Turn a laptop in to a Bluray DVD player?

April 3, 2016 4:48 PM

I have an TV with a built in DVD player that I didn't realize is ancient and a couple of older Windows 7 laptops and an HDMI connection. There seems to be a few different downloadable software options that would allow Bluray DVDs to be recognized by a laptop, without spending hours using trial and error, is there one that is better?
posted by readery to Technology (6 answers total)

Best answer: Are you looking to play Blu-ray disks or DVDs? The hardware is different. No software will allow a laptop to play Blu-ray disks if the optical drive in the laptop doesn't support it.
posted by zachlipton at 5:33 PM on April 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Yeah. Software isn't going to turn your DVD drive into a Bluray drive. You'll need to replace the drive for this to happen, or get an external one.
posted by destructive cactus at 5:45 PM on April 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Well, that explains that. I have one Toshiba laptop that plays Bluray and one that doesn't. I didn't realize they had different drives and would prefer to have the non Bluray drive laptop tethered to the TV. Obviously I will not get an invite to join any AV Club.

Thanks.
posted by readery at 6:33 PM on April 3, 2016

Best answer: It might be possible to swap out the drives. There's usually one screw on the bottom of the laptop that you can undo and the entire optical unit just slides/drops out after that. My older MSI has the screw marked with a circle-in-a-box disc thing embossed in the plastic, something like this -> [O]. The bezel pieces that match up to the side profile of the laptop may or may not be easily removeable. So there's a possibility of getting things how you want them...
posted by mcrandello at 7:05 PM on April 3, 2016

Best answer: Actual Blu Ray players are cheap and small these days.
posted by w0mbat at 8:19 PM on April 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Once you have a Bluray-capable drive in your computer, the software you want to use with it is VLC. Free, solid, plays anything without needing a crapton of extra codec packs.
posted by flabdablet at 12:16 PM on April 4, 2016