Software(s) for playing 4K Blu-Ray disks on a computer

[WhiteWolf93]

Hello! Coming back to the forum (because it was a great help in the past) with a new for lack of a better word let's say problem but it's also a question.

It's about playing 4K Blu-Ray disks on a computer (in my case laptop, not PC).

Or in other words what player (speaking about software) I can use to play my 4K Blu-Ray discs that aren't homemade but officially bought (in my case from the official internet sources).

First I want to add that I don't own a standard 4K player for my TV, because I watch movies on my laptop (for a lot of reasons, one of which is being able to take screenshots if I really like the movie) and only occasionally I plug it into my TV via an HDMI cable if I want to watch on a big screen. So that's why a while ago I bought a simple portable Blu-ray writer (LG). It works perfectly but because it was years ago, it's only for ordinary Blu-ray discs and doesn't read 4K. So last month I finally bought a new Blu-ray writer, that this time includes 4K (Verbatim) and it reads my discs but here comes my main problem - what media player to use that would play my 4K discs...

Here are the media players I've tried so far:

VLC Media Player - It's supposed to be able to read Blu-rays but for some reason it doesn't work with simple ones let alone 4K ones. And even when I try to use to directly open and play the .m2ts files, it still won't work.

GOM Player - Same result with the the .m2ts files as with VLC Media Player.

KMPlayer - Same result with the the .m2ts files as with VLC Media Player.

PowerDVD 24 - Says the version I have installed (the free one) doesn't have the option to play 4K and wants me to upgrade (buy) the Ultra version. However I don't want to pay for something that I can't test before that it really CAN play my 4K discs. I tried to drag and open the .m2ts file of the movie in the player to see if it would work but it still won't play it. Not to mention that the internet says PowerDVD 24 no longer officially supports Ultra HD Blu-ray (4K Blu-ray) disc playback on Windows PCs as of November, 2023.

Tipard Blu-Ray Player - Also wants me to buy the paid version when I use the "Open disc" version so it would open discs, but when I choose the "Open file" option and try to play the .m2ts file it gets stuck on loading.

Leawo Blu-Ray Player - Basically same result as with Tipard Blu-Ray Player...

5KPlayer - This one plays Blu-ray discs but weirdly won't play 4K Blu-rays and for some reason also won't play the .m2ts files...

Pot Player - it was recommended to me by a colleague from work but unfortunately wouldn't work. Also won't play the .m2ts files.

AVS Media Player - Found this after an internet search, but it doesn't work. Also won't play the .m2ts files.

SMPlayer - also found after an internet search but I didn't have time to test if it works yet (although I'm doubtful it would...)

So as you can see I'm kind of coming up short on options of how to play my 4K discs on my laptop and that's why I decided to come here again, asking for help.

Photos of my Blu-ray portable writers:

Blu-Ray writer:


4K Blu-Ray writer:


Photos of one of my 4K Blu-ray discs I'm trying to play, just in case the disc itself might be the problem...


MediaInfo report:

ReportBy : MediaInfoLib - v25.07
CreatedOn : UTC 2025-08-25 18:07:21
General
Complete name : F:\
Format : Blu-ray movie
Format profile : BD-Java
Duration : 4 h 11 min
Overall bit rate : 19 b/s

Audio #1
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Duration : 1 min 1 s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Language : English

[tigerman8u]

Ace DVD Player. I ran across this software a year or 2 ago and never heard of it. It's in the Microsoft store so I gave it a try and it seems to work good and it's free. It also plays the menu which is what I wanted.
http://https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9mx6hxq04lg9?hl=en-US&gl=US

I also use Power DVD

[WhiteWolf93]

Ace DVD Player. I ran across this software a year or 2 ago and never heard of it. It's in the Microsoft store so I gave it a try and it seems to work good and it's free. It also plays the menu which is what I wanted.
http://https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9mx6hxq04lg9?hl=en-US&gl=US

I also use Power DVD

Ok, I'm going to try it. Thank you!

[usually_quiet]

PowerDVD Ultra used to be able to play commercially produced 4K discs. However, it has not been possible to do that for a few years now, and it is not even an option offered by the current version of that software.

Playback required official 4K drives that could read special keys stored on the discs, which ordinary Blu-ray drives can't access. These drives are no longer produced. In addition, playback required specific Intel hardware that provided security features (Intel SGX and Intel Management Engine), which were later disabled by Intel and Microsoft (via Windows 11 updates) on the hardware that supported them and discontinued on newer Intel products. (This action was taken because SGX had been successfully cracked by hackers and was no longer considered secure.)

[Edit] I have started ripping UHD discs that I want to watch on a computer. Power DVD Ultra refuses to play the rips too because it detects they are from UHD disks. However I can use other software to play the video only, after copying it to an MKV container. The software used depends on the display. I use VLC for HD monitors and Kodi for my 4K TV.

[WhiteWolf93]

PowerDVD Ultra used to be able to play commercially produced 4K discs. However, it has not been possible to do that for a few years now, and it is not even an option offered by the current version of that software.

Playback required official 4K drives that could read special keys stored on the discs, which ordinary Blu-ray drives can't access. These drives are no longer produced. In addition, playback required specific Intel hardware that provided security features (Intel SGX and Intel Management Engine), which were later disabled by Intel and Microsoft (via Windows 11 updates) on the hardware that supported them and discontinued on newer Intel products. (This action was taken because SGX had been successfully cracked by hackers and was no longer considered secure.)

[Edit] I have started ripping UHD discs that I want to watch on a computer. Power DVD Ultra refuses to play the rips too because it detects they are from UHD disks.

So long story short - is it possible to watch 4K Blu-ray discs on computers or not? Because from all that you've written what I gather is that it's not possible...

[usually_quiet]

PowerDVD Ultra used to be able to play commercially produced 4K discs. However, it has not been possible to do that for a few years now, and it is not even an option offered by the current version of that software.

Playback required official 4K drives that could read special keys stored on the discs, which ordinary Blu-ray drives can't access. These drives are no longer produced. In addition, playback required specific Intel hardware that provided security features (Intel SGX and Intel Management Engine), which were later disabled by Intel and Microsoft (via Windows 11 updates) on the hardware that supported them and discontinued on newer Intel products. (This action was taken because SGX had been successfully cracked by hackers and was no longer considered secure.)

[Edit] I have started ripping UHD discs that I want to watch on a computer. Power DVD Ultra refuses to play the rips too because it detects they are from UHD disks.

So long story short - is it possible to watch 4K Blu-ray discs on computers or not? Because from all that you've written what I gather is that it's not possible...

I am not sure. The description for "PlayerFab Ultra HD Player" claims it can play 4K disks, but I have not tried it. I can't tell whether or not this player software requires installing modified firmware on a "UHD friendly" Blu-ray drive, like their ripping software requires, in order to play UHD Blu-ray disks.

There is also another reason why I am choosing to rip my UHD Blu-ray discs. New Blu-ray drives for PCs may not be available in a few years.