bluray freeware?

croggy · 14 May 2009 at 11:45

is there any freeware that allows you to play blu ray movies on your pc?

philjohn · 14 May 2009 at 11:59

I doubt it as you have to be a licensee and that costs money. Don't most drives/computers with BluRay come with an OEM version of the Cyberlink app that plats them though?

croggy · 14 May 2009 at 12:03

:[ nah i never, i bought the cheapest drive at the time, lg something or another. just a reader. ohh well thats quite annoying.

neil_g · 14 May 2009 at 12:20

i got the LG BR reader and it came with cyberlink powerdvd..

croggy · 14 May 2009 at 12:28

really? haha, maybe i never checked the disc actually!

Smit · 14 May 2009 at 12:30

Doesn't windows have native support now? Or was that something else

neil_g · 14 May 2009 at 12:36

ive got the "LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM" if that helps. came with a disk with burning software, lightscribe etc and PDVD

Smit said:
Doesn't windows have native support now? Or was that something else

nope... vista sp2 add support to writing DATA to BD natively. no playback or video.

alex24 · 14 May 2009 at 12:38

Be warned that almost all the OEM playback software does not allow 5.1 sound, this is usually an addon or you need to buy a premium version.

neil_g · 14 May 2009 at 12:40

alexhull24 said:
Be warned that almost all the OEM playback software does not allow 5.1 sound, this is usually an addon or you need to buy a premium version.

i cant remember but i think that might only be over SPDIF that its limited? ive upgraded mine so i cant check mind..

alex24 · 14 May 2009 at 12:43

I can't remember for sure, I would check but my HTPC PSU died :mad:

croggy · 14 May 2009 at 12:54

its all about the picture quality though, to me anyways, can't wait to see what its like on my 27" dell !! hopefully i still have the disk!

neil_g · 14 May 2009 at 12:56

should be good, i get a good image on a cheap hitachi 1080i set over HDMI..

alex24 · 14 May 2009 at 12:57

Well you also need to experience the improvement in audio, I think it's awesome!

croggy · 14 May 2009 at 13:00

i bet it is! i just don't have the surround sound set up to justify it :[

croggy · 15 May 2009 at 10:16

ok i did have a disk! installed cyberlink dvd, everything seemed fine, put a blu ray in. It said it needed an update for it. Fair enough. Downloaded it, attempted to install it and it didn't even work! Some error saying it can't find an intel 32 folder preventing it from installing. What a waste of time! ffs!

alex24 · 15 May 2009 at 17:33

It definitely should work, did you install the whole cyberlink suite or just pdvd? I've done this at least twice (updating it that is) on vista x64 and it was fine. What OS?

croggy · 16 May 2009 at 20:57

yeah it was the whole cyberlink suite thing. its windows 7 x64 but i shouldn't have thought it would make that much of a difference considering windows 7 has vista engine really? hmm.? dunno more annoying than anything

alex24 · 16 May 2009 at 22:51

It's not really a case of having the same 'engine'. It's a modified vista kernel but optimised and designed to be more modular I think. There are similarities for sure, but they're definitely not the same.

Have you tried downloading the update and running it in compatibility mode for vista sp2?

croggy · 17 May 2009 at 01:10

argh i found the compatibility options! i never knew they existed!! thanks v much !!

ahh everything is working now !