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

[turtledove]

Over the years the studios have tried many different things to stop copying and block importing. If they wanted to stop casual copying and importing they succeeded but the savvy buyer and pirate won't be deterred. No copy protection has ever stopped copying long term and it's got to the point where newer titles like the Lost In Space tv series won't even play on some PC players even with updates - you need to buy a new program.

Region coding failed from day one as multi region players were available almost from day one ( here in the UK at least where things were quite different in 1998).

Bluray coding seems more efficient than dvd coding and it's higher cost along with 70%+ of titles being region free means multi region Bluray is far less common than MR dvd but both can be obtained so I do wonder if the film studios should be wasting their time with it.

 

[turtledove]

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).

The Lost In Space tv series also used some new protection and while it stopped playback on my PC it did work on my Panasonic Bluray Recorder. I've never known Panasonic to have problems with any new discs - even Avatar which screwed up some Sony players when it came out

 

[Tony Bensley]

The Lost In Space tv series also used some new protection and while it stopped playback on my PC it did work on my Panasonic Bluray Recorder. I've never known Panasonic to have problems with any new discs - even Avatar which screwed up some Sony players when it came out

Hi Gerry!


Do you mean to say that the LOST IN SPACE Blu-ray series set won't even play on Cyberlink PowerDVD bloatware?


Beyond ridiculous!!


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[jcroy]

Over the years the studios have tried many different things to stop copying and block importing. If they wanted to stop casual copying and importing they succeeded but the savvy buyer and pirate won't be deterred. No copy protection has ever stopped copying long term and it's got to the point where newer titles like the Lost In Space tv series won't even play on some PC players even with updates - you need to buy a new program.

Region coding failed from day one as multi region players were available almost from day one ( here in the UK at least where things were quite different in 1998).

These days, I wouldn't be surprised if all the "casual" folks have all largely moved on to VOD/SVOD streaming.

Bluray coding seems more efficient than dvd coding and it's higher cost along with 70%+ of titles being region free means multi region Bluray is far less common than MR dvd but both can be obtained so I do wonder if the film studios should be wasting their time with it.

I suspect the movie companies are also just "going through the motions" here. Largely to show that they actually still give a damn, even if it's just a facade.

 

[Tony Bensley]

I just had my first encounter with a Blu-ray that refused to play on either MPC-HC or VLC Player, and for me, it's a head scratcher!


Despite the fact that I'm able to play a 3D Blu-ray by Warner from 2013 (THE WIZARD OF OZ), using both aforementioned Players; my VCI Blu-ray of A CHRISTMAS CAROL from 2011 won't!


Subsequent checking, and confirming that my 2015 VCI Blu-ray of Laurel & Hardy's THE FLYING DEUCES won't play either, seems to indicate an issue with VCI Blu-ray Discs!


In both above instances, I received a prompt to update DVDPasskey in order to be able to play the Blu-ray Disc. Of course, I already know that's a "Dead End" solution!


This from a company that's largely known for issuing Public Domain material! Go figure!


CHEERS!

 

[Tony Bensley]

Actually, the more I think of it, not being able to play VCI Entertainment Blu-ray Discs on my MPC-HC and especially VLC Player platforms is rather frustrating to me on a number of levels! While it was in the back of my mind that some Blu-rays might not play, I assumed they would be either fairly recent, or from a studio that's known for going a bit extra on the encryption (IE. Fox), but I never would have thought VCI Entertainment!


It appears that with any VCI Blu-ray I get from which I want to produce screenshots, I'm still stuck with doing 720p PC Print Screens! Beyond that, what other comparatively low level video companies might surprise me with the revelation that their Blu-rays won't play on MPC-HC or VLC (DVDPasskey, or no!), either?


SHEESH!

 

[jcroy]

At least blurays aren't using deliberate bad sectors type drm in any widespread manner.

 

[turtledove]

Hi Gerry!


Do you mean to say that the LOST IN SPACE Blu-ray series set won't even play on Cyberlink PowerDVD bloatware?


Beyond ridiculous!!


CHEERS!


Tony

I have Powerdvd10. And when I recently purchased an external Bluray burner it came with Powerdvd12.

What's annoying is that the Lost In Space discs start playing with the Fox logo then go to a screen telling me my player needs updating and with both programs I updated them from the Cyberlink site- and still it would not play.

