Would you buy a Metro Blu-ray/DVD playback application?

FuturDreamz

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Since Windows 8 will not directly support dvd playback, you will either need to buy the WMC pack or a third-party application. However, this means that companies such as Cyberlink or Arcsoft have an advantage with their blu-ray playback programs that also do DVD.

However, one thing that I found using Windows 8 is that it is very HTPC friendly, with the large icons and stuff making it a decent 10-foot User Inteface where you just need a Windows remote or a small keyboard/trackpad combo. All it needs is a Metro application for DVD playback (and ideally Blu-ray if you have a BD drive).

From what I can tell, Bluray and DVD licencing fees are about $20 each (maybe less), so companies such as Arcsoft or Cyberlink could possibly throw together a decent application that just does full DVD/BD playback for about $50-$60 and a DVD-only app for $30-$40, with higher end products that do more.

Would you buy such a product?
 

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As GMan suggests, there are several free alternatives that already play DVDs/Blu-ray. There are also various ways to add support for these formats without needing to buy anything.
 

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I had mentioned in another thread that I would probably go with either Media Monkey or JRiver Media Center software, and leaning towards the latter.

I checked out Media Portal and it's very similar to JRiver MC, only free. Media Center costs about $50 US. I'm going to download and take a look at Media Portal and see how it truly compares to Media Center.

Having said all this, I generally do not watch DVD's or BD's on my PC, that's what the Home Theater System is for. Even my digital music (approx. 2000 songs) I generally grab from the home network and play in the theater. I enjoy the full surround sound experience that my PC can't even come close to reproducing.

John
 

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VLC Player I believe can handle Blu-ray playback.

But I don't use DVDs, honestly, I think I remember the last time I watched a DVD movie was two Black Fridays ago when my brother bought Scott Pilgrim and I hadn't watched it yet. I actually only use my DVD drive as a burner to author DVD movies for friends and parties and for new releases. I've considered ditching my DVD drive in deference for more hard drive bays in my new puter rebuild, but then I realized I'm the main source of DVD for my friends...I guess I need a slot load DVD drive...
 

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VLC Player I believe can handle Blu-ray playback.

But I don't use DVDs, honestly, I think I remember the last time I watched a DVD movie was two Black Fridays ago when my brother bought Scott Pilgrim and I hadn't watched it yet. I actually only use my DVD drive as a burner to author DVD movies for friends and parties and for new releases. I've considered ditching my DVD drive in deference for more hard drive bays in my new puter rebuild, but then I realized I'm the main source of DVD for my friends...I guess I need a slot load DVD drive...

Tsk...Tsk...Probably one should refrain from mentioning such things in a public forum! :eek: :rolleyes:
 

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VLC Player I believe can handle Blu-ray playback.

But I don't use DVDs, honestly, I think I remember the last time I watched a DVD movie was two Black Fridays ago when my brother bought Scott Pilgrim and I hadn't watched it yet. I actually only use my DVD drive as a burner to author DVD movies for friends and parties and for new releases. I've considered ditching my DVD drive in deference for more hard drive bays in my new puter rebuild, but then I realized I'm the main source of DVD for my friends...I guess I need a slot load DVD drive...

Tsk...Tsk...Probably one should refrain from mentioning such things in a public forum! :eek: :rolleyes:
This is true... I mean, I just make copies of DVDs I own as to back them up since they physically can be damaged, this is perfectly fine! :D
 

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None of those apps are Metro... Which is kind of my point.

I'm mostly just looking for a basic program that just plays DVDs and BDs (and can run all BD-Java content) that works with the Metro interface.


The bonus would be that, Providing Windows on ARM can use USB DVD/BD drives, you can watch your shows on one of those, too.
 

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None of those apps are Metro... Which is kind of my point.

I'm mostly just looking for a basic program that just plays DVDs and BDs (and can run all BD-Java content) that works with the Metro interface.


The bonus would be that, Providing Windows on ARM can use USB DVD/BD drives, you can watch your shows on one of those, too.

Here's a lucrative thought...How about coding a Metro app that does just that! I believe it is open to anyone to create them with Microsoft's blessings.
I'd be delighted to leave this to you, as my coding days went away with Cobol, Fortran, and GW-Basic.... :geek:


John
 

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None of those apps are Metro... Which is kind of my point.

