The goofy world of Blu-Ray on the Mac

Ever wondered about using Blu-Ray on macOS? Yeah, me too. So, I stumbled upon this oddball Blu-Ray drive that's trying to be everything at once - DVD writer, USB hub, Card Reader. Figured it'd be interesting to see how it fares, especially since Apple and Microsoft aren't too keen on supporting Blu-Ray movie playback directly. Let's dive into what turned out to be quite the journey.
0:00 Intro
1:08 Blu-Ray is convoluted
2:19 Supported codecs
2:51 Umbrella format
4:07 macOS and understanding Blu Ray movies
5:01 Tutorial: How to play Blu-Ray movies in macOS
7:45 Travel Break
8:34 Weird Blu Ray Drive
10:28 USB 3.0 is a lie
11:03 Testing out media formats
12:12 Benchmarking USB 3.0
13:04 Dumb Experiments
14:27 A word about cheap Blu Ray drives
15:52 The Oregon Trail
What's in This Video?
The Weirdballs Device: A Blu-Ray drive that's also a DVD-RW, USB hub, and SD card reader, all for $56.
Road Trip: Decided to test this thing out while hitting spots on the Oregon Trail.
Mac Playback Tutorial: Getting Blu-Ray movies to run on Intel and Apple Silicon Macs, and yes, it's a bit of a process.
The World of Codecs: Quick chat about why Blu-Ray offers better picture quality.
Blu-Ray Explained: Breaking down the different types of Blu-Ray discs out there.
Testing Time: Throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this drive, including PS3 games and a PowerMac G4, because why not?
Fun fact: The export of this video to ProRes 422 was 40 GB, and uploaded it directly to KZbin.
Links
Tutorial:
blog.greggant.com/posts/2024/...
Sources:
aacsla.com/what-is-aacs/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance...
/ how-to-play-blu-ray-di...

[@gmuge7]

You should be able to check the number of pins in that usb "3" port, to see if it's just a usb 2 port that's been made blue 👍

[@dmug]

Man, why didn't I think of that? Jeeze. It only has 4 pins so yeah, it's REALLY not a USB 3.0 port. Thanks!

[@Kara_Kay_Eschel]

I have a usb c to an adapter and the a port is blue with just the 4 pins for usb 2.0.

[@imark7777777]

That's great advice assuming they didn't just slap USB 3 port onto a USB 2 hub?

[@xai38-809]

​@@dmugmy 2012 crackbook pro has USB 3

[@MasticinaAkicta]

Happy you mention that Blu-ray indeed has a higher bitrate. It isn't just resolution, also bitrate. This make an actual blu-ray viewing experience better then a streaming service. But yes, for a movie format, there are a lot of issues to get it playing in different places.

[@dmug]

It’s been a long time since I’ve watched an actual Blu-ray movie and it’s only made me want to get a UHD Blu-ray drive. The lord of the rings transfer carries a lot of film grain, which I’m sure streaming would get brutalized. I realize how used to artifacting I’d become in high motion sequences as things just looked so much more cleaner.

[@user-yg4kj2mf1p]

@@dmug Please note that to get through the new AACS (AACSv2) used in UHD Blu-Ray, you need a "friendly" Blu-Ray drive that implements BDXL but doesn't implement AACSv2 (a drive that implements AACSv2 locks out unlicensed software). It's also worth noting that regular (non-UHD) Blu-Rays sometimes have an additional layer of protection called BD+ (and there is a libbdplus library from VideoLan).

[@Clay3613]

@@dmug There are different HD transfers and color-timing to choose from for LOTR.

[@dottyorb]

In my opinion watch a 1080p Blu Ray looks far better than 4K streaming, I watched John Wick 3 and 4 back to back with 3 on Blu Ray and 4 on Amazon Prime and wow did 3 look so much better than 4.

[@mokMan23]

@@dmugyou can actually use 4K blurays on a regular bluray drive, but i've only seen it work with an LG WH16NS40, which is still being sold, but it's internal.

