We have been reviewing the best Blu-ray player software since 2010. In that time, we’ve considered dozens of applications, engaged in hands-on testing and ranked them accordingly. We tested each Blu-ray player program to determine the extent of its features, settings, functionality and ease of use.
Optical disc drive (ODD) is a disk drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic waves within or near the visible light spectrum as part of the process of reading or writing data to or from optical discs. According to the types of optical media, the optical disc drive can be divided into 'CD' 'DVD', or 'Blu-ray', followed by 'drive', 'writer', etc.
Blu-ray Drive, as its name implies, is an optical disc drive that is specially designed to play Blu-ray Disc, a high-definition optical disc format with great dentisy. So far, all Mac and Windows-based PC haven't ship with Blu-ray drive for one reason or another, so they couldn't access to the Blu-ray Disc. Therefore, there are plenty of Blu-ray drives coming into the market. Here will share some reviews about some Blu-ray Drive, hoping to provide some references for users.
No.1 Samsung SE-506BB/TSBD 6X USB2.0 External Slim Blu-ray Writer Drive
It can get all the power it needs from a USB connection so there is no hassle of power cables. The Samsung Blu-ray RW supports both PC and Mac systems, as well as multimedia Television (if it has a USB input). Its price is $93.40.
No.2 ASUS External 12X Blu-Ray Burner with USB 3.0 BW-12D1S-U/BLK/G
With USB 3.0. Magic Cinema technology, extreme 12X Blu-ray writing speed enables Blu-ray 3D entertainment, and its Diamond Shape realizes aesthetics of technology. Its price is $139.99.
No.3 Aluminum External USB Blu-Ray Player/DVD/CD Combo for Apple--MacBook Air, Pro, iMac, Mini
Cladding in a beautiful aluminum casing, it uses a high performance Panasonic drive inside which plays Blu-ray disc, and reads & writes DVD and CD. Please note that package cannot play blu-ray movie or read blu-ray disc, unless it works with software for Blu-Ray playback, so you need to download or purchase additional 3rd party Blu-ray player software for Mac or PC. Also, the Blu-ray Combo drive does not have capability to burn Blu-Ray disc. Its price is $78.99.
Blu Ray On Mac
Blu-ray Player Software is a Blu-ray media library application designed to play Blu-ray discs, BDMV folders and Blu-ray ISO files on the computers running the Microsoft Windows and Mac operating systems. Depending on the computer operating system it runs on, the Blu-ray player software is divided into two general categories: Mac Blu-ray player and Windows Blu-ray player. All of them include a large number of decoding and encoding libraries to read Blu-ray information, remove Blu-ray protection and support Blu-ray playback. It should work together with Blu-ray drive, when you want to play Blu-ray Disc. The best-in-class Blu-ray player software includes VLC media player, MPlayer, Mac Blu-ray Player, Windows Blu-ray Player, Windows Media Player, DVDfab media player, PowerDVD, etc.
Here I would like to recommand two brilliant Blu-ray player Software to all users for references.
No1. Mac Blu-ray Player
As the world's very first and best Blu-ray player software for Mac OS X, Mac Blu-ray Player is designed to play all Blu-ray Discs, Blu-ray ISO files, or Blu-ray (BDMV) folders on all Mac models - MacBook Pro, Air, Mac mini, iMac, Mac Pro with OS 10.5 to 10.8. Also you can use this amazing Bl-ray media player software to play Blu-ray or videos of other media formats on iOS devices, such as iPhone, iPad, iPad min, and i Pod touch, just by enabling its build-in AirX function. Featuring friendly UI, high definition up to 1080p, dts stereo, SNS sharing, universal media performance, and many other great functions, Mac Blu-ray Player can allow you to access fantastic Blu-ray enjoyment.
No. 2 Windows Blu-ray Player
Windows Blu-ray Player software is an outstanding Blu-ray Player for Windows-based PC, which can perfectly play Blu-ray Disc, Blu-ray ISO files, or Blu-ray (BDMV) folders on all popular Windows operating systems, such as Windows XP (SP2 or later), Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. Apart from Blu-ray, the universal performance of Windows media player also refers to DVD, VideoCD, MOV, MKV, AVI, FLV, WMV, MP4, MPEG, RMVB, MP3, WMA, AAC, AC3, etc. 1080p HD and dts7.1/5.1 supported, Windows Media Player will present you a fantastic Blu-ray experience on Windows.
One of Steve Jobs’s most memorable comments may be the way he referred to Blu-ray as “a bag of hurt” back in 2008 during a Q&A with members of the press:
“I don’t mean from a consumer point of view—it’s great to watch movies—but the licensing is so complex. We’re waiting until things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace before we burden our customers with the cost of the licensing and the cost of the drives.”
Mac Blu Ray Player
As Macs users well know, things haven’t settled down (at least not from Apple’s perspective). Four and a half years after that comment, OS X still doesn’t support Blu-ray playback, nor has any Mac shipped with a drive capable of even reading or burning data on a Blu-ray disc. And given that few Macs even include optical drives these days, Apple’s never going to bring Blu-ray to the Mac. (The company can already sell you HD movies and TV shows directly from the iTunes Store, so why would Apple want to embrace Blu-ray?)
While Blu-ray was in its early days when Jobs made his “bag of hurt” comment, the format has come a long way, and the Blu-ray disc is holding its own in the marketplace. True, people still buy more DVDs than Blu-ray discs, but that could change in the next few years.
And even though downloading HD movies is easy, there are several reasons to buy Blu-ray discs. The picture quality is better (with higher bit rates and less compression), as is the audio (with several different mixes for multichannel systems). If you lack a fast Internet connection (or are subject to bandwidth caps from your ISP), it may be quicker and easier to buy a Blu-ray disc than wait to download a file that might top out at 8GB. Also, even with digital extras included with many movies now, you don’t get the full complement of bonus content you do with a disc. Finally, an optical disc is a good, hard-copy backup.
