How To: Play Blu-ray and HD DVD Movies from Vista Media Center

By on July 24, 2008 in How to Guides, Media Streaming, Software, Video, Windows, Windows Home Server, Windows Media Center

For those of you out there who have a VMC HTPC and a Blu-ray or HD DVD player, here is the way to do it.  Mike over at Attack Computer Wiz puts together the components to do just that.

From his Blog post:


I pulled my hair out for hours trying to find the best way to get my Windows Vista Ultimate HTPC to support Blu-ray. Here are my requirements.

1. Play Blu-ray and HD DVD’s directly from Media Center.
2. Native Media Center remote support.
3. Backup my Blu-ray and HD DVD’s to hard disk.
4. Play the backup from the folder on the hard disk.
5. Not take extra steps in the backup process (i.e. creating iso files)
6. Do this with as few programs as possible.

There are guides out there to help with this, like Revision3’s System. But their recommendations fell short of my needs because they suggested CyberLink PowerDVD 8. While this program is very nice, it does not support HD DVD, does not integrate with Media Center, does not integrate the Media Center remote (without the need for additional software, and would not play the backups directly from the folder.
So, leaving the nuts and bolts out of it, and assuming you already have all the hardware you need installed and configured correctly, below are my steps and recommendations. I make no guarantees, but the below steps worked perfect for me and met all of my requirements listed above.

1. Install SlySoft’s AnyDVD HD
2. Install ArcSoft’s TotalMedia Theatre

Two applications are all you need to get this job done. AnyDVD HD allow for the backup your DVD’s to your hard disk drive. TotalMedia Theatre provides full Blu-ray and HD DVD playback and fully integrates with Media Center out of the box. Because of this integration the remote works flawlessly. TotalMedia also has the ability to play the backup videos from thier folders.


Enjoy!


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About Jim Clark

Hello. I’m from the heartland of the U.S. Lots of corn and beans, although Iowa is a lot more than just farmland. It also has a few computer enthusiasts (no, not me!). I’ve been around PCs since I got my 1st PC XT aloooong time ago. WGS is one of the first sites I found centered around WHS. And the best. Every once in awhile, I do get away from the KB and enjoy time with and my wife and our 4 kids. And I do have a day job.
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  • Jeff

    Will this work with Extenders?

  • Jim Clark

    To quote: “provides full Blu-ray and HD DVD playback and fully integrates with Media Center out of the box.” I would expect that you should be able to do so, assuming any required codecs are in place thru the full stream of HW/SW.

    Key word: “expect”.

  • Dennis

    I am curious as to how your getting this to work. I have AnyDVD HD and TotalMedia Theatre along with Vista Media Center. Although TotalMedia Theatre is integrated into Vista Media Center it will only play a Blu Ray DVD from the optical drive. I do not have any way to select to select the movie that has been ripped to the hard drive from the TotalMedia Theatre program from within Media Center. What am I missing.

  • Claude Merger

    Hi Jim,
    Just in time! I was looking the web for such a solution. I have downloaded TMT and installed it. It works perfectly on my Media Center PC.
    By the way, I have posted an issue on another file but did not get many answers. I just installed an Xbox360 to to use it as an extender. Everything works ok except the media extender. Each time I try to connect to the Media Center from the Xbox, it lauches Media Center and then I get an error message stating “Connection Lost” Any idea about the problem?
    Thanks
    Claude

  • Jim Clark

    Unfortunately, I think you answered your own question here: http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/2008/07/24/how-to-play-blu-ray-and-hd-dvd-movies-from-vista-media-center/#comments.

    Quote: “I have seen a lot of messages on the web with the same issue, but I have not seen any solution!”

    Sounds like an issue for MS to contend with. I would go over to MS’s Media Center and/or Xbox forums. Or go to their Connect site and submit a bug report, which is probably the best place to get some action on the problem.

  • Jason

    Dennis, or anyone. did someone have an answer to the question below:

    Dennis Says:
    August 12th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
    I am curious as to how your getting this to work. I have AnyDVD HD and TotalMedia Theatre along with Vista Media Center. Although TotalMedia Theatre is integrated into Vista Media Center it will only play a Blu Ray DVD from the optical drive. I do not have any way to select to select the movie that has been ripped to the hard drive from the TotalMedia Theatre program from within Media Center. What am I missing.

  • Jason

    i have ripped blue ray’s and i want to add them to my vista ultimate media center library and be able to play them so my kids do not destroy them. is there a way to do this?

  • Luis

    I’m having the same issue as Dennis. If I start TotalMedia Theater in
    stand-alone mode, I can select movies from the hard disk; but if I start
    it from MediaCenter, I can only play from the dvd or BD drives. I can’t find a way to select a movie from the hard disk…

    Any ideas?
    Thanks!

  • Jim Clark

    For all you having troubles playing ripped BD disks, check out this post: http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/2008/07/10/playing-dvd%e2%80%99s-in-windows-media-center-stored-on-your-windows-home-server/

    I believe that this will take care of your problem (I hope!).

  • jason

    Jim, that is the reg hack for the dvd library but does not help for VMC blue ray playback from a library not a disc within media center. any idea’s

  • Jim Clark

    I guess I am confused.

