Are you having trouble playing your Blu-ray discs on your Windows 10 HP laptop? If so, you are not alone. With the removal of Windows Media Center and its support for Windows 10, it has become more difficult to play Blu-ray discs on your computer. However, the good news is that there are free ways to do so using a third-party media player and program that can convert files on the disk to files that can play on any media player.
In this article, we will show you how to play your favorite Blu-ray discs on your HP laptop for free using two different methods.
Method 1: Using VLC Media Player
VLC Media Player is a popular third-party media player that can handle most major music and video file formats. Although VLC isn’t available in the Microsoft Store, you can get it for free from the developer’s website. However, natively VLC cannot play Blu-ray discs nor display some Blu-ray menus. To do so, you will need to install it first, then download two more files and place them in specific folders.
Here are the steps:
1. After installing VLC, open File Explorer and go to C Drive Program Files.
2. Create a new folder and name it “AACS.”
3. Go to VLC – blu-ray doc who knows my name and download key DB CFG.
4. Go to the folder you just created. On the same website, download L by B AAA CS DLL to your VLC folder. If you can’t download it directly to the VLC directory, download the file to a different location and then drag it into the VLC directory.
5. Launch VLC and click Media > Open Disk.
6. Click Blu-ray, radio check the box next to no disc menus.
7. Select your Blu-ray in the disk device field.
8. Click Play.
Method 2: Ripping and Encoding
The second method to playing Blu-ray discs on Windows 10 involves ripping and encoding. This process entails converting the files on the disk into files that can play in any media player. When you rip and encode a Blu-ray disc, the information from the disk is copied to your computer, and you can then convert it into a media file format that any media player is capable of playing. Although it doesn’t destroy the disk, in some jurisdictions, making personal copies of Blu-ray discs is illegal. These copies are only meant for personal use.
To rip and encode the Blu-ray discs, you can use a program like MakeMKV. It’s easy to use and converts all your physical disks into digital files with ease. You can also watch converted files on other devices using programs like Plex. The only downside to using MakeMKV is that MKV files take up a lot of space on your hard drive.
Here are the steps:
1. Go to the official MakeMKV website.
2. Click MakeMKV, download, and install it.
3. Open MakeMKV and click File > Open Disk.
4. Select your Blu-ray disk and click Yes.
5. Go to the MakeMKV section.
6. Click the green icon and click Yes.
7. Wait for the conversion to finish.
8. Once done, play the MKV file you’ve just created in VLC.
Using VLC or MakeMKV can take a long time, and it is possible to make mistakes, but they are free ways of playing Blu-ray discs on Windows 10. While it would be a lot easier if Microsoft just reinstated Windows Media Center, changing habits are a hint to what consumer electronics will look like in the future.
Did you find this tutorial useful? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.