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.Are you wanting to rip it and store it on the hard drive, or just a one time watch? I store all my movies on hard disk, so i usually use programs like anydvd to save and decode it to my disk. (at this point you can watch it with anything) there is a million ways to do it, but im not positive if any of the apps are free for ever. you can try VLC player for if it a one time watch
millions of ways to do it cheaply....thing is what easiest for you? from 30-100 bucks are plenty of options..
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im pretty sure i could watch UHD's ok on mine....But i would likely decode/save it to hard drive with anydvd first anyways.The free solutions are sadly not that great. They won't play everything and things like menus and alternate languages/audio can be buggy or non-functional.
If you're simply looking to play disks, I'd see if you can find a copy of an older version of PowerDVD. It has been able to play Blu-Rays going back 6-7 versions, so they'll all work. The newest one is still at least $60 via retail, so maybe an older one can be had for cheap?
The real struggle is trying to play UHD Blu-Rays. That requires a special drive, PowerDVD 17+, and a PC running Intel graphics
and if it has too new of a firmware they say its easy to flash to a working one. I have done the anydvd way and then ripping said file to an easier size file for a very long time. Yes it is a couple of steps to do, but extremely easy.
I watch ALL my BD's ad UHD'BDs with MPC and never had any issue. I do use MPV to watch the UHD ones cause i need the HDR 10/12 bit color played in a format that looks ok on my older 8 bit display.
true about makemkv.....i think the anydvd way is a bit easier but your right...I understand makemkv can do it for free, but requires a little work for each movie. My only gripe with anydvd is when they sold the program to another company i lost my lifetime updates. (so yeah i can buy it again and its not so cheap). The devs have to continually update the program for each new movies and i cant expect them to work for free. I have anydvd about a 1000 movies or so, i got my monies worth.
You have to do this: https://www.videosolo.com/tutorials/play-blu-ray-with-vlc.html
I for some reason prefer to watch the movie after its been saved to hard drive (which i do with anydvd) cause it takes out all the nasty drm
how could you not play it after ripping?
It played fine after ripping, it was just playing the disc itself that I never got to work properly. I thought that I might just have a 4k disc or two that I could pop in and play once in a while rather than storing the huge rip on my hard drive. But, I was wrong. So very, very wrong. LOLhow could you not play it after ripping?
I have always figured ripping them all to a media server/drive for long term storage....then you can just click a remote in the living room watch what ever when ever. that htpc im sure could be a very good media player
cool....you can give us lessons for makemkv when you get it figured out lol
Yes, that's what I do. However, do you understand the size difference between a bluray file and a 4k file? My bluray rips are usually 8GB or so (using AnyDVD and Handbrake to transcode them) and take about an hour or so per movie. 4k rips using the same process are also around 8GB and take 24-ish hours! So, for my puposes, it makes more sense to just rip it (which doesn't take too long) and not use Handbrake. There's nothing wrong with playing a 60GB 4k rip, I would just prefer a smaller file to store. So, I'm sticking with bluray rips for now. Like I said, I may just get my HTPC up and running with a 4K drive and compatible motherboard\CPU.