Reviving a neglected HTPC - what's the latest/greatest BluRay software (1 Viewer)

After a year of neglect and a couple years of stasis before that, I'm finally reviving my Win7 Media PC for BluRay playback. Everything is up and running with HDMI, AnyDVD, and (technically) functional playback.


However, I'm currently using a 3+ year old version of ArcSoft Total Media Theater for my BluRay playback, and not only is it showing its age it has developed a bizarre habit of not using the full display, instead putting a blue border around the edge of every movie. NOT.COOL.


So, since I know BluRay tech has come a long way since I last looked, what is the newest/greatest/best software for playing BluRay on a Windows Media Center PC? It looks like ArcSoft is out of the game anc Cyberlink is still distributed with every BluRay drive, is there anything else out there?


Thanks!

Cyberlink and Arcsoft are probably still the two bits of software that are "stable" and "working". If you like tinkering, there's a free solution called PotPlayer that has a pretty devoted following. I haven't used it personally, though, as I've pretty much given up on watching blu-rays via a HTPC due to buggy / unsupported / expensive software a long time ago.


Maybe I'll tinker with it a bit when I get some free time.

Ok.
I can't believe how I didn't know about this, but I just found perhaps the best bluray software out there?
It's free, it's Region Free and you don't need to run AnyDVD or anything else (i don't know how they do it) to play Bluray discs of whatever region.
I was trying to play Stanley and Iris, which is my latest Bluray, and nothing worked, but THIS worked!

Leawo Bluray Player

The only thing is this:
I have a Region B Bluray drive, and in Criterions which are Region A locked, it couldn't play the menu.
I did have access to the menu though in Region Free or Region B discs.

note: I haven't watched a full movie in this player yet.

Also freeware is VLC Media player ...

I like Cyberlink's PowerDVD (I bought it). It's stable, plays DVD and blu-ray, does 3D, and can also play video files particularly 3D MVC files. It supports bistreaming, so Atmos works. It's not region free. And version 16 doesn't seem to handle PIP video commentaries right. But in all other ways it's a fully functional player.

B-ROLL said:

Also freeware is VLC Media player ...

Click to expand...

VLC requires a lot of elbow grease to work properly with bluray discs, without resorting to "grey market" programs.

I prefer Corel Windvd honestly. Cyberlink has a serious stuttering problem on my computer and also has trouble playing back 7.1 content for some reason.

WinDVD 11 was missing key features when I was shopping last year. Version 12 looks like it's been substantially improved.

Surprised jRiver didn't get a mention here. It's a very comprehensive HT solution, although perhaps geared more for audio. I am [laugh if you must] just getting into 3D and was disappointed with how jRiver handled my first attempts, Avatar and Titanic. It basically didn't handle them but on all other levels it's a pretty good product though certainly not free.

Konstantinos said:

Ok.
I can't believe how I didn't know about this, but I just found perhaps the best bluray software out there?
It's free, it's Region Free and you don't need to run AnyDVD or anything else (i don't know how they do it) to play Bluray discs of whatever region.
I was trying to play Stanley and Iris, which is my latest Bluray, and nothing worked, but THIS worked!

Leawo Bluray Player

The only thing is this:
I have a Region B Bluray drive, and in Criterions which are Region A locked, it couldn't play the menu.
I did have access to the menu though in Region Free or Region B discs.

note: I haven't watched a full movie in this player yet.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the information. I hadn't heard about this one but I'm giving it a spin tonight.

B-ROLL said:

Also freeware is VLC Media player ...

Click to expand...

VLC needs AnyDVd running or another decryption software to play original Blurays.
This does not!

I don't know how.
I played Stanley and Iris (a 2017 bluray) perfectly fine,
I see the last version of the player was in 2015. Hope it plays other new Blurays too..

I keep trying the new releases of freeware players, complete with the MadVR enhancements... and endless tweaking...and I keep coming back to Mirillis Spash. It simply produces what I regard as the best picture, on my rather "dated" Mitsubishi 82" HDTV. Splash, itself is rather dated, and it's followers keep begging for a 3.0 update, but with it's picture enhancements features, , it still beats MadVR, in my estimation.

Konstantinos said:

VLC needs AnyDVd running or another decryption software to play original Blurays.
This does not!

I don't know how.
I played Stanley and Iris (a 2017 bluray) perfectly fine,
I see the last version of the player was in 2015. Hope it plays other new Blurays too..

Click to expand...

I have a more recent free version of Leawo, which also does full 1080p resolution snapshots. One downside is that the disc menu doesn't display for some Blu-rays, although this can usually be circumvented by using the titles sidebar that displays on the right hand side.

CHEERS!

I’ve not heard of Mirillis Splash. What’s it do compared to other players?

DaleLewis said:

I keep trying the new releases of freeware players, complete with the MadVR enhancements... and endless tweaking...and I keep coming back to Mirillis Spash. It simply produces what I regard as the best picture, on my rather "dated" Mitsubishi 82" HDTV. Splash, itself is rather dated, and it's followers keep begging for a 3.0 update, but with it's picture enhancements features, , it still beats MadVR, in my estimation.

Click to expand...

I also hadn't heard of this player. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!!! It looks like the Premium Home version costs $20.00 but it does seem to give you a good set of basic features absolutely free.

For me It always boils down to the same thing. "Freeware" is great but you can't expect regular updates or even stable performance. I haven't yet tried Mirillis Spash so I don't mean to imply it is unstable. On the other hand, JRiver is an excellent product and is constantly updated. The single OS license costs about $50.00 and you also have to pay for major version upgrades so it's clearly more expensive over time. While I use Kodi here and there and feel it is, all things considered an amazing solution, ultimately I need reliable software since I don't have the expertise to fix it if it is not. When it comes to hardware I can usually solve my own problems.

I was running Cyberlink PowerDVD 12 (free download) for my LG external bluray R/W; it worked really well until recently I got a message saying no disc in player (there was, I checked) and a message saying version 12 no longer supports Windows 10. It invited me to purchase PowerDVD 17 for about 60 bucks. I haven't yet; hoping for a viable, preferably free, alternative.