    1. Does VMC play BD’s? From previous comments, yes from the BD drive.
    2. If VMC can play a BD from the drive, it should be able to play a ripped version. The reg hack simply tells VMC where to look for data.
    3. This is assuming, of course, that VMC treats BD as a sort of DVD…

    I personally do have not BD, so I am unable to try out this myself. :(

  • Luis

    Jim, here is what I have experienced on an HP Media Center running
    Vista Home Premium:
    1) Play BD’s?
    Yes, from the drive using HP-Play, which is a restricted version
    of PowerDVD by Cyberlink.
    2) BD ripped version?
    I know it should, but it does not — I believe they’ve purposely
    disabled the ability to play BD’s from HP-Play altogether. Either
    in standalone mode or from VMC.
    Interestingly, I experience similar behavior using Arcsoft TotalMedia
    Theater: It will not play ripped BD’s from VMC, though this one
    does play the ripped BD’s in standalone mode.

    I also have tried PowerDVD-8 from Cyberlink. It plays all in
    standalone mode. No integration with VMC.

    One more piece of info: The latest version of VMC may have additional
    limitations (or at least the version on HP systems).
    The registry hack does not work for me at all — even for simple
    ripped DVDs.
    [Of course, it may just be operator error... but I've tried a lot
    of combinations :) ].

  • Carole Millington

    I’ve read somewhere that TotalMedia Theatre doesn’t work with 64 bit Vista

  • Tom288

    Thank you for the blog. However, Carole seems to be correct…. 64-bit Vista isn’t supported by TotalMedia Theatre. And if it is true that this solution does not allow for Blu-ray Discs to be accessed that are ripped to the hard drive, it makes it almost useless.

    This seems like such a simple need…having the ability to play Blu-ray within Media Center. I’ve got to believe that this is an intentional Microsoft cripple-ware strategy, just like the missing DVD support without the registry hack.

    Media Center is perfect for my needs otherwise, but it is SO inflexible. I’m looking into other media interface software now…hopefully something is out there that is better.

    Tom

  • Paul Wrightson

    I took your advice and bought Totalmedia player.

    I am getting the same problem with every piece of software. I am running Vista Home Premium with service pack 1, LG Blu-ray ROM drive, have a GeForce card and loads of RAM and hard drive space, I am also running a Quad core processor, so the spec is easily within range. In fact any of the test programs tell me my spec is great. When I try to play a Blu-Ray disk it will play the anti-piracy notice and the Warner Bros (or whoever) and the age rating page then stops. The software still runs and I can use any of the buttons, it has not crashed, it just will not go into the movie itself. I have tried a few different disks, and three different software packages and the results are always the same. I can only imagine it is a Vista problem or anti-virus or something else. Trying different software and discs lends me to think it’s software related, but where?

    I have checked Microsoft and had no luck at all, a software solution I downloaded said it was not required with my system.

    I am at a total loss, it will play DVD’s perfectly, using any of the players, just not the main programme of a Blu-Ray

    Please help

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  • David

    Originally Posted By Carole MillingtonI’ve read somewhere that TotalMedia Theatre doesn’t work with 64 bit Vista

    That’s false. If you look at Arcsoft’s website, 64bit support was added in version .120 [along with DTS downmixing to SPDIF - so happy :) ] I just finished setting up TMT .128 on my x64 VMC and it works both standalone and with the Media Center plugin just fine. My only issue is I can play BD discs with either the standalone or plugin, but can only play rips from the standalone. From what I’m reading, I need to use MyMovies to get the plugin version to use the rips. (If you’re not familiar, the TMT plugin doesn’t have all the buttons/options as the standalone. Just standard DVD controls, no full setup or File Open menus to point it to anything other than the configured drive letter).

  • Bobby

    @David – added in version .120

    Although I saw that on Arcsoft’s website – I installed the latest version (2.1.6.125) and when I click on “Play BD & HD-DVD” it does nothing. Just spins the circle for a couple seconds and sits there.

    Highly disappointing, since I’ve finally gotten the 64 bit Vista running well.

  • http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=24169 neway

    Do this to the letter and you can watch Blu ray movies from hard drive. Works perfectly for me.

  • neway
  • Gazza

    Here is an alternative seamless method:
    1) Download and Install Power DVD 9 Ultra (www.cyberlink.com)
    2) Download and Install Virtual Clone Drive (www.slysoft.com)
    3) Download and Install MCME (www.lightningware.co.uk)
    4) Associate the ISO file type in windows with Virtual Clone Drive.
    5) In the MCME windows application add a file extension of .ISO and set its application path as [DEFAULT] (will use the default application you set up in step 4).
    6) In the MCME windows application add a new file location to where your Blu ray and DVD iso files sit.
    7) All done. Now simply open Media Center, navigate to the MCME browser application (on the Lightning Ware start item), navigate to the folder location of your Blu-ray files and click on the blu-ray you want to play….. MCME automatically mounts it, and PowerDVD plays it. 8) If you registered with MovieLive in Power DVD you will also get Blu-ray movie information and ratings!

  • welchwerks

    Hi Jim, in your article you say remote works flawless in TMT, can you post the remote name and model