:12

Power wise the CPU/GPU combo should be up to full 2d playback, but if you want to try 3D playback you might be on the limit with the 5850.

The Matrix · 19 Feb 2014 at 23:47

los said:
What do you use now then and is it good?

I'm using a standalone bluray player which is connected to my monitor, i just use the Bluray RW optical drive to burn the occasional bluray disc.

Confused Stu · 20 Feb 2014 at 00:04

I've been running a Blu-ray drive in my HTPC since I built it in late 2007. As others have said, I first had to buy PowerDVD as the bundled version only supported stereo sound where the paid for one did 7.1 (which I have). It then worked fine for a while, but as I didn't have many blu-rays at that point, it was a month or two before I came to watch the next one, where I found the software needed to download a very slow 100MB-odd patch in order to keep playing discs. Few months later, I need to download another update to play a new disc I bought. Few months later, I'm being offered 50% off the new version of PowerDVD because they've upped this one's version number by a full 1 rather than a 0.1, so I now need to pay £50 to upgrade, and the cycle continues.

I tried Arcsoft Total Media Theatre, but it didn't seem to like my setup at the time (AMD 4850e CPU and a 5450) so never played discs smoothly.

These days I use the latest version of PowerDVD (ahem) and just make sure I check for updates at least half an hour before the family sit down to watch a Blu-ray if we haven't watched on recently.

I've heard that the makers of the encryption on Blu-ray allow stand alone players to have keys that work forever, but only allow software players to have keys that last for a couple of months as they're worried about people reverse-engineering the software to obtain permanent encryption keys - hence the continual need to update software. May be hearsay, but sounds consistent with my experience.

If you're desperate to keep all your front room equipment in the one HTPC unit, and you're happy staying on top of the software versions and updates, it's doable, but I'd definitely advise ANYONE to go with a cheap standlone player instead.

As to the suggestion that a 5850 would be on the limit for 3D blu-rays, give over! I'm running 2D blu-rays on a Sandybridge Celeron's onboard GPU, and 3D is only twice the frames of 2D at most, and a 5850 is WELL over twice as powerful as my little Intel HD graphics, so I will eat my hat if a 5850 doesn't have the grunt for video work.

riskyfrisky · 20 Feb 2014 at 09:16

Thanks to each of you for your responses!

I've decided it was a stupid idea and I'm not even going to consider Blu-ray on the PC any longer. I agree with los in that I don't want to be ripping discs either.

I've got a PS3 and bluetooth remote, and that's what I normally use, however, I recently had to replace a Blu-ray drive in a mate's PS3 due to heavy usage and I don't want mine ending up the same because it's nearly £60 for a replacement drive. Thinking about it though, that's probably the easiest solution should it ever happen - and it saves me having to squeeze another box in the room.

Cheers!