The "Key" To Free Blu-ray Playback On VLC & MPC-HC Media Players! (1 Viewer)

[Tony Bensley]

For those who want to play Blu-ray Discs on their PC, via VLC and/or Media Player Classic Home Cinema (MPC-HC), which for those who have attempted this upon achieving Blu-ray capability know all too well is far from automatic, there is a relatively easy, free solution.


DVDFab Passkey Lite: http://www.videohelp.com/software/DVDFab-Passkey


Please note that Blu-ray Menu Playback is hit and miss. While I've been informed that VLC won't play these correctly most of the time, I found that with THE WIZARD OF OZ Special Features (Disc 2 of the 4 Disc 70th Anniversary, and Disc 3 of the 5 Disc 75th Anniversary Editions!) Blu-ray, opting for Menu Playback was the ONLY way to access anything, apart from THE DREAMER OF OZ and a TV advert! Suffice it to say that, in some cases, a bit of creative (But in my brief experience, doable!) navigation will be in order! On that end, I've found MPC-HC to be somewhat less user friendly than VLC.


Another important tip is, when using VLC Player, do NOT try to open the Blu-ray Disc directly via the BD Drive, as listed on the Windows PC Devices and drives; otherwise the dreaded Error Message will pop up in the center of the VLC Player Screen! That said, if this does occur, simply access one of the Play Disc options within the VLC Player to initiate Blu-ray Playback!


As an added bonus, direct Blu-ray Screen Captures are also doable with both VLC and MPC-HC Players!


A big thank you to Brian Kidd for the Free DVDFab Passkey Lite tip! It sure beats having to pay to use AnyDVD HD, in my opinion, anyway!


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[Konstantinos]

I had used the "Lite" version and from what I remember it was very limited.


Also, i think MPC doesn't support menu playback and selection.

It starts the movie at once.

So, you can't select the extras, unless you go and find the specific files that have them and playback those.

Anyway, I use MPC only when I want to load external subtitles for the main film.

 

[Tony Bensley]

I had used the "Lite" version and from what I remember it was very limited.


Also, i think MPC doesn't support menu playback and selection.

It starts the movie at once.

So, you can't select the extras, unless you go and find the specific files that have them and playback those.

Anyway, I use MPC only when I want to load external subtitles for the main film.

Hi Konstantinos!


My one time use of MPC for Blu-ray does support your observation of it not supporting Blu-ray Menu playback. To be honest, I see myself using VLC far more often than MPC-HC for Blu-ray! The former is simply easier to navigate, plus a higher volume level can be achieved, which for me, is fairly crucial with the limited built in volume that's available on my PC Laptop. I just wish VLC had kept it at 200%, instead of reducing it to 125%, which to my ears, is still a bit too low, at times!


Anyway, I can now do proper 1080p Blu-ray Screen Captures (Instead of 720p Print Screens, via Leawo Blu-ray Player!), which I'm happy with!


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[jcroy]

(As an aside).

(This may be a verboten topic on here).


Anyways, I don't use this program for decrypting blurays.


When I'm checking my bluray discs for random bad sectors due to manufacturing defects, I don't bother with any decryption programs. I just extract the entire undecrypted iso from the bluray disc, which is useless for viewing purposes.



But I do use this program sometimes, when I'm checking dvd discs which have deliberate bad sectors type of drm. (Such as many Paramount dvd movie releases from late-2009 to mid-2014, and more recent Lionsgate/Summit dvd movie releases since mid-late 2013).


For dvds, this particular program can find and skip over the deliberate bad sectors type drm. If there's any remaining bad sectors, it is due to random manufacturing defects.

 

[jcroy]

With that being said, I primarily use this program for "research" purposes.


This program spits out a lot of information about the structure of the data on a dvd disc, and the nature of various drm schemes. For example, stuff like:


- locations of deliberate bad sectors

- which VTS's are fake

- which cells are fake within a particular VTS

- which VTS's are unaddressed junk

- etc ...


(ie. I spend a lot of time reading the information in the *.IFO files on dvds with basketcase drm schemes, in an effort to understand how they function).

