HOW TO: BluRay Disc Playback w/ PowerDVD & MBT's new Disc Play feature

[A8HTPC 38]

I was playing around and found something out. Maybe this was known and I am a bit slow...if so...for those other slow people, here is how to make it work. You could probably make this work with Total Media Theater as well.

 

This will allow you to play bluray discs with full menu support with only minor headache from Power DVD not exiting after stopping (Usual Problem)

 

Add PowerDVD as an external player for bluray support and check off extension "M2ts". My player path is "C:\Program Files (x86)\CyberLink\PowerDVD13\PDVDLP.exe". (Don't include the (" ") )

Not other arguments are needed and only {PATH} should be visible in the argument line. 

 

Now, the only problem for some, if you have ripped your blurays into raw M2TS formats to your storage drive...PowerDVD will always load. If you are like some and like me who is loving the idea of ripping blurays to MKV using MakeMKV, then all your ripped movies will play through MBTs internal player and only Optical discs with M2TS files will play with Power DVD. You don't need an external player to play DVDs though you can still do the same thing im sure with DVD VOB file extensions if you want to play the disc with an external player.

 

Your Done. 

Enjoy

[A8HTPC 38]

MODs: Please change title to HOW TO: BluRay Disc Playback w/ External Player & MBT's new Disc Play feature

 

J River BluRay Disc Playback.

- In order to play bluray discs with J River you need DVDFab Passkey Lite (Free) or AnyDVD HD installed.

- When you add J River as an external player use "...PATH...\J River\Media Center 19\Media Center 19.exe"

and command line " {PATH} /Bluray X: " X: being the disc drive letter.  This will automatically start J River and open your bluray disc playing the main title. You won't have menu support.

 

J River supports VideoClock and Refresh Rate switching. Honestly......J River is MUCH better at switching refresh rates then PowerDVD. At least on my HTPC. takes about 5-7 seconds to completely switch refresh rates with power dvd and even then it will sometimes stutter untill, get ready for it, I open a folder window such as my computer or my documents....stupid. J River....no issues, only about 1-2 seconds to switch, same as MadVR and seems to play perfectly.

 

MPC HC

 MPC-HC Works too. Use the /Play command. You may have to go into MPC settings and check off "Launch Files in Full Screen" under "View --> Options --> Playback --> Fullscreen"

Edited May 20, 2014 by A8HTPC

[A8HTPC 38]

Apparently this was known... Guess I was a little slow

[buddyweiser 105]

I came across this thread and started to wonder, what is the best software for playing a Bluray disc with menu options(just like in a bluray player)? I have a bluray drive in my computer, but no software besides dvdfab...

So, if I were to invest in software to view my blurays as they were "meant to be seen", what is the best option?

[A8HTPC 38]

Honestly, they all play very similar. I don't believe there is a "best" but a group of them that work good. PowerDVD I have a lot of issues with. I'm leaning toward JRiver for playback of bluray optical discs (w/o menu support) but I do want to get powerdvd working smooth since it plays 3D nicely and has menu support. Total Media Theater has menu support but I got a lot of "tearing" of the video when using it.

 

Also look at audio support from one player to the next.

Edited May 24, 2014 by A8HTPC