So I downloaded a trial version of Powerdvd15 and they now play fine but when the trial version expires I'm not buying it just because I want to play LIS on my PC.

So it will be back to Powerdvd12 and I'm very annoyed there is no free update to sort it out

 

[turtledove]

These days, I wouldn't be surprised if all the "casual" folks have all largely moved on to VOD/SVOD streaming.




I suspect the movie companies are also just "going through the motions" here. Largely to show that they actually still give a damn, even if it's just a facade.

Yes but why release 70% of Blurays region free then continue region locking dvd's ( even when the Blu and dvd are in the same case)?


I can understand forcing licencees like Shout, Criterion etc to lock titles as to a certain extent this protects the market for the licence holders in other countries but it seems absurd to buy a Blu/dvd double pack only to find the dvd is locked and the Blu isn't

 

[jcroy]

Yes but why release 70% of Blurays region free then continue region locking dvd's ( even when the Blu and dvd are in the same case)?


I can understand forcing licencees like Shout, Criterion etc to lock titles as to a certain extent this protects the market for the licence holders in other countries but it seems absurd to buy a Blu/dvd double pack only to find the dvd is locked and the Blu isn't

Most likely the reason for this type of "mismatch", is sheer laziness on the part of the movie companies.


It costs money to create a new master, which some companies are not willing to spend more $$$ on. Easier to just use existing masters and/or already existing inventory.

 

[jcroy]

The only other reason I can think of offhand for the region mismatch, are legacy ntsc vs. pal issues on dvds.


For example, a PAL specific encoded dvd (ie. hard coded at 50 interlaced fields per second) might not play properly on a $20 american-specific standalone NTSC dvd player. (And vice versa).

 

[Tony Bensley]

The only other reason I can think of offhand for the region mismatch, are legacy ntsc vs. pal issues on dvds.


For example, a PAL specific encoded dvd (ie. hard coded at 50 interlaced fields per second) might not play properly on a $20 american-specific standalone NTSC dvd player. (And vice versa).

Hi jcroy!


Actually, from what I've read, NTSC formatting is a non issue with PAL DVD Players! Why? Because even though Japan is DVD Region 2 like Europe, NTSC is their legacy format, not PAL. Therefore, all PAL DVD Players HAVE to also accept the NTSC signal. With all Region 1 nations having NTSC as the legacy format of choice, North American based Players don't have to (And usually don't!) accept the PAL signal.


Anyway, back to Blu-ray playback!


CHEERS!


Tony

 

[jcroy]

Hi jcroy!


Actually, from what I've read, NTSC formatting is a non issue with PAL DVD Players! Why? Because even though Japan is DVD Region 2 like Europe, NTSC is their legacy format, not PAL. Therefore, all PAL DVD Players HAVE to also accept the NTSC signal. With all Region 1 nations having NTSC as the legacy format of choice, North American based Players don't have to (And usually don't!) accept the PAL signal.


Anyway, back to Blu-ray playback!


CHEERS!


Tony

Personally I've never seen a Japanese-specific standalone dvd player.


One could ask whether Japanese-specific standalone dvd players are designed differently than European-specific standalone dvd players, in spite of both being region 2.



More generally, I would guess the region-free standalone dvd players were probably designed to deal with both pal and ntsc issues. (ie. A possible selling point for region-free standalone dvd players, back in the early-2000's).

 

[Tony Bensley]

Personally I've never seen a Japanese-specific standalone dvd player.


One could ask whether Japanese-specific standalone dvd players are designed differently than European-specific standalone dvd players, in spite of both being region 2.



More generally, I would guess the region-free standalone dvd players were probably designed to deal with both pal and ntsc issues. (ie. A possible selling point for region-free standalone dvd players, back in the early-2000's).

I've never seen a Japanese standalone DVD Player, either.


Regarding whether these are designed differently than European specific standalone DVD Players, I'm certain that the Japanese Players would in turn, HAVE to also accept the PAL signal, in addition to their usual NTSC, in order to guarantee the functionality of ALL Region 2 DVDs, which is the whole point of Region 2 DVD Players accepting both NTSC and PAL Formats to begin with!