 

[Tony Bensley]

Frankly, I don't see anything wrong with achieving the same level of playback/screenshot capturing capability for Blu-ray (Menu playback issues, notwithstanding!) as there already is available for DVDs on widely used free software, such as MPC-HC and VLC Players; which is the sole purpose of this HTF Topic that I've started.


I'm open to being corrected on this, as I've been known to be wrong on occasion. Admittedly, I'm going on the assumption that DVD Passkey Lite is itself, legal software!


CHEERS!

 

[turtledove]

I use the DVD Fab media player occasionally for Bluray for one reason - it's multi region and you can switch regions in the settings. A while back the basic version was available as a free download but I'm not sure it is anymore.


Not sure where the Media player stands legally but DVD Fab itself was banned by US courts sometime ago and all their US servers were shut down so you can only access it now from Chinese servers.

 

[jcroy]

A hobby of mine is figuring out how these dvd drm schemes function. Bluray's BD+ drm scheme isn't as exciting to decipher.


I frequently pick up dvd titles which are known to have basketcase drm schemes, which I find in the local $2 dump bins.


Some baseketcase dvd discs also come as a dvd copy in bluray/dvd/digital combo packs, such as Paramount (over late-2009 to mid-2014) and some Lionsgate/Summit titles (since mid-late 2013).

 

[Brian Kidd]

Glad to be able to help you out, Tony. It's ridiculous to me that Hollywood have made it so difficult just to watch Blu-ray films on a computer without paying for one of the very few and expensive software players that are available. I also like to watch discs from other regions, so using something like AnyDVD HD is a must.


So far, VLC is the best program I've found for taking good screenshots of discs, since they can be saved as PNG files in addition to decent quality JPG files.

 

[Konstantinos]

I have a question.

If all those region removing software are perfectly legitimate and legal, what's the point of region locked Blurays?

 

[jcroy]

If out-of-region dvds/blurays are an issue, there's legitimate ways around it.


For example, all one has to do is get another computer dvd-rom (or bd-rom) drive, and set it to a different region that you buy a lot of dvds (or blurays) from. If I was buying a lot of dvds from UK (or Europe), I would probably get another dvd-rom drive and set it to region 2. (Especially when brand new dvd-rom drives are easily $20 a pop or less these days).

 

[jcroy]

I have a question.

If all those region removing software are perfectly legitimate and legal, what's the point of region locked Blurays?

The premise might not be entirely correct.


My guess is dvd/bluray regions is for market differentiation, and the movie licensing agreements for a particular market. Basically price discrimination, when dvds/blurays still commanded a premium price.


At this point, the encryption and region stuff is probably the movie companies just "going through the motions". Largely to keep up a facade that they still give a damn.

 

[Tony Bensley]

The premise might not be entirely correct.


My guess is dvd/bluray regions is for market differentiation, and the movie licensing agreements for a particular market. Basically price discrimination, when dvds/blurays still commanded a premium price.


At this point, the encryption and region stuff is probably the movie companies just "going through the motions". Largely to keep up a facade that they still give a damn.

Regarding the Movie companies just "Going through the motions" this very well may be the case, at present. However, I don't believe that was how Region Coding started out, at least with the DVD format. You touched upon it with "Market differentiation" and each one's Movie licensing agreements, which often do differ.


That said, as it was long ago concluded that All Region Players are in fact, legal (Though I'm guessing that said Movie companies, and especially parties who profit from "Regional" licensing agreements probably weren't thrilled with that revelation!); I tend to believe the same basic principle goes for PC software that also makes Discs from All Regions playable on one's Computer system.


By the way, for those who may not be aware, 3D Blu-ray Discs WILL play as downconverted 2D on VLC and MPC-HC Media Players! I was able to do this with the 3D Blu-ray of THE WIZARD OF OZ, the 2013 edition of which has the minor visual glitches fixed, though they remain on the actual "Conventional 2D" 2009 issued Blu-ray!


As far as I'm concerned, the playability of legitmately manufactured Media is what this Topic is all about!


CHEERS!

 

[jcroy]

At this point, drm advancements for bluray is largely in modifying BD+ on more recently released discs (primarily released by Fox).


Even with every new BD+ scheme by Fox being cracked a few days later, they're just going through the motions to keep the grey-market decryption guys busy. Basically a small version of an "arms race" or throwing nails behind.