[@techtipsuk]

Mac OSX Tiger was such a great looking OS, way ahead of its time.

[@dmug]

There's some more retro content coming soon, hopefully sooner than later.

[@subwaygaragemusic]

That version made me fell in love with Macs in the first place.

[@christopherwilliams9418]

I miss Aqua :(

[@dmug]

@@christopherwilliams9418Apple would be big brain if they made it an optional theme. The zoomers love it.

[@christopherwilliams9418]

@@dmugI believe there used to be a way to do that, some sort of command line messing, but that it got patched out of newer versions of OS X

[@BlownMacTruck]

I never watch Blu-Rays directly on my Mac. What I (and most people these days) do is you rip the disc. During the process you decrypt it. Bam. Now you have a digital file that is equivalent to the disc in quality with none of the limitations of the physical media, AND you have a backup (the disc itself). Drop your movies on a server and now you have your entire library at your fingertips, with no fear that Netflix or Disney or Hulu or whatever will suddenly make the media you bought disappear.

[@cdigames]

I always struggle to rip the additional content from the discs this way.

[@BlownMacTruck]

@@cdigames Using MakeMKV (free, though I paid for it to support it) it will pull every single "playlist" available on the disc. The only concern is that you may pull the same title twice if it's included in different playlists, or if one playlist has a different set of languages and / or subtitles.

[@My_Old_YT_Account]

MakeMKV works for both watching and archiving, well worth the money

[@chasealewis]

Do you have any links that share this process?

[@My_Old_YT_Account]

@@chasealewis just google makemkv, it works the same way on Windows and Mac

[@slightlyevolved]

About using the Apple drive through the USB hub.... I think that's probably more of a power delivery issue than the Apple drive being picky. Many optical drives will not work through a passive USB hub. A powered one though will often work.

[@Joe-bh4vz]

I took an old supedrive, removed the drive and installed a bluray burner.

[@NotMrDaine]

I have an internal LG Blu-Ray Drive in my Mac Pro 3,1 that was running the Dosdude Catalina Patcher ... It "worked", to an extent with VLC without these extra steps. But now I know that there is additional stuff to do for it, I'll give it another punt. Thanks x

[@dmug]

I knew just enough going in that it required some extra stuff before I ordered it. I didn't think to try this on my Mac Pro 3,1 to see if it'd work but I'm guessing if it worked on my MacBook 2017 which has about as much compute as raspberry pi 5 (sounds like I'm joking but that's actually the case) it'd work on a 3,1.

[@NotMrDaine]

@@dmug oh I knew absolutely nothing at the time. My transition from PC to Mac was very clunky and haphazard. I basically chucked a bunch of hardware from my old PC into the Pro ... and prayed. Honestly surprised that old thing still functions 🤣. Glad I'm on an M2 Pro Mini now instead.

[@dmug]

@@NotMrDaine Oh nice, yeah, I have a weird feeling I might at some point in the future be a Mac Mini Pro sort of user. I'm priced out of the Mac Pro line and quite frankly the Apple Silicon one isn't really worth buying.

[@MePeterNicholls]

I on 1,1 didn’t even need a patcher

[@Cowloverdude]

Seriously underrated channel my god

[@dmug]

I think my lack of a consistent upload schedule and really random topics upsets the almighty algo ;)

[@whophd]

In 2022 I bought the Pioneer Bluray burner that is like a black version of the Apple SuperDrive (plus removable stand for sitting on its side). It turned out to be the most satisfying impulse purchase I’ve made of an electronics accessory, in the last decade. It’s just so incredibly nice to hold, touch, use and look at.

[@dmug]

Know the model number off hand? I returned this one since it was kinda stupid. It worked fine as blu ray drive…

[@yourussianfriend5115]

its probably a pioneer drive.

