Cross-Platform Blu-ray Movie Playback Watch YOUR movies on YOUR computer without (many) headaches!

Tired of not being able to watch movies you paid for on your operating system of choice? So were we!

This issue comes up so often that you'd think there would be a simple solution already! We looked high and low to find a simple solution to watch movies on the Macintosh or Linux.  The "solutions" ranged from ripping the disc and watching the copy (which takes a lot of hard drive space and time) to installing Windows in a virtual machine along with AnyDVD HD and a player (just insane).

Everything needed to run a Blu-ray movie already exists on the net. All that was missing was a simple way to tie it all together so non-geeks could use it. Hopefully, this is that missing piece.

Along with our script, you'll need two additional programs to make this work:

Video LAN Player VLC plays pretty much any kind of media known to man.  It can play it from disks, networks, hard drives, and probably across tin cans and string if the bit rate is low enough. You'll need this installed to watch movies.  Click the traffic cone icon to the right to download it.

MakeMKV This is the actual magic sauce that makes this all possible.  MakeMKV opens your Blu-ray movie and decrypts everything so VLC can play it.  This program isn't free, but there is a 30 day trial and the price is very reasonable for what it does. Compared to the "correct" and "proper" way of playing Blu-ray content (if it's even possible on your computer), this program is a bargain.  Click the MKV icon to the right to download the trial or purchase a license.  If you decide to buy, please use our icon to do so - it'll help us continue to improve our script!

Download! This is why you're here, so let's get to it! Pick your operating system from the list below:   OS X Linux Windows (See FAQ) Source

FAQ

• How do I install this on a Macintosh?
• How do I install this on Linux?
• Why is this FAQ so ugly?
• Why no Windows release?
• You posted the source code?

First be sure you have VLC.app and MakeMKV.app in your /Applications folder.  Next, download and unpack (by double-clicking it) the Blu-Ray player script.  Insert a Blu-ray movie into your drive and double-click the player icon.

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The Linux script assumes that "killall", "curl", "VLC" and "makemkvcon" are in your path.  If they are not, you will need to adjust your path, the player script, or make symlinks.  The Linux package only contains a BASH script (the player) and a graphic to use as an icon if you decide to add the script to your menus.  As with much of Linux, the details are left as an exercise to the reader.

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I ran out of time building the page.  The default templates for a FAQ are ugly.  Want to make me some new ones?  :-)

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Windows already has various Blu-ray playback solutions, so we focused on other platforms.  If we get enough requests, a Windows version is very possible. Until then, we recommend using SlySofts AnyDVD HD and Cyberlinks PowerDVD.

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Yep.  We're cool like that.  Besides, the VLC and MakeMKV teams deserve all the credit.  (Doesn't mean we wouldn't like a donation though!)

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Why are there ads on this page?

Typically, our corporate site is ad-free. However, to support the effort required to maintain this script, we've decided to place targeted ads on this one page. Please don't block them!