BD playback issue, your help is needed

[ppkstat]

Hello guys.

I need your help with the playback of some bds I have on my hard drive in folder format. Be aware that this is the first time I am working with full bd images. I can’t get proper playback of many bds and by proper I mean full menu support (which is important to me). Playing the mt2s files alone, always work. I am trying to play them on my computer.

At first I noticed that some of the bds were playing while some of them did not. I tried to see what was different between the two and I noticed that the ones that I couldn’t play were BD-J disks. Therefore I thought this was a BD-J related issue. All the bds I was trying to play were in folder format and I was trying with a variety of players including PowerDVD 13, TMT6 and an Alpha version of Kodi with experimental BD-J support. Nothing was working for these specific disks (which is the majority of what I have). All of them were criterion bds.

Then I happened to find a criterion bd that was in iso format (specifically the eraserhead bd). I mounted the device and played normally in all the players, despite being a bd-j disk. I thought that there would be an image vs folder issue. So I converted some of my folders in iso using Imgburn with 2.5UDF and tried to mount them again to see the results. Again I could not play the disks, even when mounted from the image.

So long story short I have many bds that I cannot play in any form and in any player. The ones that do work, work everywhere (in any of the players). I cannot locate any differences between the two.

I also tried to alter the folder structure a bit, things like adding an AUXDATA folder etc but this didn’t help either.

Maybe someone more experienced could chime in? Its really frustrating having all this data and not being able to play them properly. Especially with all these wonderful extras.

[Baldrick]

What happens when you try play them? Error message?

Can you play non ripped blu-rays from the bd drive without problem?

[jman98]

PowerDVD either has never supported playing rips or it was so long ago that it will do you no good. TMT did support this, but I don't know about version 6 supporting it. Version 5 did.

What did you rip with? I am wondering if your rips are missing information that you need. It seems to me that converting to ISO and mounting those should work so please go into more detail about what you ripped with.

By the way, ArcSoft unfortunately has abandoned TMT, leaving the awful PowerDVD as one of the very few or possibly the only commercial BD software player left. None of the free players do a very good job of playing BD at all, as you have found out with Kodi.

[ppkstat]

What happens when you try play them? Error message?

Can you play non ripped blu-rays from the bd drive without problem?

No, no error messages. Just a never ending black screen. Would a log or something like that perhaps help you?

Yes I can play normal bds fine.

@jman98

I will try tmt5 as well. Kodi bd-j support with external libraries is work in progress but they say that its possible to be implemented in the next stable release.

[Kerry56]

You still didn't mention what you used to decrypt and rip the movies with.

I have both TMT5 and TMT6, and have no issues playing Blu-ray movies in file format on my hard drives. I very much prefer the user interface of TMT5 and use it most of the time.

[jman98]

I put 6 sentences in my response and good grief, even that seems to be WAY too much for you to handle. Last chance - what exactly did you rip with?

If you're going to be one of those newbies we get here all the time who blank out and stop reading after a 2nd sentence, then don't bother replying with what you ripped with and I'll just go away.

[ppkstat]

@jman98

Don't get mad, I am not ignoring you.

I wish I could give you a clear, straight forward answer to your question but the reality is that they are ripped using different methods (i.e. not a single program).

I can look it up a bit more, see if the non-working titles are ripped with a specific program if that would help you.

[Kerry56]

We suspect you have issues with the rips, yes. I suggest using AnyDVD HD to decrypt and rip the movies to the hard drive a second time. If you don't own this program, the trial should suffice for Criterion releases. If you are going to continue ripping Blu-ray, you should invest in the lifetime version of the program.

An alternative would be MakeMKV. In its normal mode, MakeMKV rips as an MKV file and loses the menu and extras, but you can use the Backup Mode to get the entire Blu-ray movie on the hard drive. MakeMKV is free to use while in beta, you just have to go to their forum and download a new beta key each month or so to continue using the program. http://www.makemkv.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1053

[ppkstat]

Thanks for the help Kerry. I 've tried makeMKV and it works, but as you said without the menus.

[Kerry56]

Use Backup Mode. Start MakeMKV, insert the Blu-ray movie into your drive, let it find and analyze the movie protection, then click File-->Backup. Make certain to choose the option to decrypt the files as you rip. You'll get the entire movie on the disc, minus the encryption.

Very simple.