Regarding Region Free standalone DVD Players, I'm sure their accepting of NTSC and PAL formats would be a must for them to even be viable. What good is a Region Free DVD standalone Player that won't play PAL formatted DVDs, for instance? On the other hand, whether or not there is such a thing as Multi Region DVD standalone Players that are designed specifically for NTSC or PAL based regions only, I'm not certain, though I'd suspect the Japanese exception would squash the viability of either/or!


CHEERS!

 

[turtledove]

Personally I've never seen a Japanese-specific standalone dvd player.


One could ask whether Japanese-specific standalone dvd players are designed differently than European-specific standalone dvd players, in spite of both being region 2.



More generally, I would guess the region-free standalone dvd players were probably designed to deal with both pal and ntsc issues. (ie. A possible selling point for region-free standalone dvd players, back in the early-2000's).

My first players came from Pioneer and Toshiba in 1998 - both handled PAL and NTSC but both were modifed for multi region.

There never have been region free players from any of the major manufacturers. The players were all locked to R2 and the modifications were done by third party sellers as the original manufacturer would have breached their contract to produce a MR player.


Then the likes of Samsung and then cheap imports from the far east started to arrive with easy hacks and finally some were even MR out the box.

I think it was accepted that R2 players were both NTSC and PAL compatible because of Japan.

And in the early days there were some R2 NTSC releases in the UK like Charlies Angels season 1 and many of the music dvd's were NTSC.


UK tv's have been 50 and 60hz compatible for almost 30 years

 

[jcroy]

Then the likes of Samsung and then cheap imports from the far east started to arrive with easy hacks and finally some were even MR out the box.

I remember one of the el cheapo "made in china" dvd players I had from the early-mid 2000's, turned out to be multiregion.


In those days, the then-wife was buying some chinese language dvds which were not playable on my main dvd player. At the time, she could only play and watch these particular dvds on the computer.


When shopping around for another dvd player in the early-mid 2000's, she decided to try many dvd players at various local supermarkets, BB, WM, etc ... and see whether any of them could play her chinese language dvds. Lo and behold, the only ones which could play out of region dvd discs, were the el cheapo machines made in china with no famous brand name plates.

 

[Tony Bensley]

I just had my first encounter with a Blu-ray that refused to play on either MPC-HC or VLC Player, and for me, it's a head scratcher!


Despite the fact that I'm able to play a 3D Blu-ray by Warner from 2013 (THE WIZARD OF OZ), using both aforementioned Players; my VCI Blu-ray of A CHRISTMAS CAROL from 2011 won't!


Subsequent checking, and confirming that my 2015 VCI Blu-ray of Laurel & Hardy's THE FLYING DEUCES won't play either, seems to indicate an issue with VCI Blu-ray Discs!


In both above instances, I received a prompt to update DVDPasskey in order to be able to play the Blu-ray Disc. Of course, I already know that's a "Dead End" solution!


This from a company that's largely known for issuing Public Domain material! Go figure!


CHEERS!

Good News & Bad News Regarding Free DVDPasskey Updates:


- The good news is they do occur once in a while. I know this because I received one this morning.


- The bad news is, unfortunately, this update didn't render my VCI Blu-rays playable on the MPC-HC/VLC Players!


Perhaps next time?


CHEERS!

 

[Tony Bensley]

It appears that Kino International Blu-rays (At least not the BUSTER KEATON SHORT FILMS COLLECTION: 1920 - 1923) won't play on my VLC or MPC-HC Player setups, either!

 

[jcroy]

(In regard to dvd css encryption).


The other big argument I've come across over the years for the big movie companies using the dvd CSS encryption (even if it's just going through the motions), is for detecting the shoddily produced bootlegs. Typically a big name movie released by a large movie company (ie. Fox, Universal, Warner, Paramount, Disney, Sony, etc ...) will almost always have CSS encryption on the dvd discs.


Shoddily produced bootleg dvd discs frequently don't have any encryption. (Some of the expertly produced bootlegs might actually have the encryption intact, though I have never come across any such expertly produced discs yet).

 

[jcroy]

And in the early days there were some R2 NTSC releases in the UK like Charlies Angels season 1 and many of the music dvd's were NTSC.

Did the UK version of Charlie's Angels season 1 have the video stored as 24 progressive frames-per-second (ie. without the pal speedup) ?


Or was the video stored as 60 interlaced frames-per-second with the hard telecine baked in (ie. the "comb effect") ?