[@My_Old_YT_Account]

​@@dmugget any Pioneer 4k one, they all work even to watch 4k movies You might need MakeMKV though

[@elsorino]

The RPCS3 quickstart guide has a list of drives compatible with ps3 discs. Only a few external drives will read PS3 games

[@dmug]

Didn’t think to check there first. Thanks

[@ActuallySanFrancisco]

i'm glad to have discovered your channel! at some point in the near future i plan on getting an apple silicon mac mini to basically just use as a gaming and emulation box, and these tutorial videos you have will definitely come in handy! greetings from san francisco / NorCal, oregon's sister coastline!

[@dmug]

Cheers, been all up and down Northern California, I've even been to Shelter Cove, the only town in 120 miles of the "Lost coast". I've been debating making a Mac "retro game station" video.

[@ActuallySanFrancisco]

@@dmug nice - i love this part of the country. and you should definitely make that video! i’d watch it for sure - and likely share it with some folks i know who aren’t aware of just how great macs are for emulation.

[@sclogse1]

Pro level upload. Around 2012 I bought a Blu Ray player and burner for my System 10.6 Imac. I really only needed it for a short while, as I had a Playstation to play BluRay on a front projector. I needed it to burn copies of a short film I was entering into festivals. It sits at my front desk, unplugged and very unused, (where's that damn plug) There was a free app to play Blu Ray to download to that computer, but anything else would cost you. I'll be back tomorrow when it's light to name that thing..that computer still works, but I'm now always on a 2017 Imac with Retina, the works...and that could use the Blu Ray. It's a classy big thing that I hope I can still use.

[@nismo2070]

I was gifted an external LG Blu-Ray burner a few years ago. It's about half as thick as the units you tested. I love it. I mainly use it to put pics and videos on BD-R discs for storage.

[@dmug]

Oh cool that's nice to know there are some units that are actually thin/lower foot print. It's not huge but it seems like it could be smaller.

[@kenmetoyer25]

Just did this and am now enjoying Godzilla 2000! Wanted to share my issue. I'm on an M1 MBP. I did NOT have a lib folder, inside local, inside usr. I had to make one. After I made one, the original Alias didn't work, so I deleted it, and followed the tip located somewhere else in the comments where he said "Try and copy the dylib.0 version into the folder and remove the 0 out of the name" and then it worked for me!

[@flem6]

Great vid, thank you! Very happy to hear these cheap external drives can rip Blu ray discs on Mac with a little configuration.

[@bmwofboganville456]

1080p Bluray is still excellent for video, even with the presence of 4k discs. I'd guess that 1080p Bluray is equivalent to a good 4k stream.

[@dmug]

Yeah I did mention it as the video was getting long even with rapid fire pacing that 1080p blu ray is higher bit rate than most 4k streaming / digital only options. I noticed both the lack of 4k sharpness but pretty much zero artifacts. It really does wonders with capturing film grain.

[@JudgeFredd]

Great video content ! Btw which cam are you using for the outdoor shooting ?

[@dmug]

Tripod: Olympus OM D EM 5 with pro lens Mostly iPhone 14 Pro in either ProRes or upscaled slow motion. I get a lot of mileage out of Topaz Video AI. Bought on a Black Friday deal.

[@skumancer]

Great video Greg! Good to see you’re well!

[@dmug]

Ha, still repping skumancer as a handle too! Yeah, I don't really advertise my channel but it's a pandemic hobby that's panned out. I make beer money on youtube.

[@skumancer]

@@dmug the internet never forgets and it’s been difficult to get rid of this handle 🤣

[@JamesSmith-ix5jd]

12:48 A torx screw on a random fence in the middle of nowhere? Wow that's wild.

[@frozenbean]

I use an external Pioneer BDR-XD05B for discs with my Mac Pro 6,1 Trashcan, and it's a great little drive! Highly recommend one if you're looking to play Blu Rays across different Macs.

[@taekwondomenik]

I've got a Asus BW-16D1HT, which was able to read PS5 discs. I also flashed custom firmware onto it and was able to rip an ISO copy of the disc with the NCH Burner. It is an internal drive but there are adapters for 5.25 drives to USB.

