Cannot Play Blu Ray with VLC

[JoBluRayUser]

I've been trying to get my VLC player to play Blu Ray discs using MakeMKV as suggested by the sticky post in this forum. I'm running MakeMKV ver 1.15.1 and there is a feature in preferences->Integration tab to enable VLC integration. I select this feature, but it doesn't seem to do anything. Both my VLC and MakeMKV are in the Mac applications folder

In VLC, I select File->Open Disk. I navigate to my blu ray player, and hit 'Open VIDEO_TS / BDMV folder'. I navigate to the correct folder and hit 'open'. VLC then reports the following:

Your input can't be opened
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvdnav:///dev/rdisk5'. Check the log for details.

Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong here?

[megaspaz]

What macOs are you using?

[GHender3]

Hey - you are way overthinking this one. Don't need to click on open Open Video_TS/BDMV folder. If I do that, I get the exact same error message as you. Just open VLC, File, Open Disc. If you see the name of the disc in the window, just click the big blue rectangle that says open.

If you have never played a BluRay disc with VLC before, AND you live in the North America, upon doing so, you will get a new error. Wrong region code. Skip this if you live in Europe. But anyway, for North America, you need to change ONE VLC preference. VLC is based in France. So, Preferences, Show All. Then Input Codecs. Click the Arrow to expand downward. Choose Access Modules. Click on BluRay. If in North America, choose Region A and Save. You can also click if you want your discs to have menus, just like on a Blu Ray player.

Then see what happens. Mount the disc, File, Open Disc, and Open. No BDMV/Video_TS stuff.

You might get a warning that it can't play menus without Java installed. That is true. If you get that, it will just start playing the movie. If you want menus, get the regular Java Internet Plugin from Oracle - Java 8. All you need. Don't download the newest JDK from Oracle (Java 13). Won't give you menus.

This is all working fine under MacOS Mojave. I think Catalina should be OK. The latest MakeMKV is pretty up to date.

[megaspaz]

AFAICT, the integration stuff in makemkv doesn't work in mojave.... must be only a catalina thing.... You'd have to follow https://www.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7010 to make playing/opening blu ray disks in vlc work. And as @GHender3 said, Mount the disc, File, Open Disc, and Open. Bear in mind, some disks work and some don't work... In Time crashes vlc, The Departed worked...

PS:

I assumed your running mojave since you said the integration in makemkv's prefs didn't work and i assumed it would work in catalina since that's why the integration stuff was implemented...

Edit:

Change

ln -s /Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/lib/libmmbd.dylib ~/lib/libmmbd.dylib

to

ln -s /Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/lib/libmmbd_new.dylib ~/lib/libmmbd.dylib

or

ln -s /Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/lib/libmmbd_old.dylib ~/lib/libmmbd.dylib

[GHender3]

I'm running Mojave 10.14.6. No need for creating a folder named lib, or creating symlinks. As soon as I installed the current MakeMKV, I moved the the lib folder to the trash, but did not empty it right away. It's been gone for 2 weeks or more now. Not necessary. Everything is fine without it. The integration function is a great addition.

[GHender3]

Just wanted to mention there is another good reason to get the Java 8 JRE from Oracle. Not only for the sake of having menus. Some movie studios are making things difficult by doing something called title obfuscation. When you open up the disc in MakeMKV, it may show 50, or 100 full length (2 hours or more) titles. They are't "real" - just different sequences of the segments in film. If you don't have a any form of Java installed, MakeMKV will have no clue as to which one is correct. In theory, you'd have to rip each one of them and watch each version to see which one is the right sequence of chapters in the film.

And, if you are attempting to play it with VLC, since MKV has no idea which title is correct, neither will VLC. VLC will never start the film.

Most (maybe all?) modern BluRay players use Java to interact with the disc.

If Java is available to MakeMKV, it can find the menu, and in most cases with these obfuscated discs, it can find the real main feature.

This gives VLC some chance of opening the film. I haven't had any of these for a few months, but it happens.

[JoBluRayUser]

What macOs are you using?

macOS Catalina
ver 10.15.3

[JoBluRayUser]

Hey - you are way overthinking this one. Don't need to click on open Open Video_TS/BDMV folder. If I do that, I get the exact same error message as you. Just open VLC, File, Open Disc. If you see the name of the disc in the window, just click the big blue rectangle that says open.

