Best 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software?

Please post here for issues related to Blu-ray discs
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-Jim-
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2025 12:18 am

Best 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software?

Post by -Jim- »

Hi Team,

I'm still a newbie at all of this, but I am making progress.

I bought a Asus BW-16D1HT Blu-ray Burner and with the assistance I found here on the Forum (Thanks Gents!) flashed it so it now reads 4K UHD Blu-rays. I downloaded VLC Media Player; and JAVA 8 as I read that then I'd be able to use the menu on the disk in VLC, and be able to decipher the content on them in MakeMKV. Well, I think I've got MakeMKV working but not VLC. VLC still says it can't utilize the menus but will play the disk without them. (Which it does just fine.)

I tired Cyberlink's PowerDVD 24 Ultra but it says the disk is an unreadable format. So I'm just about at my wits end. I can't seem to find a detailed guide to make VLC work, so I'm looking for your opinion on the best 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software for a Windows 11 Computer?

Your opinion will be appreciated.

Thanks for the assist.

Regards,

Jim 8)
Coopervid
Posts: 3363
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2019 10:32 pm

Re: Best 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software?

Post by Coopervid »

-Jim- wrote:
Wed Sep 17, 2025 4:28 pm
Hi Team,

I'm still a newbie at all of this, but I am making progress.

I bought a Asus BW-16D1HT Blu-ray Burner and with the assistance I found here on the Forum (Thanks Gents!) flashed it so it now reads 4K UHD Blu-rays. I downloaded VLC Media Player; and JAVA 8 as I read that then I'd be able to use the menu on the disk in VLC, and be able to decipher the content on them in MakeMKV. Well, I think I've got MakeMKV working but not VLC. VLC still says it can't utilize the menus but will play the disk without them. (Which it does just fine.)

I tired Cyberlink's PowerDVD 24 Ultra but it says the disk is an unreadable format. So I'm just about at my wits end. I can't seem to find a detailed guide to make VLC work, so I'm looking for your opinion on the best 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software for a Windows 11 Computer?

Your opinion will be appreciated.

Thanks for the assist.

Regards,

Jim 8)
Regarding VLC: Have to set up the integration in Makemkv? This will use some different files. Menus will still be shaky.

Regarding PowerDVD: The last version that worked with 4K was PowerDVD 22. However, this does not play "on-the-fly". You would have to rip to folder first and play it from hard disk.
Toscaclarinet
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Jun 12, 2023 7:18 pm

Re: Best 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software?

Post by Toscaclarinet »

For VLC I had to play around with Windows Environment Variables before I could get BD-J menus to work. You have to use a certain version of Java and then put the path to that in the Env Variables. I can't remember the details but am pretty sure there was a really helpful reddit thread that I followed and got it working.
Hello
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2025 6:11 pm

Re: Best 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software?

Post by Hello »

Bonjour à tous,

J'ai le même soucis j'utilise POWERDVD 24 et un lecteur techPulse120 USB 3.1 Type-C Lecteur Graveur Externe UHD 4K Blu Ray 3D DVD CD de pour Windows et je n'arrive pas à lire les dvd 4k ultra.

PS: je n'ai pas installé Java.

Faut t'il vraiment installé java et quel version ? car j'arrive à ripper les blu-ray en 1080p et les lire via Plex Serveur Nas QNAP sur ma télévision Samsung QN9000B65 pareil pour graver les 4k j'ai pas compris comment on faisait car ca me donne pas des fichiers en .MKV.

Cordialement à vous. :D
-Jim-
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2025 12:18 am

Re: Best 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software?

Post by -Jim- »

I went back to trying to make VLC work with JAVA 8 installed. Just for Grins I decided to swap out my Black Panther 4K UHD Blu-ray (which I was randomly using for testing) for my Eric Clapton - Lady in the Balcony 4K UHD Blu-ray.

And to my surprise, the Menus worked. Not the smoothest, but they worked and let me select options, chapters, etc., using the keyboard arrows and the enter button.

I was surprised at the sense of accomplishment I got when it worked after all these hours of mucking about.

But if VLC is not reliable, is there a better program out there?

I'll have to try some of my other 4K UHD Blu-rays.

Wish me Luck!
-Jim-
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2025 12:18 am

Re: Best 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software?

Post by -Jim- »

Sadly that experiment failed with both my 4K UHD Blues Brothers, and what was an new unopened 4K UHD Bohemian Rhapsody disk. I have a half dozen or so 4K UHD Disks that I haven't opened yet :roll: as I want to get this sorted first.

Does anyone have 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software that works? :?

Thanks for the assist.
MartyMcNuts
Posts: 3939
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2017 11:45 pm

Re: Best 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software?

Post by MartyMcNuts »

-Jim- wrote:
Fri Sep 26, 2025 6:12 pm
Sadly that experiment failed with both my 4K UHD Blues Brothers, and what was an new unopened 4K UHD Bohemian Rhapsody disk. I have a half dozen or so 4K UHD Disks that I haven't opened yet :roll: as I want to get this sorted first.

Does anyone have 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software that works? :?

Thanks for the assist.
Jim, generally we do not playback the UHD discs. 99.9% of us rip our movies and store them on a NAS for streaming to all devices in a household. For those rare few who do playback the discs, it is just the movie, without menu's and generally using VLC.

You would be far better off ripping the movie then playing that with whatever player you want as the MKV file will already be decrypted.
Cheers :D
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For UHD enabled drives (AU/NZ/SG + Others) & DIY Single Drive Flasher (WW): https://uhdenableddrives.com
SamuriHL
Posts: 2680
Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:32 pm

Re: Best 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software?

Post by SamuriHL »

Or you can use jriver mc if you want menus. It's not free but it's one of the best playback software for PC IMO.

Sent from my SM-S938U1 using Tapatalk

-Jim-
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2025 12:18 am

Re: Best 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software?

Post by -Jim- »

I downloaded and installed the latest JRiver Media Center but it wouldn't play either of the 4K UHD Blues Brothers, or 4K UHD Bohemian Rhapsody disk. :roll:

I'm still searching...
SpeeDY-1337
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2025 8:18 pm

Re: Best 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software?

Post by SpeeDY-1337 »

Hey guys,

the best player software so far for me is PlayerFab but not all of my 4k-Backup Movies (all backuped with MakeMKV) are working. You can test it some days before buying it. I have collected a lot of 4k Movies and with this player round about 60-80% are working with Menus ect. The good thing is that the Developers are working on it and not long time ago they fixed some Movies that are not playing correctly. You can upload them on the FTP-Server so that they can fix it in future Versions.

I have also 2 more licences if someone want one i can sell them.

Greetings
SpeeDY-1337
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2025 8:18 pm

Re: Best 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software?

Post by SpeeDY-1337 »

SamuriHL wrote:
Sat Sep 27, 2025 2:26 am
Or you can use jriver mc if you want menus. It's not free but it's one of the best playback software for PC IMO.

Sent from my SM-S938U1 using Tapatalk
Hey, thanks for the tip,

I tested like 10 Movies with this software but only 30% or so work with Menu ect. correctly. PlayerFab works a bit better with Menus, but also not perfect with all movies
SamuriHL
Posts: 2680
Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:32 pm

Re: Best 4K UHD Blu-ray Player Software?

Post by SamuriHL »

Really not sure why people have issues with menus with JRiver. It works fine for me. I've not had any problems when I've used it. I don't tend to keep full ISOs kicking around for long as I make MKV's (go figure...see forum title). But when I do use it, I've not had any issues.
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