[@SolitaryWolf]

I purchased Macgo Blu-ray player for my Mac's. It is simple install and use. No downloading libraries, installations, etc. I watch a Blu-ray Disc on my Mac several times a week when I am not at home. I use the Verbatim External CD DVD Blu-ray Writer USB 3.0 M-Disc Ready Drive I got from Amazon. It has the USB 3.0 port and a cable that is USB "A". I found another cable on Amazon that is USB 3.0 to USB "C", thus preventing me from having an extra converter dongle on this.

[@dmug]

Yeah, several people have mentioned Macgo, I didn't know if it was legit but also, part of my channel is getting a bit geekier than the average Mac channel does with software.

[@adamr4198]

Thanks for making this very detailed video. I’m considering getting a Blu-ray drive for my Mac for archiving our family photos. Nice to know that there is a way to play Hollywood movies on the Mac too.

[@dmug]

I’m actually now considering the BDXL drives for the same reason. I could back up all my photos I’ve taken on two disks and just store them somewhere. The drives are about $75-$95 usd

[@adamr4198]

@@dmug I'm wrapping up a massive digital photos library consolidation project (I found 8K photos just sitting on an old dying, with no back-ups). After making multiple copies of the new library I decided to make a final copy on blank media. I have over 100 blank DVDs (from a project long ago) so it seemed like a good use. However 4.7 GB is relatively small amount of storage (in 2024) and I thought it would only take about 30-40 discs. Now it looks like the finally number will be closer to 100! Suddenly a 25 GB or 50 GB Blu-ray Disc looks really useful. 😛

[@dmug]

@@adamr4198 I have my eye on BDXL 128 GB. I use Apple Photos but it isn't technically a backup since you can accidentally delete all your photos. I have 2x Time machine drives but what I'd really want is a hard copies that I could stash somewhere that'd be outside of my house. Long term goal is to also build a NAS where I could backup.

[@adamr4198]

@@dmug I exported two complete copies of my Photos Library. One is JPG (max size) and the other is HEIC. The HEIC files are about 1/2 the size of the JPG. Hopefully in 20-50 years one of these formats will still be readable. In researching this project I came across the following advice. Every five years make new complete backups in the newest file formats on new drives. It is a ton of work but that is the safest method.

[@CommodoreFan64]

I don't rip Blu-Ray disc, but I have a Blu-Ray/DVD-RW drive I salvaged from a dying HP laptop a few years back, had a universal case for a laptop SATA DVD drive to USB 2.0 laying around that uses USB B to USB A 2.0, and on Manjaro Gnome Linux I was able to download all the needed software from the AUR(Arch User Repository) to make VLC playback 1080p Blu-Ray although it's not perfect as VLC can navigate some menus very well, but it works, and it's nice when I want to watch a movie out of my collection while I work on my main machine with dual monitors. I would almost pull my hair out trying to do this on a Mac lol!

[@jonesing4fame922]

Would you please elaborate on your woes with the Quicksilver power supply replacement? Thank you!

[@dmug]

It’s all here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qX3TnYeVerJ1lZIfeature=shared

[@MegaManNeo]

No Mac user but speaking from Linux experience, yes, Bluray drives are weird. Even more so if you try to find one that supports ripping PS3 discs. I'm lucky and found one in a nearby electronics store from ASUS or LG which supports both burning to Bluray and reading PS3 discs. But yea, it's always a trip and even for Windows BD support seems all but solid.

[@snitzelll3710]

Bro took his G4 to the top of the mountain

[@dmug]

If you check my Mac Pro 2013 vid, I carted it to a cliff face ;)

[@jaytum3130]

Hi, i‘m using a MacBook Air m3. In the last step, when i copy the libaacs.dylib file the directory usr/local has no lib folder. Only bin and sbin. Is there another folder to copy that file to?

