Blu-ray playback software?

[Tank]

The old man just picked up a Acer 8950G-9487, I took all the crap off of it from the store, but I noticed today it came with no software for blu ray playback. Funny enough it has the Blu Ray drive.

I have searched around and can't find any freeware that will play Blu Rays. I tried KM Player thinking it did Blu Rays, but it doesn't work.

What is the best software, free OR paid, for blu ray playback from an optical drive? I thought by now there would be a lot of options for freeware playback software but I guess it's a lot more complicated than DVD software.

Anywho, just wondering what my options are, as I said, paid or freeware works for me.

Thank you.

 

[Coodu]

I've always been a fan of PowerDVD as far as paid software goes. I use VLC for most if not all of my media playback tasks but I don't think it's capable of Blu-Ray playback yet.

http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdvd/overview_en_AU.html?fileName=overview&r=1

I think this ships on the Toshiba's too, haven't worked on too many with a Blu-Ray yet.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mizzou]

Think you'll find your best choices are PowerDVD or Nero, I have both but would give the edge to PowerDVD for Blu-Ray play back, HD Audio support is a definite plus. Just upgraded to PowerDVD 11 Ultra and they've resolved some of the more annoying issues with previous releases, you can now turn off features that you don't want (ie: MoovieLive).

Good for media playback and works well as an all around media client for DLNA servers.

 

[Rabbit01]

As far as I know, there's no free software available for Blu-ray playback. I'm using PowerDVD 9 Ultra, upgraded from the basic version which came w/ my LG drive. Works well for me. In addition to Mizzou's suggestions, there's also WinDVD Pro by Corel. Haven't tried it.

 

[LNCPapa]

I've been using PowerDVD 10 for a while and it works pretty well.

 

[mailpup]

I bought a retail version of an LG BD drive and it came with a free PowerDVD software suite although I don't know what version it is. I realize that this won't help you directly with your laptop unless you buy one for a desktop model and then use the CD to install it on other computers but for what it's worth, there it is.

 

[Rabbit01]

Different model, but might be useful:

How do I play Blu-Ray movies on my Acer Aspire 8735G notebook?

How do I play Blu-Ray movies on my Acer Aspire 8735G notebook?
Some Aspire 8735G notebooks ship with a Blu-Ray optical drive and the Acer Arcade media playback software. The version of Windows Media Player that ships with the notebook does not support playing Blu-Ray movies and Acer recommends using the Acer Arcade media playback sofware to play Blu-Ray movies.

 

[captaincranky]

The old man just picked up a Acer 8950G-9487, I took all the crap off of it from the store, but I noticed today it came with no software for blu ray playback. Funny enough it has the Blu Ray drive.

I have searched around and can't find any freeware that will play Blu Rays. I tried KM Player thinking it did Blu Rays, but it doesn't work.

What is the best software, free OR paid, for blu ray playback from an optical drive? I thought by now there would be a lot of options for freeware playback software but I guess it's a lot more complicated than DVD software.

Anywho, just wondering what my options are, as I said, paid or freeware works for me.

Thank you.

Unfortunately, the best software for Blu-Ray may be "PowerDVD or Nero (whatever number it's up to now). And they're about a hundred bucks a pop.

I still think the current best solution for Blu-Ray, is the $100.00 stand alone player at Walmart, or someplace similar.

Most all the Blu-Ray drives or burners that Newegg sells are OEM, and therefore don't come with software. The retail drives do have software, but everybody seems to complain about it, and after all, those people are Newegg's "experts. Who am I to argue?

As always is this case, my disclaimer: "I don't even listen to my own advice most of the time, so why should you"!