Easy Guide: Unlocking Your Blu-Ray’s Full Potential with No Cost - Watch Films & Shows

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How to Play Blu-ray Videos & HD Movies on Windows (10) and Mac

Posted by Kaylee Wood | Last update: April 28, 2020

Blu-ray is designed to store HD videos in resolution like 1080p, and that’s why we need it. But as HD/4K/8K videos roll out on the internet, Blu-ray is really going to lose its status. The saving grace of this Blu-ray format gradually falls into concrete storage/collection of videos/music and photos against Cloud storage. But anyways, as a synonym for HD videos and a way of storing, Blu-ray will last for quite a long time and there are a million ways for you to play Blu-ray videos. Among them, the best assistant up to this task that we also strongly recommend is 5KPlayer .

What Does Blu-ray Disc Mean to Us Consumers Nowadays?

Though 4K Blu-ray and HDR dics are rolling out and high-qality pursuers and collectors have already tasted the fresh bite of greater resolution, this form of media flow still has its limitations.

1. Watching HD videos in an expensive manner!

For the starter, to watch HD movies not for collection, it is not at all worth it to buy every disc, let alone Blu-ray disc for that purpose. Video streaming services like HBO, Netflix and Hulu and many videos on demand services like popcorn media players, can offer you tons of varied contents in HD and UHD quality for just one-off payment every month at a reasonable price. And why would fee-based Blu-ray bother since now you can even watch HD movies online free from certain sites like onlinemovies.pro. More importantly, what if one day you want to rip the Blu-ray discs and save the Blu-ray videos in your hard-drive? Prepare another expense for a Blu-ray HD ripper!

2. Darn inconvenient!

Say you want to take newly released HD movies along with you to hit the road for the holiday, carrying a heap of Blue-ray discs would only burden your trip. Maybe you can pay to have them ripped, but you’ll definitely spend twice the time than getting the content directly from online with lower cost.

Besides, Apple wipes out DVD drives from some of its products like Macbook air and Macbook pro and makes Mac unable to recognize Blu-ray devices. Microsoft also ditched Windows Media Center and DVD playing program in Windows 10. By viewing from the trends, days ahead with Blu-ray disc won’t go smooth anymore.

Therefore, to play Blu-ray videos (HD videos), we can totally jump out of the habitual thinking pattern of getting/buying Blu-ray discs:

Innovative way to play Blu-ray video without Blu-ray discs:

For HD addicts, if you want to free play Blu-ray movies, why not download 5KPlayer freeware on Mac/pc, which supports playing Blu-ray videos of the following variations:

*High Fidelity Pure Audio (BD-A)
*AVCHD:
Note: Most AVCHD camcorders record 1080 Interlaced Blu-ray videos. So if you want to play those Blu-ray videos in AVCHD on computers smoothly without interlaced lines, you may need 5KPlayer to help get rid of the serrations .
*AVCREC
*Ultra HD Blu-ray
aka. supporting 4K Blu-ray playback
*Blu-ray 3D

5KPlayer - Free Blu-ray video player

*Presents true HD video quality;
*With built-in codec support with decoders;
*Play Blu-ray videos movies and other HD/UHD/FUHD videos;
*Supports DVD playback;
*Supports up to 4K/8K res video playback.
By using 5KPlayer, you can list of top 15 Bluray movies free download from over 300 online websites for viewing on your iMac with retina 5K display and even HDTV instead of bogged download increasingly deeper in endless software/hardware purchase.

Play Blu-ray video on Windows/Mac with Blu-ray discs

Play Blu-ray video on Mac Computer

For Mac with optical drive:

*You can either resort to Blu-ray Software like Mac Blu-ray player or Blufab Media Player to directly play the Blu-ray video discs.
*Or, rip a Blu-ray to a folder, then play the folder with a free Blu-ray video player like 5KPlayer/VLC.
Note: Since Blu-ray decoders are not free, a Blu-ray disc player can hardly be absolutely robust and free at the same time.
So, if you want to use VLC for free Blu-ray playback, you may have to download and place the AACS and BD+ DRM libraries and keys, which won’t work for all Blu-ray discs.

For Mac without optical drive:

Direct playback a Blu-ray disc is out of the question. So you can:
*Get an AVCHD Blu-ray video copy from online;
*Or rip the disc on a Windows PC with optical drive and then play or AirPlay the content from Windows to Mac with 5KPlayer;
*Or get the hardware –purchase an external drive with Blu-ray support (FYI: a bit expensive way);

Play Blu-ray video on Windows (8/10) PC

1. Check if your Windows 8/10 PC really cannot play DVDs;
The boxed Windows 8/10 laptop or desktop computer will almost certainly have DVD playback software pre-loaded by the manufacturer. If you find it plays DVDs well, then the only thing you need is to find a Blu-ray media player or a Blu-ray ripper, like Blu Ray Player for Windows or WinX DVD ripper.

2. Make use of your XBOX to play Blu-ray video discs.
Set up and install the Blu-ray & DVD player app on Xbox One and insert the Blu-ray discs and select Blu-ray player on the home screen.

How to Play Blu Ray Videos on Windows (10)/Mac with 5KPlayer?

Preparation: Download and install one of the best 4K Blu-ray players - 5KPlayer on your Mac computer. And then you can follow the guide below to figure out how to use this free Blu-ray video player to play all Blu-ray movies videos on Mac/Windows.

Step 1. Save the Blu-ray videos on your Windows (10)/Mac;

The Blu-ray videos can be those that are ripped from Blu-ray discs or those found on the internet;

Step 2. Open this Blu-ray HD player and click the Video button to browse the Blu-ray file.
You can also drag and drop the Blu-ray video to the UI, which will then be played without blemish.

Tips:
It is also recommended that you convert Blu-ray videos to MP4 and other formats for the sake of computer’s life span, transition convenience like AirPlay, and more efficient storage on other devices like iPad/iPhone.

5KPlayer really interprets the future trends of high res video presenting. If anyone dares to tell you that HD videos viewed on the finest Retina tablet display or LCD flat screen can’t come close to a Blu-ray, then either the HD content is a fake one or he is lying!

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