External Mac compatible blu-ray drive

[Chris1725]

i have growing library of physical flim and TV titles, some of which are on DVD, but the majority are blu-ray releases, nearly a dozen of which are 3D titles. I'm wondering if it's worth getting a external blu-ray drive, and I am considering the possibility of a Macintosh compatible external drive. I'd like to know if there are any external drives compatible with a 15 inch mid 2015 Macbook Pro laptop. running Apple's very lastest desktop operating system, MacOS Sierra, currently on the market in the UK, that can be used to playback commerically released region b blu-rays on such a computer. I wonder if I should go for a drive offering 3D support or one that only handles 2D blu-ray titles, since all 3D titles I believe also come with a 2D copy of the main feature. i gather that since Apple itself apparently still doesn't produce such an optical drive, what third party external blu-ray drives would fit the bill and if any incliude playback software, or if not, if there is any software that can be used with MacOS Sierra available free of charge online.

 

[Andy TW]

http://www.macworld.com/article/2042431/watch-and-rip-blu-ray-movies-on-your-mac.html

The link above covers how to watch blu-ray on a Mac with an external drive.

Any restriction on viewing in 3D is most likely to be on the software side.

The Power DVD software I use for Windows blu-ray play back (which supports 3D) doesn't seem to have a Mac equivalent.

 

[Chris1725]

Thanks for the reply. i have already taken a look at the Macworld article. I'm from the UK and the prices quoted all seem to be in US dollars. While the article has been of some help, I'm not really interested in the section dealing with ripping blu-ray discs, as I'm simply looking for way of playing them on my Mac laptop. I'm wondering what external drives and software currently available, allow the playback of UK region b blu-ray discs, as Apple's own external superdrive appears to just offer playback of DVD only releases, or those blu-ray titles which inculde a copy of the main feature on a standard definition DVD.

 

[bigboss]

Any external blu ray drive will work fine, check the ones from LG, Samsung and Asus. You'll need a software to play blu ray discs. That Macworld article has given a few examples of software.

 

[bigboss]

Maybe someone else can help here. An option is to dual boot your Mac with Windows which will allow you to install many free programmes like VLC media player.

 

[Chris1725]

Thank you for the reply. I'll certainly consider the makes of blu-ray drive that have been suggested and see what extenal models currently available in the UK offer Mac compatibility.
Regarding the software, as I don't have a credit or debit card, I'm hoping to find software that either doesn't require one for payment, or ideally is available free of charge.

 

[Andy TW]

Some of the external blu-ray drives may include OEM software which will provide play back but it usually only works on Windows.

If you wan't to watch blu-ray's on your Mac then it might be worth considering a dedicated blu-ray player which will do the decoding for you and send the final decoded video signal to your Mac, but whether this will work depends on your Mac's video input options and if they are HDCP compliant for the video being played.

Unfortunately as Apple do not natively support blu-ray your options are limited

 

[Chris1725]

I have a Sony BDP-S790 blu-ray player which was What HIFI product of the year in 2012 and again in 2013, which I use as part of a bedroom av setup. I am hoping to find a simple and relatively inexpensive way of playing blu-rays on a Mac computer. I've been considering getting a blu-ray drive for those occasions when I don't have access to my bedroom setup, as using a drive is surely easier than carrying about the player.
Regarding your suggestion of routing my blu-ray player's video ouput into my Mac, it seems that while my MacBook Pro has an HDMI connection, this is an output port rather than an input. I don't know if an HDMI to thunderbolt adapter would work for getting the video into the laptop due to the sophisticated copy protection system employed on blu-ray discs, or indeed if my MacBook Pro supports HDCP.

 

[iMark]

Regarding your suggestion of routing my blu-ray player's video ouput into my Mac, it seems that while my MacBook Pro has an HDMI connection, this is an output port rather than an input. I don't know if an HDMI to thunderbolt adapter would work for getting the video into the laptop due to the sophisticated copy protection system employed on blu-ray discs, or indeed if my MacBook Pro supports HDCP.

There is no way of using HDMI as an input on a Mac, whatever adapter you use. HDMI on Macs is output only.

The only forward is to buy a drive and connect it through USB. Then you need some software to play Blurays, some other software to rip Blurays and yet more software to burn Blurays. Here's some more information about ripping audio from Blurays.

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/what-best-way-ripping-bluray-audio-mac-15972/

It's pretty obvious that you have to jump through quite a few hoops to get Blurays working on a Mac. Toast however is available with a decent plug-in if you want to author Blurays.

http://www.roxio.com/eng/products/toast/titanium/#compare

In the days before plugging USB sticks into TVs I used to burn quite a few DVDs and Toast was the software of my choice.

 

[Chris1725]

There is no way of using HDMI as an input on a Mac, whatever adapter you use. HDMI on Macs is output only.

The only forward is to buy a drive and connect it through USB. Then you need some software to play Blurays.

I did wonder if a blu-ray player might allow viewing of the high definition disc format on a Macintiosh computer, but that appears not be the case, given it turns out that there's no way of connectiong my player to my laptop, so I'm still looking for external drives and software that facilitate the playing of blu-ray discs.

 

[Chris1725]

Has anyone actually been successful in finding a simple and relativly inexpensive way of viewing blu-rays in MacOS Sierra, Apple's latest desktop operting system?

 

[Chris1725]

There is no way of using HDMI as an input on a Mac, whatever adapter you use. HDMI on Macs is output only.

The only forward is to buy a drive and connect it through USB. Then you need some software to play Blurays.

This confirms what I suspected, that a blu-ray player does not allow viewing of the high definition disc format on a Macintosh computer, given it turns out that there's no way of connecting my player to my laptop. Since the HDMI connection is output only, I had wonered if an adapter might have enabled one of the other ports on my laptop to be used, but since this doesn't seem to be possible, I'm still considering an external drive and software that facilitates the playing of blu-ray discs.

 

[iMark]

An external USB drive with software will work. You could try Aiseesoft Blu-ray Player for Mac, Aurora Blu-ray Player for Mac or Macgo’s Mac Blu-ray Player for Blu-ray disc playback on macOS Sierra.
If it's just for playback, a drive and playback software is all you need.

 

[Chris1725]

Thanks for the assistance. I'll take a look and see what drives and software meet my requirements.

 

[Chris1725]

I've treated myself to an early Christmas gift of a Coolead blu-ray drive and Aiseesoft blu-ray player software. While the software generally works well in playing the high definition disc format on a Mac computer, it creates its own menus, rather than accessing those on the blu-ray titles themselves.

 

[Chris1725]

Has anyone experienced any issues when playing blu-rays on a Mac laptop?

 

[Chris1725]

While using the Aiseesoft Mac blu-ray player software with an external drive, I've come across several blu-ray titles where the main feature plays in the correct aspect ratio, but the behind the scenes material plays in what seems to be a 4:3 ratio rather than 16:9, with cast and crew members looking horribly thin and stretched as a result. Is it possible in the Aiseesoft player to select the correct aspect ratio in these cases?