{"id":45835,"date":"2022-08-15T08:58:06","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T08:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/want-to-watch-blu-rays-in-vlc-on-ubuntu-you-need-makemkv\/"},"modified":"2022-08-15T08:58:06","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T08:58:06","slug":"want-to-watch-blu-rays-in-vlc-on-ubuntu-you-need-makemkv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/want-to-watch-blu-rays-in-vlc-on-ubuntu-you-need-makemkv\/","title":{"rendered":"Want to Watch Blu-rays in VLC on Ubuntu? You NEED MakeMKV"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I picked up a cheap external USB Blu-ray drive recently with the aim of watching my Doctor Who ‘The Collection’ Blu-rays \u2014 WhoRays, if you will\u2014 in bed, on my laptopone<\/sup> (which runs Ubuntu, obviously).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thing is you can’t just stick in an official Blu-ray disc and watch what’s on it, not in Linux, not on macOS, and not even on Windows. You need additional software, usually paid, that provides the license required to ‘decrypt’ Blu-ray content and throughput it to yo’ eyes.<\/p>\n

Truth be told: Blu-ray is awkward, it’s obtuse and, to my mind, it’s a text-book example of how note<\/em> to design a media format.<\/p>\n

However, I did manage to get everything working \u2014 smoothly<\/em> \u2014 and I didn’t have to pay for anything. <\/p>\n

I figured I’d pass on the knowledge so that anyone else out there who wants to watch Blu-rays in Ubuntu (or on another Ubuntu-based Linux distro) can follow my steps to satisfy their content-craving. <\/p>\n

Blu-ray Playback in VLC<\/h2>\n
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By default, this error<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

I should point out that there are couple of different ways to play Blu rays on Ubuntu (and other platforms). These do NOT require the software I use. you Bell<\/em> install VLC, download a meta-key file from a (weirdly domiciled) website, put in the relevant location somewhere on your system, wince, and it may work \u2013 though you won’t be able to see BluRay menus.<\/p>\n

Except, that method, which is well documented if you Google \u201chow to watch BluRays in VLC\u201d, flat out wouldn’t work for me, no matter how many times I tried it, and regardless of the OS I tried it on.<\/p>\n

Besides, I like<\/em> menus, and these Doctor Who BluRays are stuffed<\/em> with bonus content, some of it ephemera that I can’t be bothered to blindly navigate through a playlist of meaningless time-codes. <\/p>\n

Which is why I was super pleased to find MakeMKV.<\/p>\n

MakeMKV + VLC = Showtime<\/h3>\n
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MakeMKV: BluRays (with menus) on Linux<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

MakeMKV is proprietary, paid-for software \u2014 and it’s at this point some of you will nope-out. Personally, I reason that BluRay is a proprietary format to start with, and since I already use lots of closed-source software for entertainment purposes, eg, Steam, Netflix, Spotify, etc\u2026 Why not!?<\/p>\n

But while MakeKMKV is technically software you have to buy all of its features (including the stuff that lets you play BluRays WITH menus in VLC) is \u201cfree\u201d while the app is in beta.<\/p>\n

And the app has been in beta for around 10 years \ud83d\udc81\ud83c\udffb\u200d\u2642\ufe0f.<\/p>\n

The process to get it working is very simple:<\/p>\n