Play Blu-Ray on Windows (or NOT)

signal processing, XR, sim racing, microscopes, STM32 and ESP32 projects


Play Blu-Ray on Windows (or NOT)

Commerical Blu-Ray movies have AACS DRM features.

Blu-Ray support is not included in Windows.
4K Blu-Ray discs are incompatible with existing standard Blu-ray players;
PC 4K Blu-Ray drives generally get poor ratings for durability and utility.
Intel’s Dropping of SGX Prevents Ultra HD Blu-Ray Playback on PCs
My WH16NS58 drive gets quite hot while playing Blu-Ray discs,
a task IMO best left to dedicated consumer players.

According to some Internet sources, these steps enabled VNC to play Blu-Ray discs,
but that did not work for me (6 Mar 2022, Windows 10 Home 21H2, Intel I7-8700K)
Blu-Ray discs depend on Java for menus; this procedure for installing Java and MakeMKV worked

  • Windows Java installation automatically set its required environmental variable.
  • after launching MakeMKV one time to File > Open Disc for some Blu-Ray disc:
    MakeMKV window
  • No need for MakeMKV to actually rip discs for VLC to play them..
  • MakeMKV must be purchased within 30 days to continue working;
    US$60 cost is greater than for many commercial Windows Blu-Ray disc player software packages..

Windows Blu-Ray player alternatives