Hey Lifehacker, Since Windows 10 seems to lack a built-in DVD playing capability, what alternatives are there? Anything useful in the “universal app” space yet? Thanks, DVD Will Never Die
Dear DVDWND,
DVD playback hasn’t been a standard feature in Windows since Windows 8 (and with the declining sales of DVDs, we’re not entirely surprised).
Our recommendation? Use VLC. It’s free, it’s flexible, and it can handle ripped DVD files with ease. Just choose ‘Open Disc’ from the menu and you’re away. While we’ll be keeping an eye for any new universal apps once Windows 10 launches, we suspect VLC will be hard to beat. If readers have other recommendations, let’s hear them in the comments.
Cheers
Lifehacker
Have a question you want to put to Ask Lifehacker? Send it using our [contact text=”contact form”].
Comments
20 responses to “Ask LH: What’s The Best DVD Player Software For Windows 10?”
I’d pose the same question, but for Blu-Rays.
apparently there is a program called aurora. i just quickly googled it. google is your friend. read some reviews.
Id stay away from that program, It works for barely any blurays. IF you want to play blurays on your computer, You have to go the paid route because of the security on blu ray discs. Blu ray discs have an encryption on them that only allows them to only be played on supported players and programs. Free blu ray players do not have this.
I used to use free programs and 80% of my discs would not play. I paid for Cyber link and all of my movies play fine.
VLC with the blu-ray codecs
link?
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=vlc+bluray+codec
So, you don’t have any links then? It’s just the same old garbage from 2 years ago?
I don’t know if this works on Windows 10, but I’ve been using a program called iDeer under Win7. It’s not free, but does include lifetime updates at no charge after initial purchase (and an initial free trial). All the others I could find want an up-front fee, plus an annual subscription.(*)
Fair warning – it isn’t a “proper” player which handles all the menus properly. It pulls the image files off the disc and plays them using its internal decoder. It can also be used to play any other media. You should probably try it ona trial basis first.
While testing it, I found a recent-ish Blu-Ray that it wouldn’t play and emailed them about it. It was fixed to work within a week or so. So support is OK (US based, of course.) This was, BTW, during the free period.
(*) This is “reasonable” as a BR player must track changes to the standard. The changes are “necessary” as an anti-piracy measure. So, yes, we are once again paying extra to prevent piracy.
use macgo windows blu ray player.
This page said they ca. play 4k blu ray disc, i did not have a try. http://www.blu-rayvideoplayer.com/windows-10-4k-blu-ray-player-software/
UFUSoft Windows Blu-ray Player is current the best, cheapest and most professional Blu-ray playing software working on Windows 10,Windows 8.1 Blue, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP PC, laptop or notebook, which is capable of playing various kinds of Blu-ray discs/Blu-ray folders/Blu-ray ISO image files, 1080P HD videos and other popular video/audio formats, including MKV, M4V, AVI, FLV, MPEG, WMV, MXF, MTS, M2TS, MP4, MP3 etc.
UFUSoft Blu-ray Player Software is able to play any commercial Blu-ray disc or ISO Files on all brands of laptops like Acer (TravelMate, Extensa, Aspire, Gateway, Packard Bell), HP, Toshiba, Lenovo Thinkpad/Ideapad, Asus, Snoy Vaio, Samsung, Dell, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard (HP Pavilion, HP Omnibook), BenQ, LG, Samsung, MSI, HCL, NEC, Panasonic, Compaq, etc.
I just use UFUSoft Blu-ray Player to play blu-ray on windows 10, hope it helps.
UFUShare introduces a great way to play blu-ray on windows 10.
MPC-HC
DVD decrypter and some kind of encoding engine. mencoder is good.
Bit early to say Windows 10 lacks a certain feature when it’s not even been released and MS have stated they’re working on a solution to allow DVD playing when it does get released.
Source?
They dropped it in 8 and 8.1, painful when you don’t realise until you need it.
Optical media is soooo 90’s, but Gabe (he the head honcho for Windows 10 Insider program) has advised thus: https://twitter.com/GabeAul/status/595326865205817346
VLC is my daily program for dvd/blu-ray movie playback. R.I.P WMC, but I rarely use it to play dvds uggh. BTW, I strongly believe that rip and backup dvd is the best way to protect my beloved treasure movies. As for easy-to-use dvd ripper, I’ve been using WinX DVD Ripper, setting sail to support Windows 10 once it’s available, and sure Handbrake 24-7-365.
Actually, Microsoft already offered DVD playback option for Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate, and Windows 8/8.1 with Media Center Pack or Pro Pack.
Just installed Windows 10. I have some DVDs that are stored on my hard drive as iso files. When I mount them using Windows Explorer’s built-in iso reading functionality, VLC only shows the first video track. The second track is not available. Anyone else have this problem?
Windows Media Classic may helps.