Is there a free solution to play BluRay Discs on a BluRay drive on XP?

[Bob F]

I picked up an eSata external BluRay drive at the thrift shop for $10. I was
hoping to set it up so I can watch BluRay discs when the opportunity comes up.

I found a Toschia UDF 2.5 driver, which allowed me to see the directory
structure, and tried a couple free BluRay "compatible" programs (dsplsyer &
Potplayer), but so far have not found a free program that works. I also
downloaded the trial of Aurora BluRay Player, which does work on the 2 discs I
got from the library, with a horrible watermark. So I know the drive works.

All the non-free programs cost more than I really want to put into this, as I
probably won't use it that much. Plus, it seems that changes in the future will
require occasional updates to keep it working. I've seen people say that their
paid programs suddenly stop working, and people have had to buy new programs
when the updates needed for their previous one were not made available. I just
don't want to spent $40-100 for a program I may rarely use.

So, has anyone here come up with a working "free" solution to BluRay playback
directly from a BluRay drive?

Most of the articles I've been able to find are years old, looking for something
more relevent to today.

P5k-premium, Q8200, LG GGC-H20L drive in eSata external enclosure.

 

[Paul]

I picked up an eSata external BluRay drive at the thrift shop for $10. I was
hoping to set it up so I can watch BluRay discs when the opportunity comes up.

I found a Toschia UDF 2.5 driver, which allowed me to see the directory
structure, and tried a couple free BluRay "compatible" programs (dsplsyer &
Potplayer), but so far have not found a free program that works. I also
downloaded the trial of Aurora BluRay Player, which does work on the 2 discs I
got from the library, with a horrible watermark. So I know the drive works.

All the non-free programs cost more than I really want to put into this, as I
probably won't use it that much. Plus, it seems that changes in the future will
require occasional updates to keep it working. I've seen people say that their
paid programs suddenly stop working, and people have had to buy new programs
when the updates needed for their previous one were not made available. I just
don't want to spent $40-100 for a program I may rarely use.

So, has anyone here come up with a working "free" solution to BluRay playback
directly from a BluRay drive?

Most of the articles I've been able to find are years old, looking for something
more relevent to today.

P5k-premium, Q8200, LG GGC-H20L drive in eSata external enclosure.

http://www.lg.com/us/products/documents/GGC-H20LSpec.PDF

Included software

Cyberlink’s PowerDVD supports BD/HD DVD/DVD/CD movie playback,
and PowerProducer allows consumers to create high-definition
videos on a Blu-ray Disc

From a review:

For the GGC-H20L's software bundle, LG has once again turned to
CyberLink. The CD that comes with the drive contains the
CyberLink BD Solution suite which includes
PowerProducer, Power2Go, PowerBackup, InstantBurn and PowerDVD.

A little more Googling says the software is "Cyberlink Power DvD 7.3 Ultra".
If comes bundled with the product. It may check for the drive model number,
before installing or whatever. Or, maybe the CD with the software
on it, had a license key sticker.

The fun part, will be getting the original software. The downloads
available, are updates to the software. I doubt they would be complete
software releases.

The drive original price was $300, so there was plenty of room
to include a software package to go with it. This is a relatively
early drive. The variety of stuff it plays, is pretty amazing.
Both BluRay and HD DVD.

I also suspect you have a lot of reading ahead of you.
Owning BluRay, means you have a full time job as
a "tweaker/tuner" to get it to play stuff.

*******

If you buy Cyberlink past the 7.3 release, you lose HD DVD playback.
Not a big loss, unless you happened to have some of them (that's
the format that "lost").

You can get the "BD Advisor" toy to play with. Maybe it will
show you more roadblocks await you, than you expected.

http://www.cyberlink.com/stat/bd-support/enu/index.jsp

Paul

 

[Bob F]

I should have added. ATI HD4850x2 video card.

http://www.lg.com/us/products/documents/GGC-H20LSpec.PDF

Included software

Cyberlink’s PowerDVD supports BD/HD DVD/DVD/CD movie playback,
and PowerProducer allows consumers to create high-definition
videos on a Blu-ray Disc

From a review:

For the GGC-H20L's software bundle, LG has once again turned to
CyberLink. The CD that comes with the drive contains the
CyberLink BD Solution suite which includes
PowerProducer, Power2Go, PowerBackup, InstantBurn and PowerDVD.

A little more Googling says the software is "Cyberlink Power DvD 7.3
Ultra". If comes bundled with the product. It may check for the drive
model number, before installing or whatever. Or, maybe the CD with
the software on it, had a license key sticker.

The fun part, will be getting the original software. The downloads
available, are updates to the software. I doubt they would be complete
software releases.

The drive original price was $300, so there was plenty of room
to include a software package to go with it. This is a relatively
early drive. The variety of stuff it plays, is pretty amazing.
Both BluRay and HD DVD.

I also suspect you have a lot of reading ahead of you.
Owning BluRay, means you have a full time job as
a "tweaker/tuner" to get it to play stuff.

I was beginning to get that idea. Part of my reading also suggests that BluRay
may be on the fading end of it's life as downloadable movies become more
popular.

*******

If you buy Cyberlink past the 7.3 release, you lose HD DVD playback.
Not a big loss, unless you happened to have some of them (that's
the format that "lost").

You can get the "BD Advisor" toy to play with. Maybe it will
show you more roadblocks await you, than you expected.

http://www.cyberlink.com/stat/bd-support/enu/index.jsp

It says I need newer video card drivers for my HD4850x2, and a BluRay program.

