INTRODUCTION
Over and over again the questions pop up, "Can I play back my Premiere Elements generated Blu-ray disc format on Blu-ray disc with free computer players such as VLC Media Player and Media Player Classic HC?" The tack on questions include "With menus?" and "Will these same players allow me to play back store purchased Blu-ray movies as well?"
SOLUTION
The Blu-ray support of VLC Media Player and the Media Player Classic HC was challenged, using the following on Windows 7 Professional SP1 64 bit:
- VLC Media Player (latest non beta version 2.0.8, 32 bit)
- Media Player Classic HC x64 (latest version 1.68.7417, 64 bit)
- Premiere Elements 11 Blu-ray movies with disc menus (on Verbatim BD-R 25 GB 6X or BD-RE 25 GB 2X disc)
- For disc format comparative purposes, a Premiere Elements 11 DVD-VIDEO movie with disc menus (on Verbatim DVD-R or DVD-RW 4.7 GB/120 min), store purchased DVD-VIDEO movie, a store purchased Blu-ray movie, and Premiere Elements 11 AVCHD DVD movie with disc menus (on Verbatim DVD-R or DVD-RW 4.7 GB/120 min) were included in the testing protocol.
- All tests were repeated using as computer player the CyberLink Power DVD 9 (OEM), the software that came with the Blu-ray DVD burner.
VLC Media Player
Premiere Elements 11 Blu-ray Movie with Disc Menus.
Media Menu/Open Disc/Open Media Dialog and its Disc Tab/BluRay with Disc Device field set for Blu-Ray drive.
Result: Playback of movie without automatic display of menus before movie begins. For navigation of movie, viewer can use the player's Playback Menu/Chapter or Playback Menu/Title/Chapter. Works with or without VLC add on files of KEYDB.cfg and libaacs.dll. Premiere Elements Blu-ray disc format can be on the BD-R or BD-RE disc to gain this playback.
Store Purchased Blu-ray Movie with Disc Menus
Media Menu/Open Disc/Open Media Dialog and its Disc Tab/BluRay with Disc Device field set for Blu-Ray drive.
Result: If the downloaded and installed VLC Media Player is used without modification, then Blu-Ray error citing need of a "...a library for AACS decoding". See Figure 1.
 |
| Figure 1. VLC Media Player Error Message When Trying To Play Back Store Purchased Blu-ray Movie Using The Downloaded And Installed VLC Media Player Without Modification. |
KEYDB.cfg file*
- A folder named aacs** (empty) was created and placed in the Roaming Folder according to the path Local Disk C\Users\Owner\AppData\Roaming\
- KEYBD.cfg was obtained from http://vlc-aacs.whoknowsmy.name/ , by clicking on "get the file UPDATED 20-04-2012!"
- The KEYBD.cfg file was then placed in the aacc Folder.
- libaacs.dll file was obtained from http://vlc-aacs.whoknowsmy.name/, by clicking on "VLC 32bits on Windows: put that file in your VLC directory".
- The libaacs.dll file was placed in the VLC Folder according to the path Local Disk C\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC.
Premiere Elements 11 DVD-VIDEO Movie with Disc Menus DVD-R and DVD-RW
Media Menu/Open Disc/Open Media Dialog and its Disc Tab/DVD with Disc Device field set for DVD drive.
Result: If DVD-VIDEO on DVD-R 4.7 GB/120 min or DVD-VIDEO on DVD-RW 4.7 GB/120 min, then playback of movie/menus displayed automatically before viewing the movie, with or without the VLC add on files of KEYDB.cfg and libaacs.dll. Movie navigation opportunities are also available via player's Playback Menu/Title, Chapter, or Navigation.
Store Purchased DVD-VIDEO Movie with Disc Menus
Media Menu/Open Disc/Open Media Dialog and its Disc Tab/DVD with Disc Device field set for DVD drive.
Result: Playback of movie/menus displayed automatically before viewing the movie, with or without VLC add on files of KEYDB.cfg and libaacs.dll. Movie navigation opportunities are also available via player's Playback Menu/Title, Chapter, or Navigation. Although the VLC player did play back movie/menus automatically before viewing the movie, it did not playback the first play FBI message and promo before the start of the disc menus. In contrast, MPC HC x64 playbed back first play FBI message and promo, followed by disc menus, followed by movie.
Premiere Elements 11 AVCHD DVD Movie with Disc Menus DVD-R and DVD-RW.
Media Menu/Open Disc/Open Media Dialog and its Disc Tab/DVD with Disc Device field set for DVD drive.
Result: Error. See Figure 2.
 |
| Figure 2. VLC Error When Trying To Play Back AVCHD DVD With Disc Menus On DVD-R Or DVD-RW. With Or Without VLC Add Ons. |
Media Player Classic HC x64
Premiere Elements 11 Blu-ray Movie.
Right click Media Player Classic HC x64 screen, select File/Open DVD/BD, and, with drive selected, click Select Folder at the bottom of the "Select the path for DVD/BD" dialog.