[@arcelonofficial]

I love this channel.

[@Rem1xDave]

The drive auto-ejecting the discs is likely a MacOS behaviour. It automatically spits out discs it cannot natively read.

[@Kongongongg]

Is this method of watching blu-ray on Mac is region free? I have region C blu-ray driver, can I watch Region A on Mac with this?

[@marklsimonson]

I've been using the $30 Macgo Blu-Ray Player for about a year and it works fine with the drives I've used with it. It acts pretty much like a stand-alone dedicated Blu-ray player, with menus, etc., but in a window (or full screen) on the Mac. Earlier versions of this from a few years ago when I first tried it were pretty bad. You basically were presented with the Blu-ray disc directory and had to figure out which one to play, but the version I got about a year ago addressed all these issues. Not sure how long it's worked this way, though.

[@dmug]

I think you can get VLC to work with menus but honestly I didn't care enough to install JRE. All the Blu Ray mac software looked sketchy like Macgo, nice to know it's not scamware.

[@marklsimonson]

@@dmug To be honest, the early version I first used _did_ seem pretty sketchy-it was only minimally functional and felt like a rip-off for the price. But the current version is solid and pretty similar to Apple's DVD Player app, except it works with Blu-rays and doesn't automatically launch when you insert a disc. It also doesn't block screen captures or screen recording (no sound, though). Weirdly, the app doesn't work with DVDs. It also doesn't support UltraHD yet, even if you have a drive that supports it.

[@robertweintraub125]

Did you try flipping the USB-C connector? A number of adapters have 2.0 with it one way and 3.0 the other, might be the same with the drive/hub.

[@dmug]

The USB 3.0 port has only 4 pins so it's not a USB 3.0 device. It's purposely mislabeled, and I connected it via USB 3.0

[@cgrimes34]

How about burning blu ray movies with this drive? Is there a blu ray movie burning software for Mac you’d recommend?

[@broccoli322]

Thanks for the video!

[@alex_9802]

An easier way to watch blu-ray on mac is just to get Macgo on the App store, no external downloads or coding necessary, just put the disc and it'll play (even menus work). The app is only completely stable on intel macs tho. I actually replaced the internal dvd drive to a blu-ray drive on an old macbook and it works really well.

[@tituslafrombois1164]

For slim, portable blu-ray drives, Pioneer definitely makes the best currently available. XB08 is I believe the current model, full UHD disc support and USB-C on the drive so fully cable-compatible. No USB hub built in or anything.

[@dmug]

Hmm, looks like its a BDXL burner too?

[@tituslafrombois1164]

@@dmug It sure is! I own the desktop internal version of the same model year and it reads just about anything you toss at it. Note that getting UHD playback working at all is a huge pain - they added a new more complicated version of AACS in the UHD spec. To get it working on PC you basically have to buy software like MakeMKV to do the decoding, so good luck getting that to work on Mac haha. It's still a good drive though - pricey, but reliable.

[@fusionid6647]

Appreciate the videos dude

[@dmug]

Appreciate you watching

[@Scarflix]

I'm still getting the "This Blu-ray Disc needs a library for AACS decoding, and your system does not have it." error. Followed all the steps to a T. I'm on a M1 Mac

[@dmug]

Try and copy the dylib.0 version into the folder and remove the 0 out of the name. I had another person have an issue, so I probably should delete it off my M1 Max and try again. Are you on Sonoma?

[@professional-lead137]

@@dmug I was getting this error and tried this and it didn't work for me

[@dmug]

@@professional-lead137 if all else fails, make mkv will rip a blu ray lossleesly

[@SteveBrandon]

I tried playing Blu-Rays via VLC on this old Macbook Pro a while ago but the online tutorials were above my patience level so I eventually just bought the Mac Blu-Ray Player software from Macgo which actually works great but maybe if I had seen this tutorial around three months ago, I might have saved some money. The Blu-Ray drive I have is an LG Blu-Ray burner that I bought in 2015 when I got a used netbook with no optical drive whatsoever, so I thought I might as well get an external drive that can handle Blu-Rays. I was never able to get Blu-Rays to play on that netbook either.

