Showing posts with label VLC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label VLC. Show all posts
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Labels:
aacs
,
Blu-Ray
,
VLC
,
Windows 8
Windows 8: VLC Blu-Ray playback
Background
When I first purchased my Sony laptop, it came with PowerDVD or something similar installed in Win7 allowing Blu-Ray playback. Any time I travel, I always take this laptop so I can play my Blu-Rays for shows not available through streaming methods. When I upgraded to Windows 8, Sony doesn't offer the Blu-Ray playback software in the list of software available for download for my laptop model, so I basically lost my ability to play Blu-Rays.
I've used VLC before, and it's a great open-source, multi-platform video player. I encourage everyone to check it out if you haven't had the privilege to use it. Since it was free, I installed it and tried to play a Blu-Ray - no luck. I used the 32-bit version, which is the default download version for Windows. When I inserted the disc, I just pointed VLC to my disc drive and clicked "Play." Since that didn't work, I opened the menu: Media > Open Disc, and on the Disc tab I selected BluRay and tried to play it. Still no luck, but this time I received a more informative error, which was that VLC was missing libaacs.
The Fix
I Googled how to add libaacs capability to VLC, and came across an older guide. Here's my specific steps:
Read More
When I first purchased my Sony laptop, it came with PowerDVD or something similar installed in Win7 allowing Blu-Ray playback. Any time I travel, I always take this laptop so I can play my Blu-Rays for shows not available through streaming methods. When I upgraded to Windows 8, Sony doesn't offer the Blu-Ray playback software in the list of software available for download for my laptop model, so I basically lost my ability to play Blu-Rays.
I've used VLC before, and it's a great open-source, multi-platform video player. I encourage everyone to check it out if you haven't had the privilege to use it. Since it was free, I installed it and tried to play a Blu-Ray - no luck. I used the 32-bit version, which is the default download version for Windows. When I inserted the disc, I just pointed VLC to my disc drive and clicked "Play." Since that didn't work, I opened the menu: Media > Open Disc, and on the Disc tab I selected BluRay and tried to play it. Still no luck, but this time I received a more informative error, which was that VLC was missing libaacs.
The Fix
I Googled how to add libaacs capability to VLC, and came across an older guide. Here's my specific steps:
- Install VLC
- Visit http://vlc-aacs.whoknowsmy.name/
- Copy the libaacs.dll to the root VLC installation directory:
- C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC (x64)
- C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC (x86)
- Open your appdata folder
- Start > Run (or Windows key + R)
- Type %appdata%; on Windows 8 the qualified path is: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\
- Look for an aacs folder, and if there isn't one, create it
- Inside the aacs folder place the KEYDB.cfg file
- Insert a Blu-Ray disc, open VLC, and try to play it.
Once I completed that process, I can play Blu-Ray discs again! Hope it works for you. Feel free to leave feedback if your steps differed from mine.
P.S. alternatively, you could just fork over the $50 to $100 for a Blu-Ray playback software suite and save yourself the time/trouble.
P.S. alternatively, you could just fork over the $50 to $100 for a Blu-Ray playback software suite and save yourself the time/trouble.
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