Blu Ray codec- any recommendations?

Hi all,

I have recently picked up a Blu Ray drive for my PC to watch films etc with. However, I have found that Windows does not have a codec to play DVD's or Blu Ray's (thus rendering the drive a tad useless). I am looking for codecs to be able to watch retail DVD's/Blu Ray's on Windows 8 64 Bit Edition.

Are there any good software suites you can recommend?

Thank you.

P.s. This is for PAL region DVD's and Blu Ray's so I am not sure if that will affect which software I can use.

ive never actually played a blu-ray disc... so i wouldnt know what programs would work.
But VLC pretty much eats everything else iv'e thrown at it, so try that if you havent already.

It is kind of expensive but I bought PowerDVD. VLC didn't work for Blu Ray and I didn't want to mess around with trying any hacks or dodgy software I found online. So I just paid the money and it just works.

Try Media Player Classic? I dunno, have you downloaded the CCCP and K-lite codec packs?

Just download CCCP and you'll (probably) never have to worry about codecs again.

The problem with powerdvd/windvd is that...its buggy and loves to force updates down your throat. The price is also far too high when you consider blu-ray players can be had for under $50 down at best buy.

@mattyftm:

What is CCCP? I have never heard of this before so apologies on this.

Which version of Power DVD did you get? I was going to get 12 from Amazon (before I posted this thread) but there was a lot of negative reviews saying the software was essentially busted, although I guess I don't mind if you can use the Blu Ray's and DVD's in Windows Media Player?

@johnlocke: I bought 12 Pro a while back when I saw they had a sale going. I personally haven't had any major problems with it. There have been a few times it gave some kind of error about not being able to read or play the Blu Ray disc but a quick reboot has fixed that. After reading some of those Amazon reviews it sounds like I've been lucky. Maybe try to keep looking for something else.

@johnlocke: CCCP, just like K-lite is a collection of codecs for your various media players. These let you play different file formats that aren't natively supported out of the box. Here's the download for it, should be an installer of sorts but I could be wrong. Haven't installed it in a while.

The problem is, commercial blurays are encrypted. As far as i know, programs that want to decrypt the discs officially need a license to do so. That's why you probably won't find any legal software that offers full playback for free.

Vlc/media player classic will play back the video files that are on the bluray once the disc is decrypted (with third party decrypters), but you won't get any of the menus like you would on a bd-player.

the only way i know how to play back bd's with full menus is to buy commercial software like power dvd.

I'm using WinDVD Pro 11, It's pretty good but I think it's a bit expensive for something I felt should have been included with the os; if you can still return your drive, I would do that and buy a drive that comes with player software bundled in.

If you do go for WinDVD, let me know, I think I have a 20% off coupon code at home for it somewhere.

It's crazy how much of a pain in the ass it is to watch a Blu Ray on PC.