If you have never played a BluRay disc with VLC before, AND you live in the North America, upon doing so, you will get a new error. Wrong region code. Skip this if you live in Europe. But anyway, for North America, you need to change ONE VLC preference. VLC is based in France. So, Preferences, Show All. Then Input Codecs. Click the Arrow to expand downward. Choose Access Modules. Click on BluRay. If in North America, choose Region A and Save. You can also click if you want your discs to have menus, just like on a Blu Ray player.

Then see what happens. Mount the disc, File, Open Disc, and Open. No BDMV/Video_TS stuff.

You might get a warning that it can't play menus without Java installed. That is true. If you get that, it will just start playing the movie. If you want menus, get the regular Java Internet Plugin from Oracle - Java 8. All you need. Don't download the newest JDK from Oracle (Java 13). Won't give you menus.

This is all working fine under MacOS Mojave. I think Catalina should be OK. The latest MakeMKV is pretty up to date.

Thanks for the tip. I made the setting in preferences as you suggest (It was set to 'B', and I'm in North America), so I set it to 'A'. It didn't seem to make a difference. I still get the following error (even though I'm skipping the open/BDMV/Video_TS button):
Your Input Cannot Be Opened
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvdnav:///dev/rdisk5, check the log for details

I'm unable to open DVDs as well (I get the same error). I checked MKV to make sure the integration open was enabled and it is.

I'm running Mac OS Catalina (ver 10.15.3) with MKV 1.15.1 and VLC 3.0.7.1

[floatinjoe]

I realize this is an old thread, but I just found it while searching for the solution. Try rolling your version of VLC back to 3.0.4 per the below thread. I tried to play a disc today and discovered that I must have accidentally updated my VLC.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16112

[bachelorbob]

But anyway, for North America, you need to change ONE VLC preference. VLC is based in France. So, Preferences, Show All. Then Input Codecs. Click the Arrow to expand downward. Choose Access Modules. Click on BluRay. If in North America, choose Region A and Save. You can also click if you want your discs to have menus, just like on a Blu Ray player.

Then see what happens. Mount the disc, File, Open Disc, and Open. No BDMV/Video_TS stuff.

You might get a warning that it can't play menus without Java installed. That is true. If you get that, it will just start playing the movie. If you want menus, get the regular Java Internet Plugin from Oracle - Java 8. All you need. Don't download the newest JDK from Oracle (Java 13). Won't give you menus.

This solved many issues for me, playing BDs in both VLC and Blu-ray Player Pro. Thanks.

[wssrstrm]

for North America, you need to change ONE VLC preference. VLC is based in France. So, Preferences, Show All. Then Input Codecs. Click the Arrow to expand downward. Choose Access Modules. Click on BluRay. If in North America, choose Region A and Save. You can also click if you want your discs to have menus, just like on a Blu Ray player.

When I go to change this setting in VLC, I found that Bluray does not appear in the list of options for Access Modules, so I can't change the region. Would love any guidance anybody may have!

[wssrstrm]

I've so far been only to get one Bluray to successfully play in VLC and it's a non-region locked disc I bought from a shop in the UK.

No other Bluray I own will play back in VLC.

• I have my VLC region set to region A for North America, where I live.

• VLC 3.0.12

• Mac OS 11.2.1 Big Sur

• MakeMKV 1.15.4 with VLC integration enabled

• Optical Drive is LibreDrive LG WH14NS40 flashed to WH16NS60 1.02MK per current recommendation

• MakeMKV doesn't seem to have any trouble ripping from these discs that won't play in VLC

Anybody have any thoughts?

[madacj]

Can’t playback any Blu-ray with vlc at all. Makemkv integration is enabled. I’m using the latest versions of macOS Big Sur, makemkv and vlc. I get these messages on vlc:

Blu-ray Disc is corrupt


VLC is unable to open the MRL Blu-ray://volumes/ ‘ name of blu-ray’ check log for details

Please help thanks

[floatinjoe]

VLC stopped playing Blu-rays at 3.0.4. If you want to play a Blu-ray in VLC, you will need to roll back to 3.0.4.

[briaboy]

I just rolled back to version 3.0.4 (and reset all preferences etc in both MakeMKV and VLC), and I still get the cannot open error messages.....any further suggestions? Thanks!