So you're willing to pay money to make a video playback from/in the start screen instead of without it, it seems.

What's the appeal about making videos start there in particular, over how it's been done for decades?

It can't be because of Arm based machines because those are not intended as HTPC in any way. I can't think of any advantage at all.
 

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I guess that's a pretty good point. Once the disk starts playing in fullscreen it doesn't really matter much if it's metro or on the desktop.

What is the best bluray playback program? Mostly I'm looking for something that does the job well, but without a garish/complicated user interface. It would be nice if it blends into Metro.
 

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It really depends if you want to pay and if not, how much work you're prepared to put in to make things work. Virtually any decent media player can be made to play almost anything, with the right decoders, but it's not always easy to configure.

For paid solutions:
ArcSoft TotalMedia
PowerDVD 12

For free solutions:
MEDIAPORTAL are working on something, not sure of the status
VLC has some support
XBMC has some support

There are others...
 

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Hi there

Blu Ray was invented too late for it to be anything useful -- any decent upscaling player will give you almost as good quality on a "Bog standard" DVD as a Blue Ray - especially on fairly normal size TV screens.

Unless you have a huge 80 inch screen TV - usually only "Real Chav's" can afford those monsters - making your front room look something like a Hotel Lobby you won't see a huge amount of difference and the standard DVD is cheaper and less of a hassle to play anyway.

Even if I BUY a DVD -- rarely these days--- I just use AnyDVD to create an ISO of it and store on an external HDD.
W8 MOUNTS iso's so playing the DVD from an ISO on HDD is fine. I then GIVE away the DVD (probably that's ILLEGAL now I suppose too -- to give a DVD away to say your local library or other charity place). VLC player plays the mounted ISO just fine.

If I want to watch the DVD on a remote TV I just stream the video. No more mucking about with physical media. Don't even need a "Classical DVD player" any more.

If I need to record a TV program the sky box will do it just fine.

(On W7 daemon tools or alcohol 52% -- both free -- will do the same job of mounting an ISO).

I only an external DVD reader / writer these days and that's rarely used. Software I get from the Internet (legally !!).

I use the DVD slot space on my desktop for an SSD drive.


DVD's and CD's will soon go the way of the floppy disk. I'm amazed that Car Radios still come with CD slots -- surely you would just plug in a music player to an AUX jack on the radio.

So a NO vote on Blu Ray for me.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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I guess if one buys a DVD or Blu-Ray simply to watch the movie, then to some extent, I agree. However, if one collects movies, having the physical media, along with all the goddies that entails, makes the disks a valuable commodity.
 

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Blu Ray was invented too late for it to be anything useful -- any decent upscaling player will give you almost as good quality on a "Bog standard" DVD as a Blue Ray - especially on fairly normal size TV screens.

Have to disagree on this one. On a 32" widescreen tv or 22" computer monitor, I can easily and immediately tell the great differences between 1080 and 480. Most DVDs have block noise in them right from the start while most Blu-Rays do not. Upscaling block noise doesn't do anything to help that, but can actually hurt.

Even x.264 files from YouTube or even rips of Blu-Ray are worlds better.
 

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I agree Blu-ray looks much better than standard DVD's, though they do take up much more space on a hard drive.

As far as playing a Blu-Ray on my PC, the only thing that cost money would be an actual Blu-Ray drive which I still don't have for this PC. It was 200 bucks for a Blu-Ray burner/drive last time I looked but they come standard on many laptops these days. I have a Blu-Ray player that connects to my media PC using HDMI.

I don't see why an App would be any better for playing Blu-Ray disks compared to just standard software. I'd choose a disk over streaming any day but that's just me.
 

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I have been thinking about actually building this. I haven't actually done a whole lot of coding, but theoretically I should be able to use VLC's libdvdcss, libbluray, libaacs in a basic application designed only for disc playback.
 

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It might depend where you live.
I believe VLC can do that because they are in Europe ( France , in fact )
In don't know the precise details - but you might want to check that out if you are in the US.
 

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I don't get this thread. I have Win8 cp, and all I do is stick a DVD movie in, and I get New Line Cinema player. I installed this player yonks ago back when I installed the DVD drive onto this PC, So I can only assume the player is built into the ROM of the drive, and my default music player works fine for CDs out of the box. So what am I missing here?
 

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