There are many people out there that have a Home Theater PC running with the media portal software XBMC and UPnP enabled TV. You might have been searching for a way to enjoy Blu-ray movies from your TV by accessing media in your XBMC media center. But here is a question.
Does XBMC support Blu-ray playback with or without menus?
No. By default XBMC does not support original Blu-ray playback. There is not yet any C/C++ open source software out there yet capable of fully playing back Blu-ray. FFmpeg (the open source codec-suit that XBMC uses) will probably relatively soon be able to decode all audio and video codecs used in both Blu-ray, but even when that happens you still have to get around the
DRM encryptions used by the disc formats and there is not yet any C/C++ open source software library capable of that on-the-fly, neither is there any C/C++ open source software library out there capable of displaying Blu-ray menus. XBMC need C/C++ open source software libraries for all of these things to fully support Blu-ray playback.
But don't get frustrated! It's not impossible to watch Blu-ray movies in XBMC, all we need is to
decrypt copy protection by removing AACS (up to MKBv17), BD+, region code from Blu-ray disc. And there are enough choices for you to achieve the purpose out there on the Internet. You might consider about which one to choose. I'd like to recommend
Aunsoft Blu-ray Video Converter Ultimate (
Win/
Mac) which is definitely one of the best all-in-one tools for Blu-ray ripping as well as video converting. You can load commercial Blu-ray movies and DVD movies to the program and the program will decrypt copy protection so that you can play the output video. With the support of
TrueHD, Eac3, DTS, DTS-HD in BD movie, you can select the subtitle and audio stream with the exact language you want. More than that, Aunsoft Blu-ray Video Converter Ultimate has already updated with full support for Blu-ray Avatar.
Part 1: Decrypt/Convert/Rip Blu-ray disc
Step 1:
Download, launch Aunsoft
Blu-ray Video Converter Ultimate and load Blu-ray disc to the app.
Download Aunsoft Blu-ray Video Converter Ultimate to your pc and launch the all-in-one Blu-ray Ripper, load BD to the program by clicking "Load DVD" in the menu bar.
Step 2: Choose output format and specify destination folder
Hints: You may need to check video formats supported both by XBMC and your UPnP certified TV.
After you successfully load blu-ray movies to Aunsoft Blu-ray Video Converter Ultimate, specify your output folder in "Output" bar. After that, choose "HD Video" output format in "Format" drop-down list to decrypt & convert Blu-ray movies to your hard drive, for example in this case I choose MPEG-2 HD Video format for XBMC.
Step 3: Convert/decrypt/rip Blu-ray
Click "Convert" button to start conversion. When the process is finished, you can get converted video in your output destination folder.
Part 2: Playback Blu-ray media in XBMC
Step 1: Setting up UPnP Shares in XBMC
Configuring UPnP shares in XBMC is as easy as setting up any other type of share. First you need to activate XBMC's UPnP-client with "Enable UPnP Client" from the network section under settings in XBMC GUI. Then you simply add one or more UPnP shares via the "Add Source" function with the context-menu (white-button on your controller or the info button on the remote) in XBMC GUI under each of the the My Pictures/My Videos/My Music sections, (just like how you add SMB/Samba and XBMSP/XBMS) shares.
In this example, we are going to add the Video folder shared above to My Videos, although you can use the exact same procedure to add a share to My Music or My Pictures:
First, open My Video. Your screen should look something like the one displayed to the right, although your shares may be different.
Then, open the context menu by pressing the White button on your controller and select Add Source.
Then choose Browse and then Add Network Location. Choose Windows Media Connect as the Protocol and then Browse for the Server Address. Select the UPnP:// option and then you should see your computer's name. Select your computer and at this time, a help balloon should appear in the tray on your computer advising you that a new device has been connected.
You should see Unknown Device appear, as is displayed to the left. Select the device and choose Allow.
Back on your Xbox, you may have to press back (the B button) and reselect your computer name in order to make the shares appear. Then, select the share that appears and name it. At this point, the share should appear in My Video.
Step 2: Enjoy converted Blu-ray movies on your UPnP enabled TV
After you successfully share videos in XBMC, you can directly playback the media in My Videos folder by accessing through UPnP shared network on your UPnP enabled TV.
More about XBMC
What is XBMC?
XBMC (formerly "Xbox Media Center"
is a free, open source (GPL) cross-platform media player and home entertainment system software with a 10-foot user interface designed for the living-room TV. Its graphical user interface allows the user to easily manage video, photos, podcasts, and music from a computer, optical disk, local network, and the internet using a remote control.
What can XBMC do?
-XBMC can be used to play/view the most popular video, audio, and picture formats, and many more lesser-known formats, including:
-Video - DVD-Video, VCD/SVCD, MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, XviD, Matroska
-Audio - MP3, AAC.
-Picture - JPG, GIF, PNG.
These can all be played directly from a CD/DVD, or from the hard-drive. XBMC can also play multimedia from a computer over a local network (LAN), or play media streams directly from the Internet.
-XBMC can play DVD-Video movies (with and without menus) from ISO/IMG images and even ZIP/RAR-archives.
-XBMC has playlist and slideshow functions, a weather forecast feature and many audio visualizations.
-XBMC can in addition run python-scripts written for XBMC as plugin widgets.
-XBMC has a simple user interface that's pleasant and easy to use.
All these features enable your device to function as a full multimedia jukebox.
Exactly which media formats can XBMC play?
See the complete list of supported features/formats
here, if it is not listed there then XBMC does not support it (yet)!
UPnP in XBMC
XBMC has (since the 10th of July 2006) a built-in UPnP-client (a so called "UPnP AV MediaServer ControlPoint" device) which can auto-detect any UPnP-server (a so called "UPnP AV MediaServer" device) on your local-network as long as that UPnP-server is not behind a firewall/router or you have opened the ports needed for UPnP in your firewall/router. XBMC also have a built-in UPnP-server (since the 24th of January 2007) which enables you to share your video/picture/audio files to all XBMC Xboxes on your local-network. XBMC's built-in UPnP-server can also stream those same video/picture/audio files to other UPnP-clients ("UPnP AV MediaServer ControlPoint" devices), however since the Xbox (XDK) does not support multicast those other UPnP-clients must support recieving broadcasts or they will not be able to auto-detect XBMC's UPnP-server, (but those UPnP-clients that do not support broadcast discovery of UPnP-servers might still be able to stream from XBMC's UPnP-server if they support manual entering of the IP-address that your Xbox with XBMC is using).
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is a container format contained in HD DVD video media. It contains the actual video, audio, subtitle and menu contents in stream form. It is an extension to VOB, which is an extension to MPEG program stream. EVO files can contain video encoded in H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, VC-1, or MPEG-2 and audio encoded in AC-3, E-AC-3, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS-HD, PCM, and MPEG-2.