Sold on Blu-ray yet? Then it’s time to learn how you can watch and even rip Blu-ray discs on a Mac.
The hardware portion of the equation
The first step to be able to play Blu-rays on a Mac is to purchase a Blu-ray drive. You can get an external, USB Blu-ray drive for less than $50, though you might want to look around the $80 to $100 range to find a good one. (The cheaper models are usually from unknown vendors and often get poor reviews from users.) Many of these models are bus-powered, so you don’t need a power supply; just connect them to a Mac that has powered USB ports, and you’re up and running. You won’t need any special drivers to mount the Blu-ray discs, but once they’re mounted, there’s not much you can do with them.
MCE Technologies sells a USB Super-BluDrive for $79, which includes software that can play Blu-ray movies (the same program I’m going to look at below, Mac Blu-ray Player). OWC also offers both internal and external Blu-ray drives, but you’ll need to bring your own software to the party.
Bear in mind that a Blu-ray drive can also play DVDs and CDs. So if you’re planning to get an external drive to connect to a Mac that is devoid of such a device, think about getting one that includes Blu-ray support.
Blu-ray playback software
At first blush, there are a number of different Blu-ray playback software options for Mac users. But if you take a closer look, you’ll discover that they are often the same software but with different monikers, sold by companies with different names. I tried two such programs: Aurora Software’s Blu-ray Player ($30 for a one-year license or $40 for lifetime usage) and Macgo’s Mac Blu-ray Player ($60 for a lifetime license, but discounted to $30 until July 1).
In my testing, I found the interfaces to be exactly the same, aside from some different colors. The Preferences windows are the same; the About boxes are nearly the same, too, with just a slight difference in version numbers. This kind of similarity is common with DVD, Blu-ray, and other types of video-conversion software. For simplicity, I’ll focus on Mac Blu-ray Player. (Note that Mac Blu-ray Player is due for a 3.0 update soon; I tested version 2.8.)
First, you should be aware of a couple of things. Because the software needs to acquire the decryption keys required for playback online, you need an Internet connection for it to work. Second, registering the software imposes constraints. When I registered Mac Blu-ray Player on my laptop, I couldn’t use it on my desktop Mac. And, when I switched the registration back to my desktop Mac, the software told me I had activated it two out of five times. As the company’s website explains it:
There are five times each year for Macgo registration code activation. If registration code activation is outnumbered, it will present a tip “Registration failed. Your registration code activation limit is reached.”
Executive Editor Jonathan Seff looked at Mac Blu-Ray Player about two years ago, and found it quirky and unreliable. Since then, the company has definitely improved the software. When you insert a Blu-ray disc in a drive and launch the software, it detects the disc and displays a spartan “menu.”
In watching half a dozen Blu-ray movies with the software (all recent releases, ranging from Sucker Punch to a just-released disc of Bach’s “St Matthew’s Passion”), I encountered none of those early problems with playback or stability. Video playback was smooth, with no artifacts, in both a window and in full-screen mode. Audio was similarly fine, although the app crashed once when I turned on subtitles for a movie that wasn’t in English. I tested the app on both a late 2011 Mac mini (2.7GHz Intel Core i7 with 16GB of RAM) and an early 2013 MacBook Pro (2.5GHz Intel Core i5 with 8GB of RAM), using my Plextor PX-B120U 4X Blu-ray drive (discontinued but still available for around $100 online).
The software offers the standard play/pause controls, but also lets you skip forward or back in 30-second chunks; change audio track and subtitle synchronization; adjust brightness, saturation, contrast, gamma, and hue; and much more. I found nothing lacking in the software’s functionality.
Ripping Blu-rays
In addition to simply playing your Blu-ray movies on your Mac, you may want to copy them to your Mac to watch on your laptop when traveling, or convert to a format you can watch via an Apple TV, for example.
[Editor’s note: The MPAA and most media companies argue that you can’t legally copy or convert commercial DVDs or Blu-rays for any reason. We (and others) think that, if you own a disc, you should be able to override its copy protection to make a backup copy or to convert its content for viewing on other devices. Currently, the law isn’t entirely clear one way or the other. So our advice is: If you don’t own it, don’t do it. If you do own it, think before you rip.]
There are two methods you can use. The first involves decrypting and copying the entire disc to an .iso disc image. This file will be the same size as the original Blu-ray—about 30GB to 40GB—so you may run into space issues pretty quickly. I used Aurora Software’s free Blu-ray Copy, and this app copied my Blu-ray discs in roughly real time; a 2-hour movie took about two hours to copy. You can then play the copy by mounting the disc image, and using Mac Blu-ray Player. In that app, choose File > Open File, or click Open File in the main window, and select the BDMV file in the disc image. You can also open BDMV files with the free VLC Media Player.
The second method is to make an MKV file (MKV is a file container format that can hold video, audio, picture, and subtitle tracks in a single file). Using GuinpinSoft’s MakeMKV—free while in beta, which it has been for several years (visit this forum thread to find the current temporary beta key)—you can decrypt a Blu-ray disc and save whatever parts you want (if you don’t need the 7.1-channel audio mix, for example, just uncheck it) into an MKV container. This takes about half the duration of the movie; when the decryption is finished, you have an MKV file that you can play back with VLC or other software. If you want more manageable file sizes, you’ll need to convert the MKV to a smaller file—in the same format, or in a different format, such as an iTunes-compatible MP4—using a tool such as HandBrake.
Into the blu
That’s pretty much all there is to it. You may encounter certain discs that don’t work due to new and varying copy protection, but in general the process is pretty easy if you’re willing to invest a little time and money.