Result: Playback of movie without menus displayed before the movie. Movie navigation appears to be by either of two ways
- Clicking on a chapter marker displayed in play bar at bottom of screen (program adds a marker at start even if user does not, so the marker count may be off by 1)
- Right clicking the screen, selecting Navigation/Jump to/Chapters.
Store Purchased Blu-ray Movie
Right click Media Player Classic HC x64 screen, select File/Open DVD/BD, and, with Blu-ray burner drive selected or the BDMV Folder selected, click Select Folder at the bottom of the "Select the path for DVD/BD"
Result: No playback***. Just error "Cannot render file." See Figure 3.
 |
| Figure 3. Media Player Classic HC x64. Store Purchased Blu-ray Movie. Cannot Render The File. |
Premiere Elements 11 DVD-VIDEO Movie with Disc Menus, DVD-R and DVD-RW
Right click Media Player Classic HC x64 screen, select File/Open DVD/BD, and, with drive selected, click Select Folder at the bottom of the "Select the path for the DVD/BD" dialog.
Result: Playback of the movie/menus automatically displayed before the start of the movie. DVD-VIDEO can be on DVD-R or DVD-RW to gain playback as described. Movie navigation appears to be by either of two ways
- Clicking on a chapter marker displayed in play bar at bottom of screen (program adds a marker at start even if user does not, so the marker count may be off by 1)
- Right clicking the screen, selecting Navigation/Jump to/Chapters.
Store Purchased DVD-VIDEO Movie
Right click Media Player Classic HC x64 screen, select File/Open DVD/BD, and, with drive selected, click Select Folder at the bottom of the "Select the path for the DVD/BD" dialog.
Result: Playback of the movie/menus automatically displayed before the start of the movie. Movie navigation appears to be by either of two ways
- Clicking on a chapter marker displayed in play bar at bottom of screen (program adds a marker at start even if user does not, so the marker count may be off by 1)
- Right clicking the screen, selecting Navigation/Jump to/Chapters.
Premiere Elements 11 AVCHD DVD Movie with Disc Menus DVD-R and DVD-RW.
Right click Media Player Classic HC x64 screen, select File/Open DVD/BD, and, with drive selected
click Select Folder at the bottom of the "Select the path for the DVD/BD"dialog.
Result: Playback of movie without menus displayed before the movie. Movie navigation appears to be by either of two ways
- Clicking on a chapter marker displayed in play bar at bottom of screen (program adds a marker at start even if user does not, so the marker count may be off by 1)
- Right clicking the screen, selecting Navigation/Jump to/Chapters.
CyberLink PowerDVD
Movie playback , menus before movie was possible with CyberLink PowerDVD 9 (software that came with Blu-ray DVD burner) for the PE11 Blu-ray Movie, Store Purchased Blu-ray Movie, PE11 DVD-VIDEO Movie, Store Purchased DVD-VIDEO Movie, and PE11 AVCHD DVD Movie.
SUMMARY
The computer playback results for the free VLC (2.0.8, 32 bit) and MPC-HC x64 (1.68.7417, 64 bit) players are summarized in Table 1.
 | |||
| Table 1. Premiere Elements 11. Blu-ray, DVD-VIDEO, AND AVCHD DVD Movie Playback Results Using Free Computer Players Such As VLC And MPC-HC. |
Both VLC and MPC HC x64 both play back the disc menus before the store purchased DVD-VIDEO movie. So it was unexpected to find that the VLC does not play back the store purchased DVD-VIDEO movie first play (FBI message and promo) before the disc menus; whereas the MPC HC x64 does.
Also the DVD-VIDEO and AVCHD DVD results for the VLC and MPC HC x64 found to be the same whether the computer operating system was Windows 7 64 bit or Windows 8 64 bit. The Windows 8 64 bit computer does not yet have a Blu-ray drive for testng these players for Blu-ray playback in the computer operating system.
_______________________________________________________________________________
*The KEYDB.cfg file is downloaded and placed in the empty newly created aacs Folder in Roaming Folder. After first operation in VLC player, the aacs Folder then contains a vuk folder, drl file, and hrl file besides the KEYDB.cfg file.
**Create a new folder the usual way and name that folder aacs. Misspelling of folder name can cause failure to playback store purchased Blu-ray movie.
***How to get Media Player Classic HC x64 to playback legally store purchased Blu-ray movies is still being explored.
UPDATE. August 20, 2015.
This is a 2 year old blog post which needs to be updated and will be soon in a new blog post.
VLC Media Player version then was latest non beta version 2.0.8, 32 bit and is now (in 2015) version 2.2.1 Windows 32 bit.
Media Player Classic HC x64 Player version then was latest version 1.68.7417, 64 bit and is now (in 2015) version 1.7.9 64 bit Windows.
UPDATE. April 14, 2016
A significant update to this 2 year old blog has finally been published today. See HERE.
ATR