For dvd, the pitiful drm advancements is largely to trip up the grey-market decryption programs (like the ones mentioned in this thread). As far as I can tell, Lionsgate/Summit is basically trying to fool these programs's "AI algorithms" to jump through more hoops and taking longer to process. (Such as taking more than 5-10+ minutes to "open" a disc). Basically not much more than throwing more nails behind a speed bump. (If one reads through the *.ifo files of these recent Lionsgate/Summit discs, you'll see why).

 

[Tony Bensley]

Glad to be able to help you out, Tony. It's ridiculous to me that Hollywood have made it so difficult just to watch Blu-ray films on a computer without paying for one of the very few and expensive software players that are available. I also like to watch discs from other regions, so using something like AnyDVD HD is a must.


So far, VLC is the best program I've found for taking good screenshots of discs, since they can be saved as PNG files in addition to decent quality JPG files.

Hi Brian!


That and even some Software Players that are included with Blu-ray Readers/Burners, such as Cyberlink PowerDVD 12, are in my opinion, little more than advert riddled bloatware! If I want to upgrade to the latest CPD 15.0 (?), I don't need stupid annoying pop up reminders every bloody time I want to play a Disc--I can look it up myself, thank you very much! For what I paid, I shouldn't have to deal with ads, anyway!


And yes, I agree that VLC is excellent for taking screenshots! While for Blu-ray, this process is a bit slower than with DVDs, I have no doubt, that it isn't any fault of the VLC platform!


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[jcroy]

Regarding the Movie companies just "Going through the motions" this very well may be the case, at present. However, I don't believe that was how Region Coding started out, at least with the DVD format. You touched upon it with "Market differentiation" and each one's Movie licensing agreements, which often do differ.

I'm sure at the beginning (circa mid-1990s), the dvd patent holders and licensing folks never anticipated that the CSS encryption system would be easily cracked very quickly.


It turned out the css algorithm was very weak, as if it was designed by a bunch of amateurs with no background in cryptography.

 

[jcroy]

These days, the only thing left that the movie companies can do about dvd/bluray drm, is to attempt to fool the current grey-market decryption programs into chasing their own tails. (ie. Fox using strange BD+ schemes, and Lionsgate/Summit infesting their dvds with tons of excessive junk).


Past junk drm modifications on dvds back a decade ago or so, were largely doing the same thing in an arms race against then-current ripping/burning programs. (Such as drm schemes like Arccos, "Puppetlock", etc ...). Stuff like causing burning programs to pump out unplayable discs, deliberately crashing ripping/burning programs, etc ....

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I remember that Sony way overdid it on their first DVD for "Casino Royale" (the 2006 movie) - it was so bad that the disc wouldn't work on a bunch of stand alone players that couldn't rip or copy in the first place. They replaced that disc real fast.

 

[jcroy]

I remember that Sony way overdid it on their first DVD for "Casino Royale" (the 2006 movie) - it was so bad that the disc wouldn't work on a bunch of stand alone players that couldn't rip or copy in the first place. They replaced that disc real fast.

I've come across copies of the fullscreen dvd version of Casino Royale in local thrift shops for $1. I picked up one copy for a $1, largely to figure out how the extra drm junk functioned.


For its time, the fullscreen Casino Royale dvd's extra drm was absolutely diabolical. By today's standards, current Lionsgate/Summit dvd discs uses a lot of the same junk drm tricks as Casino Royale, in conjunction with "interleaved vts" type drm. (What I call "interleaved vts" drm basically fools the computer into thinking there's 50+ gigabytes on a dvd disc, when there's actually only less than 8.5 gigabytes).

 

[jcroy]

I remember that Sony way overdid it on their first DVD for "Casino Royale" (the 2006 movie) - it was so bad that the disc wouldn't work on a bunch of stand alone players that couldn't rip or copy in the first place. They replaced that disc real fast.

A more recent case of this, was the "X-Men: Days of Future Past" bluray.


Apparently the BD+ scheme used on it was "too clever" that it didn't run on some players, such as several older Oppo players. (Eventually Oppo updated the firmware to handle this "too clever" BD+ scheme).