Blu-ray

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I don't own any Blu-ray discs, and have never watched any films in this format. For one thing, it seems you need a compatible TV set (mine is an old CRT one) and a dedicated Blu-ray player.

I'm wondering though whether it's feasible to play these discs on a laptop? My researches so far suggest that it might be, though one would presumably need to use suitable software - I doubt that standard VLC etc would do the job? If so, would any old laptop, eg from the Windows 7 or 8 era, be okay for this, or would I need a version with an advanced processor and so on?

Hope that someone who, unlike me, has progressed into the 21st Century will be able to answer this!

So long as you have the right software & the right bluray drive, then any laptop that’s capable of running windows 7, is fine.

Thanks Juliette, but none of my PCs, including my main laptop, are later than around 2013 - I wonder whether Bluray dvd drives were standard on these?

If so, could anyone recommend any free software that would be likely to work on such a machine?

They weren’t standard on the older machines, sadly, no. Lots of stuff out there for dvds. Can’t play blurays on the older hardware. It’s like trying to watch colour tv on a black & white.

You’d need new hardware.

Thanks anyway - I'll look into it!

VLC 2.0 or later will play Blu-rays. You will need to check out your optical drive specs to see if it will play Blu-ray. If not it's an easy upgrade (youtube vids). Blu-ray are made in 1080p , a screen resolution of (1920 pixels wide x 1080 pixels high) , check if you can change your laptop screen resolution to (1920x1080), if it cant um Pass

LOL, my maximum resolution seems to be 1366x768.

With that resolution, your laptop may scale down a bluray to 720p, but I can't guarantee it, the quality would be better than a DVD though if it does.

Hokay, maybe I'll give it a go then. Should be able to scavenge a second hand bluray dvd for a couple of quid in a local Cash Generator and test it out....!

Sorry guys, but it has nothing to do with the resolution. If your laptop has a dvd player & not a bluray player, it will never work. It’s a different technology altogether.

Aaaaaargggh, not good news, but at least you may have saved me a couple of quid, Juliettte!

Don't be sorry Juliette , I did mention the optical drive needed to be Blu-ray compliant. The resolution comments were mentioned for best viewing.

Personally, if you want to watch Blu-rays in 1080p or even 4K I would suggest a 2nd hand TV/Blu-ray combo, although I am not a fan of combo's (more to go wrong). I have recently upgraded to a 4K Smart TV (£200 but they are getting cheaper and will be old tech when 8K and more become more mainstream) , I don't have a Blu-ray player so I put films on a USB stick which the TV plays.

I'll get me coat....

Too slow, I've already left

Oh I forgot, here's a vid on how easy it can be to change optical drive on laptop should you decide to do it.

i was staying in Wales(got to visit Mountain Goat), when the place in Llansteffan I rented, had a bluray built into the tv. Loved the resolution so much, when I got back home, bought a separate bluray player & massive tv(my solution to no more cinema due to covid ) Plenty of good 2nd hand tv/bluray combos out there at a reasonable price, I’d imagine. Wouldn’t be without one now. 4k blurays (bands on tour etc look incredible!).