Blu Ray players - external drive for Mac - suggestions please!

[Replies From View]

I'm planning to get a Blu Ray player for plugging into my Mac.  I don't know which brand to aim for or whether a higher price will make much difference, so all suggestions are welcome.

[biggytitbo]

I know the answer but I'm not going to tell you.

[Glebe]

I've actually just been thinking about this myself, have been mulling over getting a laptop with a proper full-HD screen.

[Replies From View]

I know the answer but I'm not going to tell you.

Tell Glebe then.  I promise not to look.

[Glebe]

Tell Glebe then.  I promise not to look.

Biggy allowed me to give you clues to the answer. Clue number 1: Flumpkins.

[Viero_Berlotti]

I got an internal Blu Ray player for my PC and the major issue I found is with the software. I don't know if it's the same for Mac but there's still not much support for Blu Ray around on PCs. Windows Media Player doesn't support Blu Ray yet, and unless you want to pay £80 for some shite bloatware like Power DVD 38 (or whatever number it's at now) there's not much choice.

There's a couple of free options. A piece of Chinese software called leawo player that's temperamental and won't play the menus half the time, and there's been a fair few Blu rays that won't play at all. Then there's configuring VLC player to play Blu Rays, which was a complete ballache and still didn't work properly after hours of fucking about.

So it might be worth asking yourself do you really need an external Blu Ray player.

[Viero_Berlotti]

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[Replies From View]

So it might be worth asking yourself do you really need an external Blu Ray player.

Only in the sense that I don't have a Blu Ray player in any other form, and I don't have a television that I could connect an ordinary Blu Ray player to.  An external Blu Ray drive for my mac seemed like a logical step (I currently have an external DVD drive for it); didn't realise the software itself could be such a ballache.

I'm actually quite staggered that after all this time Blu Ray isn't supported more.  I feel like I've held off for a long time before upgrading, but seemingly I've not waited long enough.

[Viero_Berlotti]

If you're happy to pay for software on top you should be fine, it's just something you need to consider. I was just naive in thinking I'd be able to install the drive and just play Blu Rays straight off the bat through Windows Media Player.

[Consignia]

Yeah, it's all the encryption stuff in Blu rays which means software players have to have the latest keys to decrypt the discs. These aren't free, so you have to have expensive updates to things like Power DVD to play the latest discs, as the keys change once they've been compromised. There is software that decrypts discs so you can play them in things like VLC, but I don't think even those are free either. Frankly, it's a massive ballache to play Blu-rays on a computer.

[Replies From View]

I was just naive in thinking I'd be able to install the drive and just play Blu Rays straight off the bat through Windows Media Player.

A fair assumption to have made, I reckon.  I thought it'd be a matter of plugging in the USB connector and hitting 'play' on some automatically-provided software.

It's at least fair enough to assume that software players wouldn't need to be regularly updated at extra expense, as Consignia describes.


Seems a considerable level of arse.


Assuming I am willing to pay for some software on top of the Blu Ray drive, does anyone have suggestions for drives and software?  Or is it all much of a muchness?  The problem with amazon reviews now is they're largely bloated with people who got the product for free, dishing out endless five star "honest" reviews so they can get more free stuff.

[Zetetic]

I'm actually quite staggered that after all this time Blu Ray isn't supported more. 

It's been obsolete since before roughly 2006; it's appalling that it remains as widespread as it is.

Since you asked for suggestions: I suggest that you don't buy an external blu-ray player and endeavour to avoid filling up the world with more bits of plastic that no-one needs.

[Replies From View]

endeavour to avoid filling up the world with more bits of plastic that no-one needs.

I don't remember the headphones suggestions threads getting this response!  Fair enough though.

[Zetetic]

I do feel quite guilty about earphones as well, now you've made me think about it.

[Replies From View]

Trouble is, I like extra features and they're disappearing from DVD releases at present.  If these were being transferred to digital downloads or whatever's taking the place of Blu Ray, I'd go that way instead, but I'm not sure they are.

[Viero_Berlotti]

It's been obsolete since before roughly 2006; it's appalling that it remains as widespread as it is.

Since you asked for suggestions: I suggest that you don't buy an external blu-ray player and endeavour to avoid filling up the world with more bits of plastic that no-one needs.

I fully understand your point about the format being obsolete, but take two Blu Ray releases I bought last year, Argento's Deep Red and Bava's Blood and Black Lace. Both rescanned from the original negatives and both remastered as the best quality versions of these films available. But not available (as far as I am aware) on any legal streaming service. So the only choice is to buy the Blu Ray. There's loads of films like this that are not available (in their best quality versions) for streaming.

So to me it seems the technology is there, the willingness of the consumer to use the technology is there it's just that availability is seemingly held up by legal broadcasting rights issues.

Netflix, Amazon, Now TV I've embraced it all, but there's still a shit ton of stuff I want to watch I can only get on Blu Ray.

(And if you want to have a go at anyone for filling the world up with useless plastic have a go at the new vinyl posers because that genuinely is a waste of time).