Will WMC7 play Blu-ray?

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s10010001

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Will WMC7 play Blu-ray?

I searched around, and cant get a solid answer. I don't have a BD drive yet to test. What I gather is if I have the right software (some version of cyberlink crap) then the right codecs will be installed and WMC7 will just play them from the DVD menu.

Can someone please confirm?
 
If you buy the proper software, the codecs will be loaded. however, it may not play in media center.

My understanding is that the bd playing software will take over once a bd is inserted and played.

Standalone bd player can be had for $76 at walmart while a bd player and software is over $100. I have both and decided not to buy the bd software since my bd player can stream across my network to all my computers
 
notarat said:
Standalone bd player can be had for $76 at walmart while a bd player and software is over $100. I have both and decided not to buy the bd software since my bd player can stream across my network to all my computers
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The last BD drive I bought had the playback software. If you buy the slightly more expensive (a few $) "retail" package it will usually have it! (unless it's an ultracheap brand)

But on the laptop with the bluray software (it came installed) the blu ray playing options comes up in WMC, but on this computer with a drive and blu ray playing software it doesn't (then again i've never tried to run a blu ray movie, it's just for burning). So perhaps more fiddling is needed, but it's definately possible.
 
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drleospaceman said:
that, powerdvd, and windvd are your [main] options..
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ok, and the drive im looking at has powerdvd (some edition I assume has BD support) are you saying you have seen it work straight from WMC7? Thats what im really looking for here.

All the media stuff is making me crazy... HTPCs, BD playback, cheap media extenders, expensive extenders that look to just run WMC, TVs with Apps, BD players with Apps... I just don't want to invest in any of them to later find out its not going to do all I want.
 
I use PowerDVD Ultra 11 to play BDs in WMC7 all the time. You can get PDVD for a lot less on ebay.
 
I(illa Bee said:
Thanks! that's what I wanted to hear! HTPC here I come!
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good luck. I stopped using the BD drives in my PC's since PDVD is a piece of crap and went with a standalone Panasonic player to play Blurays.
TMT5 was better but I couldn't justify the $100 for it.
 
Zepher said:
good luck. I stopped using the BD drives in my PC's since PDVD is a piece of crap and went with a standalone Panasonic player to play Blurays.
TMT5 was better but I couldn't justify the $100 for it.
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that was a figured I was going to do, use a standalone BD player, but ill give it a try. I need a drive to rip with anyway.
 
Zepher said:
good luck. I stopped using the BD drives in my PC's since PDVD is a piece of crap and went with a standalone Panasonic player to play Blurays.
TMT5 was better but I couldn't justify the $100 for it.
Click to expand...

PDVD is not a piece of crap.
 
delvryboy said:
Yup. I honestly don't use it much, maybe twice a month, but its always worked perfectly for me.
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Unlike the other poster who no longer uses BD drives but prefers to use standalone players, I no longer use either (I have 3 standalone BD players, including an OPPO83). I rip all of my BDs and store them on my server. Neither of my HPTCs have BD drives (just my server does). I use PowerDVD as my player for BDs (not because I don't like TMT, but because I learned of PowerDVD a long time ago and had invested in it). I use it in the Cinema mode for playback from the couch. It does a fine job. I don't particularly like the interface when I open PDVD alone, but inside WMC I have no complaints. PDVD is obviously trying very hard to be a single solution for all your media needs. I do think this approach makes the software a lot more complex than it would be if it just served a single function. It's a long long way from being a piece of crap.
 
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I have used both Powerdvd and TMT5. Both work just fine. I have TMT5 installed on my computer and havn't had any issues with it at all. I have PowerDVD 10 installed on a few of my clients blu-ray server's I built them and they all love it. But now I'm converting all my blu-rays to MKV and it makes it sooo much easier. They play in WMC7 perfect after you install the codec. Thats if you are putting you blu-ray on the drive though. Just play back from a blu-ray drive I would go with TMT5.
 
AQ_OC said:
Unlike the other poster who no longer uses BD drives but prefers to use standalone players, I no longer use either (I have 3 standalone BD players, including an OPPO83). I rip all of my BDs and store them on my server. Neither of my HPTCs have BD drives (just my server does). I use PowerDVD as my player for BDs (not because I don't like TMT, but because I learned of PowerDVD a long time ago and had invested in it). I use it in the Cinema mode for playback from the couch. It does a fine job. I don't particularly like the interface when I open PDVD alone, but inside WMC I have no complaints. PDVD is obviously trying very hard to be a single solution for all your media needs. I do think this approach makes the software a lot more complex than it would be if it just served a single function. It's a long long way from being a piece of crap.
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I actually plan on just riping everything, but my wife want to be able to play a disk she rented or bought and not worry about me needing to be there to rip it.

Ps: all rented movies are not ripped ever
 
I(illa Bee said:
I actually plan on just riping everything, but my wife want to be able to play a disk she rented or bought and not worry about me needing to be there to rip it.

Ps: all rented movies are not ripped ever
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Makes sense. Best to have a local BD drive in your HTPC for rented movies. I usually rent via Amazon (download to tivo) or what Instant on netflix. I only rip what I own.
 
I(illa Bee said:
I actually plan on just riping everything, but my wife want to be able to play a disk she rented or bought and not worry about me needing to be there to rip it.

Ps: all rented movies are not ripped ever
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Same exact reason I have a BDROM in my HTPC.

I have ~20 BD's, but don't have any of them ripped. Since I don't see any particular need to re-burn them, I will probably rip them and store as MKV (All of my DVD's are ISO, so I can re-burn as needed, especially useful for the kids' movies).
 
My HTPC has a blu-ray burner since I didn't want to buy both a BD-R (for main rig) and BD-ROM. I rarely burn blu-ray discs and use Total Media Theater 5 for playback. My Athlon II X2 260 (3.2Ghz) and integrated 4250 have no problems with playback.
 
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