Thanks for the quick response. I wish I had the "included software", but I
don't.

 

[VanguardLH]

I picked up an eSata external BluRay drive at the thrift shop for $10. I was
hoping to set it up so I can watch BluRay discs when the opportunity comes up.

I found a Toschia UDF 2.5 driver, which allowed me to see the directory
structure, and tried a couple free BluRay "compatible" programs (dsplsyer &
Potplayer), but so far have not found a free program that works. I also
downloaded the trial of Aurora BluRay Player, which does work on the 2 discs I
got from the library, with a horrible watermark. So I know the drive works.

All the non-free programs cost more than I really want to put into this, as I
probably won't use it that much. Plus, it seems that changes in the future will
require occasional updates to keep it working. I've seen people say that their
paid programs suddenly stop working, and people have had to buy new programs
when the updates needed for their previous one were not made available. I just
don't want to spent $40-100 for a program I may rarely use.

So, has anyone here come up with a working "free" solution to BluRay playback
directly from a BluRay drive?

Most of the articles I've been able to find are years old, looking for something
more relevent to today.

P5k-premium, Q8200, LG GGC-H20L drive in eSata external enclosure.

Not a free solution but a lot cheaper than Cyberlink's PowerDVD Ultra at
over $90 (that came bundled with the LG drive you mention):

Corel Windvd9 Plus $35 (30-day free trial)
Microsoft Windows 8, 7, Vista (SP 1) or XP (SP 3)
http://www.windvdpro.com/en/products/windvd/standard/default.html

It's under your $40 pricing limit (see below about using it to test the
used drive). I've read that VLC (free) supports the BD format (well,
the encodings for video/movie files on the BD media) but I don't know if
you have to install a lib module to support BD media itself. Twould be
easy 'nuff to ask in the VLC forums (or just lurk and read all the forum
posts about BD support in VLC but watch the datestamps because what was
reported as not working before might be working now). See:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
http://www.videolan.org/developers/libbluray.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5461/vlc-hack-for-encrypted-bluray-playback-capability
http://www.brorsoft.com/how-to/play-blu-ray-with-vlc.html

You're probably not going to find the software bundle separately of the
drive. Cyberlink and LG don't have downloads for it. The product key
would've been a sticker on the sleeve or printed on the disc. You could
try calling LG to ask for a replacement disc but they'll probably charge
you something like $20-30 and might want some proof of purchase. Since
it is a special bundle, the Thrift Store receipt won't work because
they'll only handle disc replace requests from the original purchaser.

Although the WinDVD9 Plus might be the cheapest payware but full
featured software to use with that drive, I have to wonder if you want
to do anything or spend anything on that drive until you that drive is
okay. It might've shown up in the Thrift Store because a user upgraded
to a later and better optical drive but more likely is that they, with
the included software bundle, found the drive was defective. They
might've scrapped a drive that's usable for CD and DVD formats but
stopped working for BD formats. Even if they attached a comment sheet
regarding the state of the device, it wouldn't survive processing to
show up when the used device showed up on the Thrift Store shelf. Maybe
it won't play BD discs even if you had the software. Since the WinDVD9
Plus has a trial version, use that to test if the used and discarded LG
drive really does work for all of its specificied supported formats. No
point in agonizing over a used drive if you can tell with the trial
software if the drive is defective rather then spend time trying to find
free software or cajole replacement discs from LG at some cost.

 

[BillW50]

In Bob F typed:

I picked up an eSata external BluRay drive at the thrift shop for
$10. I was hoping to set it up so I can watch BluRay discs when the
opportunity comes up.
I found a Toschia UDF 2.5 driver, which allowed me to see the
directory structure, and tried a couple free BluRay "compatible"
programs (dsplsyer & Potplayer), but so far have not found a free
program that works. I also downloaded the trial of Aurora BluRay
Player, which does work on the 2 discs I got from the library, with a
horrible watermark. So I know the drive works.
All the non-free programs cost more than I really want to put into
this, as I probably won't use it that much. Plus, it seems that
changes in the future will require occasional updates to keep it
working. I've seen people say that their paid programs suddenly stop
working, and people have had to buy new programs when the updates
needed for their previous one were not made available. I just don't
want to spent $40-100 for a program I may rarely use.
So, has anyone here come up with a working "free" solution to BluRay
playback directly from a BluRay drive?

Most of the articles I've been able to find are years old, looking
for something more relevent to today.

P5k-premium, Q8200, LG GGC-H20L drive in eSata external enclosure.

If you are not in any hurry, I see these on giveawayoftheday.com all of
the time. I don't know, like 4 times a month or something. They give one
commercial software away for free for that day only. I don't use BluRay,
so I couldn't tell you much about them.

 

[casey.o]

All the non-free programs cost more than I really want to put into this, as I
probably won't use it that much. Plus, it seems that changes in the future will
require occasional updates to keep it working. I've seen people say that their
paid programs suddenly stop working, and people have had to buy new programs
when the updates needed for their previous one were not made available. I just
don't want to spent $40-100 for a program I may rarely use.

Are you trying to burn Blue Ray disks? If you're only wanting to play
them, you'd be cheaper off just buying a Blue Ray player for your TV. I
bought one of them at one of those 2013 Black Friday sales for about
$30. I really dont buy Blue Ray movies, but I needed a new DVD player.
The price was right. I guess if you want to burn them, then you'll have
to pay for the software, but if you're just playing them, why bother
using your computer and spending the money......