Playing Blu-Ray on PC with only DVD (or no optical disc drive)
 

I found a way to play Blu-Ray programs on a PC with only a DVD drive, or even no optical drive at all. I insert the BD (Blu-Ray Disc) into the BD drive in a PC that DOES have one. If a built-in player tries to play the disc, I close that program, then open Windows Explorer, find the BD drive, and press Open, just to show the files on the disc. I open the BDMV folder, then the Stream folder. Inside that is one or more M2TS file, that has the program(s) I want to watch on a PC without a BD drive. I copy the file of the program to the PC on which I want to watch the program. Windows Media Player, VLC Media Player and other programs all can open and play an M2TS file, and it looks great, whether on a laptop or PC. Others may know of this, but I didn't, and it's a great way for me to be able to watch BD movies, etc. on my laptop, when I travel. Now, this may work only on homemade BDs, like I make, but I thought I'd mention it.

Yep. That's how you do it. :congrats:

Because those BDMV files are so huge, I often use Avidemux 2.6 to shrink the file down -- both in resolution and bitrate (and thus file size).

Retail Blu-rays, of course, must be ripped with a decrypter like AnyDVD or DVDFab. Then you can copy over the files. (AnyDVD is a background decrypter, so you can use it to copy the files without a separate rip.)

Glad to see you around still. Traveling? Vacation? Go anywhere fun?

Thanks. I'll have to give Avidemux a try. Mostly at home right now, laying low and paying off everything from a new HVAC system to a car, furniture, etc. Should be in much better $$$ shape by next year (not that we're doing too badly now, with a FIFO >800....). I know this is public, but I'm not concerned. Still just making BDs of movies, documentaries and concerts. We actually watch one every once in a while! Actually figured out how (for the most part) to insert an SRT subtitle file into a new BD project, so subtitles would appear in the finished project. However, it doesn't always work, so I need to really review the TAW-5 subtitles tutorial, to see what I'm doing wrong. This is only a miniscule fraction of what I record, though, so more of a challenge that anything else. My mom died unexpectedly a couple of months ago, so no more CDs and DVDs for her. We were very close. Anyway, how are you and all our other watchers? Russell

-- merged --

Greetings from Earth. I have switched from making regular Blu-Ray discs (BD) to data BDs, with about 4-5 movies or programs on each. I can't edit the raw .TS files I add to them, but they're mostly ad-free anyway, so there may be a little filler at the start and end. This is a small price to pay, because I can get so much more on a BD (25Gb; 50Gbs just do NOT seem to be catching on, so still are expensive) and because my poor, abused CPU doesn't have to spend all day making a BD. It takes just 30 minutes or so for ImgBurn to crank out a data BD, and even during that short time the CPU does not peg out at 100%, like it did for HOURS, when making a regular BD. I wish I had a way to chop off what I don't want on the raw TS files, but this is still a much better way to go for me. I plan to get all the good movies recorded about 3 hours or so before I croak.

Yep, try Avidemux, good software.

The AC going out (needed replacement) is never fun. That reminds me ... I need to email you a photo of my new toy. :cool:

I don't record much these days. I spent probably 15+ years creating a nice collection for myself, and it's really come in handy in recent years. When MS fatigue starts to get to me, I park my butt on a chair, or lay in the bed, put the TV on 60-minute sleep timer, and watch my toons and shows until I drift off. So far, I've managed to watch almost 3 drives, 1 per year. Only 10 more years to go!

I really do like TAW5 for simple BD authoring. TAW doesn't have the flaws that TDA did.

Sorry to hear about your mom. :(

This year has been busy for me. Late April was a hectic time, and I just missed this post. I'm sure it's in the queue somewhere, flagged for me to answer. Sorry about that, I wasn't ignoring you.

Good to hear you're still on Earth. :P

Avidemux can probably cut TS file. Did you try that? If not it, then look at TMPGEnc Smart Renderer.

I save a lot of modern shows as H.264 MP4. But I don't need or want discs. I can stream directly from my computer (Serviio) to my Samsung Blu-ray player or WDTV. Note that wired networking works best; I have a gigabit LAN. I can play DVD ISO directly from a USB drive plugged into the WD TV. So no need to waste time burning discs. Everything I transfer off tape is saved as 15mpbs MPEG-2 at SD resolution, and stored on drive. I can burn on BD if I want, but I rarely want.

It's amazing how things have changed from the 80s to 90s to 2000s to now.

You can use http://www.videohelp.com/software/H264TS-Cutter
Also, you can convert from TS to mkv, it will be smaller as TS has a lot of unnecessary data.
I used to convert mpg2 ts streams directly to dual layer DVD blurays (avchd), with cutting by a ts cutter. It was very fast, no encoding.