Need a Blu-Ray player

[The-One]

I need a program to play Blu-Ray files or Discs on a PC. I currently have PowerDVD but for some reason it doesn't play Blu-Ray video. I don't have a Blu-Ray drive but I mounted the ISO using BluRayBerry and tried to play the video but it tries to load then the screen flickers and I get error #80040216. I can play the video by opening the m2ts file directly with MPC, but I want to be able to play Blu-Ray video as a Blu-Ray disc. The reason for this is that I will be getting a BD burner shortly and I need to be able to play the video from my PC before I burn it to make sure it is structured correctly.

These are my system specs

Asus P5K Motherboard
Core 2 Duo E6600 overclocked to 3.2ghz
4gb DDR2 800
Geforce 8500 w/256mb DDR2
OS: Vista 32 Ultimate

[minidv2dvd]

the ability to play HD files off of a hard drive was removed from powerdvd at about version 7.3 - fear of pirating. you will need to wait until you install that blu-ray drive and then still only the discs will play in powerdvd properly.

[Baldrick]

Yep, what version of powerDVD? I have 7.3 and it works fine to play mounted blu-rays using virtual clonedrive.

[jman98]

VLC has some experimental support for BluRay in the current build. It's not great, but if you have rips I think it can play the m2ts files directly. Or you could find an old version of PowerDVD that still had support for this or perhaps Baldrick's solution would be a good idea.

[The-One]

I have PowerDVD v8.0.2217. I'm trying to play mounted images so it should be the same as playing them in a drive. Most program see a virtual drive as a physical drive. I can play the files directly but I want to be able to play them as a blu-ray disc to test before burning.

[The-One]

I just tried a portable version of PowerDVD 7.3.3730 and I still get the error. Could it be my video card? I can play the m2ts files with WMC but I can't open them as a Blu-Ray disc.

[Baldrick]

Any error message in PowerDVD?
Have you tried mount using virtual clonedrive?

I will check what exact powerdvd version number I have later.

[jman98]

One of the PowerDVD 7.3.x versions is where Cyberlink began to remove all useful disk playing functionality. I don't remember the exact version but it's possible that your version is too recent. You can do the research yourself via Google or some similar search engine. I don't have a BluRay drive so I'm not interested in doing it for you, but I remember seeing a discussion on Doom9 about which version removed this functionality, I just don't remember the exact one.

[The-One]

It's the same error #80040216. I have tried BluRayBerry and Alcohol 120% virtual drives(the latest version of alcohol has HD virtual drives). I get the same result with both. PowerDVD starts to load the movie then the screen filckers as though it is trying to change resolution or maybe disable Desktop compositing. After a few seconds the screen flickers again as though reverting back to the previous state then I get the error message.

[minidv2dvd]

the last powerdvd that played HD files off of the hard drive was v7.3 Build 3319a

the virtual clone drive that is available free from slysoft seems to work better than most.

[The-One]

Well, WinDVD 9 works but I prefer PowerDVD so I'd still like to figure this out. It seems this is a fairly common error.

I'd like to add that the Alcohol virtual drive works fine when using WinDVD. It would be nice to play directly from a folder but I'll settle for mounting an image to play the BR. Now someone just needs to develop a program like PgcEdit for Blu-Ray. This is what I'm waiting for before buying a burner. It's rumored that the authors of PgcEdit and DVD Shrink are both working on such programs but I haven't seen anything definite.

[The-One]

I finally got PowerDVD to play the Video without the error, but there is no picture now. I found a retail version disc and installed the v8.0.2214.0 retail. Then I updated to v8.0.2217D. The movie loads and plays when mounted on the virtual drive but there is no picture. Even the menu is just a black screen except for the animated links

[The-One]

I found a program that IMO works better than PowerDVD and WinDVD.

ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre
http://www.arcsoft.com/products/totalmediatheatre/

The latest versions of PowerDVD have introduced many problems, it's refreshing to find a program that just works without having to try regedits and updating to no avail.