Does Windows Media Center (7 Ultimate x64) support BluRay?
Solution 1
You can play Blu Ray dics in Media Center if you have the latest version of either of these two programs:
Neither will allow you to play the disc from your computer through a media extender though. I came across this idiocy when trying to play Blu Rays or even regular DVDs through my Xbox 360 from my computer sitting 3 feet away. You have to have your TV directly connected to the computer AND you MUST have an HDCP capable monitor.
I find it much easier/simpler to rip any discs I have and reencode them into H.264. To do that: (Note: DVDFab ripper is free, AnyDVD has unlimited 30-day trial, MakeMKV is free & Handbrake is free)
- Download DVDFab or AnyDVD (there are a few others out there as well.
- Rip either the Main Movie or the entire disc to your hard drive.
- Use MakeMKV to create a file that Handbrake understands
- Use Handbrake to reencode the movie to H.264 (btw, check the Large File Size box so that the Blu Rays can take as much space as they need.)
Solution 2
According to the following URLs, it only plays ripped video and not the disc directly. You still need something like PowerDVD to play discs.
- http://www.sevenforums.com/media-center/5988-windows-media-center-blu-ray.html
- http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/895710-windows-7-media-center-blu-ray/
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Michael Stum
The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world! Full-Stack Developer on Stack Overflow Enterprise, working to make our little corner of the Internet better for all of us.
Updated on September 17, 2022Comments
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Michael Stum almost 2 years
Just put together a Windows Media Center PC running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit. I want to add an optical drive, so I wonder if WMC supports BluRay disc playback?
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Michael Stum over 13 years@Randolph the problem with Microsoft Marketing is that they consider third party applications :( I know that BluRay works on Windows, just no idea if it works with Windows Media Center.
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Michael Stum over 13 yearsPowerDVD 10 works fine! As BluRay Discs tend to have non-skippable 10 Minute Menus and Intros I might look at your second option :)
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banshee20 over 11 yearsPowerDVD 10 does not work with my Intel Core i5 Ivy Bridge, complaining about allegedly insufficient graphic capabilities, inviting me to install a 100 MB (sic) update, and then shows the same error again. Also, it annoys me with forcing commercials upon me. - The second option works fine!
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Patrick over 11 years@lumi I've actually switched to using AnyDVD & VLC. I have a brand new computer sporting a new Core i5 Ivy Bridge, 8GB RAM & was still getting choppy playback with PowerDVD 12. VLC doesn't integrate in with Media Center, but it works and is worlds better than PowerDVD.
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banshee20 over 11 years@Patrick, thanks. I'm also using VLC: DVDFab » MakeMKV » VLC. What doesn't work for me at the moment is direct BD playback using VLC + keys database and AACS dynamic library. I tried the 32 bit version on Win8 64 bit. Maybe just a temporary problem, will retry later.