Finally a free Blu-Ray player!

[Jembo]

I haven't tried it. I don't have any Blu-Rays, but I figured some of you would be interested.
http://www.ghacks.net/2015/02/22/leawos-blu-ray-media-player-is-free-now/

It's called Leawo.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

"Free" and "Blu-ray Player" in the same sentence? There has to be a catch in there somewhere...

But thanks for the heads-up. I'll give it a whirl, see what it can do.

 

[VirtualLarry]

"Free" and "Blu-ray Player" in the same sentence? There has to be a catch in there somewhere...

But thanks for the heads-up. I'll give it a whirl, see what it can do.

Update: Leawo establishes connections to the Internet which are not needed to operate the program. You may want to block its Internet access to avoid this from happening.

There's your catch. Chinese spyware at it's finest.

 

[Berryracer]

I don't have anything free in my computer except for a few open source programs like qBittorrent.

Free these days = virus/spyware/adware/junkware

 

[sweenish]

gimp, libre office, vlc, mpc, vmware player, makemkv, handbrake, foxit, gvim, notepad++, firefox, chrome, etc., etc.

There's too much good free stuff available for that statement to ever be true. Over-generalization at its finest.

 

[Berryracer]

gimp, libre office, vlc, mpc, vmware player, makemkv, handbrake, foxit, gvim, notepad++, firefox, chrome, etc., etc.

There's too much good free stuff available for that statement to ever be true. Over-generalization at its finest.

I said.........except open source

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I'm curious if the BDA has some sort of hidden agenda to kill physical media

 

[Rakehellion]

gimp, libre office, vlc, mpc, vmware player, makemkv, handbrake, foxit, gvim, notepad++, firefox, chrome, etc., etc.

There's too much good free stuff available for that statement to ever be true. Over-generalization at its finest.

Why is it that none of those can play Blu-ray?

Also, people still use Blu-ray?

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Why is it that none of those can play Blu-ray?

Licensing, licensing and licensing.

Actually VLC can play blu-ray, but not the commercial, copy protected kind.

Also, people still use Blu-ray?

Those of us who value quality still do...

 

[mmntech]

Well, MakeMKV is still "free", and large hard drives are affordable again. Makes more sense to just rip your movies. Then there's no DRM to deal with.

It's also technically not illegal to torrent copies of movies you already own. You're allowed to make backup copies. You're just not supposed to crack the DRM.

 

[Emulex]

Ripping blu-ray's is illegal last time I checked?

 

[motsm]

This Leawo player may be connecting to the internet to decypt copy protected Blu Ray's or update the library of keys, much like AnyDVD does. Just a guess though, as I haven't used it, but it's possible considering the way BD protection is constantly updated with new releases.

:Edit: Tried it out, and can't say I'm impressed. I tested 4 BD's, 2 of which played the movie after a bit of a wait, the other two just went black after the studio logos (copy protection kicked in I would guess). The menus didn't work properly on any of them either, and the two that played were quite laggy when seeking. Even so, it's interesting to see another real time BD decryptor, since as far as I knew, AnyDVD was the only one.

 

[TheELF]

It's also technically not illegal to torrent copies of movies you already own. You're allowed to make backup copies. You're just not supposed to crack the DRM.

You're allowed to make backup copies in the sense of protecting your investment, which means you can make one or two copies to store at different places so your movie is safe.
Torrenting the movie and giving it to thousands of people is in no way legal.

 

[RampantAndroid]

I'm curious if the BDA has some sort of hidden agenda to kill physical media

Killing BluRay kills Sony.

 

[RampantAndroid]

You're allowed to make backup copies in the sense of protecting your investment, which means you can make one or two copies to store at different places so your movie is safe.
Torrenting the movie and giving it to thousands of people is in no way legal.

No; cracking any form of DRM (encryption) on the disc is a MRA violation...

 

[Rakehellion]

No; cracking any form of DRM (encryption) on the disc is a MRA violation...

Right. It's legal to rip CD's but not Blu-ray.

 

[el-Capitan]

I gave up on BD.

Even bought a PowerDVD program. This had to update itself before every use, or else it would not play certain discs. One day i wanted to continue a movie I left the night before, but after an update, PowerDVD refused to play it. I was told to purchase the latest PowerDVD release to ensure compatibility.

Steve Jobs was right when he called it a 'bag of hurt'.

Ironically it is easier to rip, re-encode and stream BDs than it is to watch them legally.

 

[Kerry56]

Run AnyDVD HD in the background and you can play any Blu-ray movie you like. I use an older copy of Arcsoft TotalMedia Theater, but you could use Media Player Classic Home Cinema or PotPlayer if you don't need menu support.

But I normally just rip new Blu-ray as I acquire them, and play from hard drives anyway.

 

[Jembo]

Run AnyDVD HD in the background and you can play any Blu-ray movie you like. I use an older copy of Arcsoft TotalMedia Theater, but you could use Media Player Classic Home Cinema or PotPlayer if you don't need menu support.

But I normally just rip new Blu-ray as I acquire them, and play from hard drives anyway.

That's awesome! I've never heard this mentioned before. Any scripts or anything to run, or just turn on AnyDVD then the media player?

If it's as easy as that then I'll start renting the Blu-Rays.

 

[Kerry56]

That's awesome! I've never heard this mentioned before. Any scripts or anything to run, or just turn on AnyDVD then the media player?

If it's as easy as that then I'll start renting the Blu-Rays.

You'll need the HD version of AnyDVD, which is more expensive, but there's nothing extra you need to do. Just run AnyDVD HD and your choice of media player.

None of the free players have good menu support, even the Leawo player mentioned in the first post. VLC is working on a solution, but is very much a work in progress at this point.

 

[Jembo]

You'll need the HD version of AnyDVD, which is more expensive, but there's nothing extra you need to do. Just run AnyDVD HD and your choice of media player.

None of the free players have good menu support, even the Leawo player mentioned in the first post. VLC is working on a solution, but is very much a work in progress at this point.

I see. That's still a better solution for many then a standalone player. Thanks.

 

[sweenish]

I said.........except open source

You said "except a few open source." Big difference.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

404 Still not finding the free in this thread. And AnyDVD HD isn't cheap, let alone free.

 

[motsm]

404 Still not finding the free in this thread. And AnyDVD HD isn't cheap, let alone free.

Did you not see the link in the OP?

 

[Morbus]

It's also technically not illegal to torrent copies of movies you already own.

Depends on the country.

also, it's a catch 22. It's not illegal to download copyrighted material, but it is illegal to give it away without authorization from the copyright holder. As the end user (i.e. the downloader) you can't know whether something is copyrighted or not. How the hell do I know if GoG.com has the right to give away the games they give away?! I just go there and download them and that's it.

Torrenting works a bit differently, in that you're probably giving away the files you're downloading, unless you have seeding totally disabled (which doesn't always happen or work).