# How can I play Blu-ray on a Windows 7 PC with Windows Media Player? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 8, 2012, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128 "2012-03-08T06:27:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/1 "2012-03-08T06:27:10Z")
Back in the XP days, there were third-party DVD codecs that enabled playback inside Windows Media Player. Do such things exist for Blu-ray under Windows 7? I can’t seem to find them, and I don’t want to resort to bloatware like PowerDVD or Cyberlink. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/2 "2012-03-08T06:33:58Z")
Try VLC. It’s your one stop, no-nonsense media player. There is no pron website weird-format vid it can’t handle. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/3 "2012-03-08T06:36:46Z")
First thing I tried. It said it couldn’t decode Blu-rays without an AACS (or some similar acronym) decoder. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/4 "2012-03-08T06:51:21Z")
Doh! I would tell you to download libblueray but you’ll have to wait until it’s ported to windows. Otherwise you could try Linux… ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/5 "2012-03-08T06:55:03Z")
Do you have a Blueray reader connected to the computer? The difference between DVD and Blueray isn’t just the coding, it’s the data density; you need a Blueray reader. It may seem like a silly question, but I’ve had more than one person complaining that their computer didn’t read DVDs when it had a CD reader, or that they couldn’t get it to write CDs/DVDs when the drive was a reader but not a burner… ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/6 "2012-03-08T06:56:28Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Do you have a Blueray reader connected to the computer? The difference between DVD and Blueray isn’t just the coding, it’s the data density; you need a Blueray reader. > > It may seem like a silly question, but I’ve had more than one person complaining that their computer didn’t read DVDs when it had a CD reader, or that they couldn’t get it to write CDs/DVDs when the drive was a reader but not a burner… A fair question 🙂 Sadly, yes I do have a Blu-ray drive. I got an OEM one without included software because I mistakenly assumed Windows 7 included a codec. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/7 "2012-03-08T06:58:03Z")
> [@The\_Niply\_Elder](#): > > Doh! I would tell you to download libblueray but you’ll have to wait until it’s ported to windows. Otherwise you could try Linux… Seems like both it and libaacs are available for Windows, but the former lacks decryption and the latter lacks working keys for copyrighted materials. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/8 "2012-03-08T12:50:59Z")
Many people think the program AnyDVD HD is worth its cost. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/9 "2012-03-08T20:00:01Z")
> [@yoyodyne](#): > > Many people think the program AnyDVD HD is worth its cost. It doesn’t seem to work, either. VLC doesn’t give an error anymore, but the video is a scrambled mess. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/10 "2012-03-08T20:23:51Z")
I finally got it to work with AnyDVD HD and a third-party Korean player called PotPlayer, but damn, what a pain. The image quality is nice but not $90 in software nice. I think I’m just going to return the Blu-ray drive and wait another five years for Windows 9 to include it. If Hollywood wants to make the discs too difficult to play, well, they succeeded! ---
**Author:** ![ranchnumber51](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@ranchnumber51](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ranchnumber51)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/11 "2012-04-30T00:20:21Z")
I too am frustrated that Windows Media Center is behind the times, especially when it’s because of money (isn’t it always?). I’m not a computer wiz or anything, and I understand that what you really want is a solution to allow WMC to play Blu-Rays, but the best I can do is tell you what I use (was bundled with my new Asus G74SX-3DE). Roxio CinePlayer with 3D capabilities is $29.99 on their website. Yeah, paying for a player sucks and I’m glad it was included on my PC, but if you’ve tried other popular free players, you might want to give it a try. I like how easy it is to use (not like any are hard, but it’s very user friendly) and the ONLY issues I had was it wasn’t recognizing that my PC supported 3D, but that was easily fixed by updating drivers and a bit of stuttering at times (may just be my PC configuration). Anyway, that’s my 2 cents, and hopefully Microsoft will fix this stupid problem sooner than later. Maybe after the next generation Xbox comes out with (Sony owned) Blu-Ray drives, as it’s rumored it will. Lol… 😃 Oh, and in case you were curious, I wanted to compare Roxio’s performance with WMC due to the occasional stuttering to help determine if it’s a system thing or a Roxio thing. Guess I can’t at the moment… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/13 "2014-04-26T15:07:53Z")
The last reply on this topic was two years ago. Has there been any progress in the meantime on getting Blu-ray discs to play on Windows 7? I’m asking for a free and simple solution, which is probably asking for too much. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/14 "2014-04-26T16:18:59Z")
AnyDvd is still the way to go, but it’s expensive. New discs come with new encryption keys that have to be cracked, and that’s basically what you’d pay slysoft for. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/15 "2014-04-26T16:37:38Z")
So to watch on a Windows 7 computer, third-party gray market software is required to crack the encryption of Blu-ray discs legally purchased by consumers? ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/16 "2014-04-26T21:35:29Z")
No, you can also buy legit bluray software like windvd or powerdvd. They’re quite bloated though. Anydvd strips the copy protection and lets any player play it, and also lets you skip the forced menu screen, forced logos and previews, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2014, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/17 "2014-04-27T21:13:20Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > So to watch on a Windows 7 computer, third-party gray market software is required to crack the encryption of Blu-ray discs legally purchased by consumers? Also, AnyDVD isn’t some shady fly-by-night program from [1001hackznwarez.com](http://1001hackznwarez.com). It’s been around longer than Blu-Ray itself has. Slysoft, its maker, is probably the only consumer-friendly media player company out there. If you really want to blame someone, blame Hollywood. Because of how easy DVD was to pirate, Hollywood bribed the US government into making a law that says any software that plays their Blu-Rays without paying them a fee to use their special magic algorithm (which isn’t very special) is illegal. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing this to pirate a movie or just to play it back on your home computer. With the law itself sold on the grey market, AnyDVD just gives you a fighting chance to use the computer to play movies the way they were meant to be played: as something you own to enjoy, not some sacred privilege you must ask Hollywood for permission for each time. Early BluRay players in fact suffered from a situation where they couldn’t play newer movies because Hollywood decided the appearance of preventing piracy was more important than consumer satisfaction. They didn’t or couldn’t get updates for newer key releases, so they were just left in the dust. It was one of the earlier reasons to get a PS3 – which, direct from Sony, one of the Blu-Ray head honchos – would safely get continued updates. Microsoft looked at this whole situation and thought “fuck it”, so they did not pay the Hollywood fees and decided to leave Blu-Ray playback to third party vendors instead. So ALL Blu-Ray playback on Windows is third-party. The usual OEMs include PowerDVD or WinDVD because they have licensing agreements, and because those players are Hollywood-friendly instead of consumer-friendly. AnyDVD is functionally similar, but it pisses off Hollywood because for a little more money than the sanctioned players, it does a lot more and treats its users a lot less criminally. And you wonder why the PirateBay remains popular. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2014, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-play-blu-ray-on-a-windows-7-pc-with-windows-media-player/615128/18 "2014-04-27T21:28:21Z")
I missed a point: This is why you can’t find free, legal Blu-Ray players for Windows. The only way to decode Blu-Ray legally is to pay Hollywood and use their scheme. Cracking it (which is what free software has to do to remain free) is illegal no matter what the end use is, even if you bought the disc, even if you just want to watch it on your home computer, even if you bought Windows. With the Hollywood-sanctioned vendors, you pay them in part to pay into the Hollywood extortion scheme, in part to pay for new features that most people will never use. With Slysoft, you pay them to have researchers manually crack new discs that come out and let you watch them as you please.