Windows Media Center + Blu Ray

[Falco77]

Hi,

I would like to know in the Windows Media Center, which is included in Windows 7 (if You have a Bly Ray Player on Your computer), can You play Blu Rays in WMC?

I don't have a Bly Ray Player to try, because when I enter WMC I can only see "Movie Library" and next to it "Play DVD".

The question is : if I have a Blu Ray Player on my computer, will I see next to Movie Library -> Play Blu Ray?

Thanks!

 

[Bladerunner]

You can play Blu rays ripped to your hd but not the actual disc.
You will still need a seperate app. like PowerDVD or Arcsoft Total Media Theatre to play directly off the disc.

 

[Falco77]

OOOOOk. Thank You!

 

[jdemate]

Bladerunner, how were you able to play ripped Blu-Ray movies from Media Center? They show up in my Movies Library, but when I try to play them it launches TotalMedia Theatre, but the movie doesn't play. It's like it isn't passing TMT the folder location. Do I need to remove the TMT file association to Blu-Ray so that Windows will try to launch it? Are you saying Microsoft has built-in Blu-Ray support as long as the encryption is removed?

Thanks for any info you may provide. If I can get that to work I will really love this new Media Center.

 

[fschris]

How come Windows would not include Blu Ray support ? It seems to be what everyone wants.

FSchris

 

[jdemate]

> How come Windows would not include Blu Ray support?
> It seems to be what everyone wants.

I always believed that Microsoft backed HD-DVD on the Xbox because Blu-Ray relies heavily upon Sun's Java. For that same reason I can see why they would be reluctant to include Blu-Ray support in the OS. Java and Windows always seem to have a tenuous relationship.

 

[fschris]

aghhh... did not know that

 

[kyle121378]

Did you get TMT to work in WMC7?

jdemate-
I have windows media center + TMT 3 Platinum that I'm trying to play blu ray files from the hard drive with and I have the same problem as you have stated. The blu ray files show up in windows media center library and when I click on them they play sort of. Some movies go straight into the movie, other movies try to load the menu but the menu is missing or has no functionality and won't play. It appears there is an issue with the blu ray files not working with each other correctly. Did you ever get this issue resolved?

Bladerunner, how were you able to play ripped Blu-Ray movies from Media Center? They show up in my Movies Library, but when I try to play them it launches TotalMedia Theatre, but the movie doesn't play. It's like it isn't passing TMT the folder location. Do I need to remove the TMT file association to Blu-Ray so that Windows will try to launch it? Are you saying Microsoft has built-in Blu-Ray support as long as the encryption is removed?

Thanks for any info you may provide. If I can get that to work I will really love this new Media Center.

 

[jdemate]

When I originally posted I was using TMT 2. A few months later I heard that Arc Soft fixed the issue I was having in versions 3. Not wanting to pay for the upgrade I lived with it until last month when an ArcSoft email offered a big discount. I bought the upgrade and version 3 works great. You are right I have had two recent Blu-Rays that didn't show the menu. I could still arrow around and hear the sound effects with each click. It was tough but through trial and error I was able to play the movie. I upgraded my ripper (Any DVD) after that and haven't had the problem since. So you may be having an issue with your ripper not the player. Also, about the movies playing right away. Some discs are designed that way. I have had many movies that just start playing. You have to hit the dvd menu button on your Media Center remote to get a pop up menu that shows over the movie. There you can launch special features and such.

Also I have discovered that you can play the .m2ts files directly in Media Player and Media Center. However they appear to have a 2GB limitation. Any files over 2GB only play the audio. So you could play the smaller special feature files in Windows 7 without TMT, but the 20GB movie file will require TMT.

The only other thing that bugs me right now is the DVD cover art and movie details. For DVDs I have been using My DVD Settings to generate the dvdid.xml file, but I have not found a similar tool for Blu-Ray discs. Luckily dvdxml.com has covered me so far, but I prefer to be self sufficient. If anyone has tips on that I would be most grateful.

 

[kyle121378]

jdemate-
thanks for your reply. I'm also using Any DVD and per your reply I adjusted the settings I was using for ripping my blu rays and that fixed it problem i was having. I had previously set any dvd to remove trailers, remove the region code and disable bd live so I put those features back. Not sure which option was causing the issue but i don't have the problem now. Also thanks for the info on My Dvd Settings. Getting dvd cover art for my dvds is my next task. If I get it to work with blu rays I'll post it here.

 

[kyle121378]

jdemate-
Unfortunately I still have some menu issues but i was able to navigate through them to play the movie as you stated before. I have contacted ArcSoft about the issue and I got a response from them that they have sent this issue to their engineering department for further review so we'll see what they will do about it. Hopefully they'll fix it and issue a patch but I'm not holding my breath at this point.

 

[kyle121378]

jdemate-
I need a clarification on your last post. Since you have updated anydvd have you had the problem with the blu ray menus not loading correctly on some of your latest blu rays or was this fixed?

 

[jdemate]

Sorry Kyle I didn't get emails about your follow on posts. In fact it was just luck that I stumbled upon this post again today. Since upgrading Any DVD I have not had the menu issue.

The only other advice I can offer is to flash the firmware on your Blu-Ray drive. Although I serious doubt this is the cause of the menu issue, it is the only thing outside of upgrading AnyDVD and TMT3 that I can think of. When I first got my drive I had a couple Blu-Ray movies that Windows 7 just couldn't read at all. In fact my computer would lock up every time I tried to play them. After I flashed the firmware that issue went away.

Good luck!

jdemate-
I need a clarification on your last post. Since you have updated anydvd have you had the problem with the blu ray menus not loading correctly on some of your latest blu rays or was this fixed?

 

[UKMedia]

All

As a a follow-on to this thread and for information to anyone interested in seting up this type environment. I have a very sucessful BD set-up and use the following software:

Ripping to image: Slysoft AnyDVD(HD)
Mount image: Slysoft Virtual CloneDrive
Play Movie: PowerDVD10 - fully integrated in Media Centre

You do need shares in a NAS supplier with the average BD image being between 25-50GB - Check my system specs

But the solution is brilliant.

Regards
UKMedia

 

[kyle121378]

This was the setup i used to have, what im doing now is ripping the blurays to the hard drive so that windows media center can see all my ripped movies in "my movies" and i select the movie there without having to go through the process of mounting. This method works with arcsoft total media theatre platinum 3 because ultradvd does not support playing the .mts. / .mt2s files.

 

[meimeiriver]

All

Play Movie: PowerDVD10 - fully integrated in Media Centre

I'm not particularly charmed with PowerDVD. But, more to the point, I decided to keep my new Windows 7 install clean(er than my old XP).

So, yeah, the question indeed beckons, why does WMC not support native playback of my Blu-Ray discs? Kinda weird, if you pretend to be a high-end media center.

 

[Wishmaster]

Other than Bluray Playback Software, Another Option:

Once you get the Disc to your HD, Use something like MeGUIs HD Stream Extractor and extract the main movie video and audio.

Mux your Video and Audio Streams into a MKV File.

This will be a lossless file, and can be played with WMP or WMC quite easily.

The only downside is you will have only the film. No Menus etc. Although this could actually be considered a plus side by some as well.

Of course, you can also use something like Media Browser.
Best of all, its free to do it this way.


You can also compress them if you need to save space.