[@dmug]

A few people have mentioned Macgo. Seems like it’s the software to use. I might make bonus content and get Java menus working on blu ray in VLc

[@SteveBrandon]

@ I know talking about other software wasn't really the point of this video but the one thing I liked about the Macgo demo is that it worked playing a Blu-Ray the first time that I tried it without any configuration so I bought the basic version without the watermark. I almost got upsold into buying the Pro version because it promised "4K" but the fine print is that the 4K refers to playing video files and not 4K disks. Even if I wanted to play 4K video files, not that I have the screen for that, I'd imagine I'd be able to do that in VLC without as much trouble as playing regular Blu-Rays.

[@AhDollar]

I'm stuck at the point of pasting the lilacs.dylib alias into the usr/lib folder, it seems like it's password protected, but when I go to paste it, it won't bring up the password prompt, or otherwise, tell me how to paste files into the folder

[@_EyeOfTheTiger]

Toast Titanium has a nice Blu-ray plugin for mac

[@thrivingbranch]

Been using a Pioneer external BD-Drive with macOS for several years, and it works great. The real benefit of watching BD on a mac for me, is that I can wirelessly AirPlay to my TV, no HDMI cable needed between my mac and TV. Also, I never was able to get VLC working with BluRay, but I'm using Macgo Blu-Ray Player, which has played every movie I've thrown at it so far.

[@dmug]

Interesting, second person now to recommend software I hadn’t heard of. VLC isn’t pain free but I knew (sorta) what I was getting into.

[@thrivingbranch]

@@dmug I hadn't heard of it either, until I got frustrated enough with trying to get VLC to play my more recent BD discs, and went on a grand quest to find something similar to PowerDVD (which I had on Windows) for mac, Macgo, was the *only* result I came up with... but thankfully, it has played every disc I own... and it seems to also work offline, which I consider to be a plus.

[@RiotNrrrdUTube]

I stopped watching this video once you brought up VLC. There are at least a half-dozen other Mac Blu-ray players besides MacGo’s (which is as others have pointed out, quite adequate) - e.g. Aiseesoft, VideoByte, 4Easysoft, Apeaksoft, Tipard, AnyMP4. No need to ever mess with VLC.

[@dmug]

@@RiotNrrrdUTube Most of them have been in the scamware section of Mac software. I focus on generally open source solutions on my channel rather than recommending commercial solutions. If that isn't your bag, then that's fine. I can't win them all.

[@RiotNrrrdUTube]

@@dmug I’ve used both the MacGo and Tipard players. Not scamware. I’m all for using VLC when appropriate but having to go through hoops just to get to a less effective experience is what kept me using MacGo’s player. Like one of your other commenters said, the MacGo player got much better over time. But to be honest I don’t really use MacGo anymore, I play Blu-rays on my Oppo 203 clone or I rip them on the Mac with MakeMKV and play the rips on the Oppo clone over NFS. Works great and the audio capabilities seem to far exceed playback from the Mac. I’m always looking for a better mousetrap but this seems to work best for me.

[@mwdiers]

I've used a blu-ray player for a long time on my Macs. But I have a 5" unit in a USB-to-USB3 chassis, and I have the libre firmware installed on it (done via one of my Windows machines). I also don't play them directly. I rip them to MKV files. Avoids all the mess of trying to get a player to work directly with the discs.

[@dmug]

Yeah my next video will feature makemkv

[@christopherwilliams9418]

I installed an internal slot-loading blu-ray drive in my 2010 white unibody MacBook (Can't remember what model number specifically but it's an Alienware OEM SKU) It works great but it sounds like a jet taking off regardless of what format of disc I use in it, lmfao. Not sure if that particular drive is just always like that or if it's my own fault, since you have to transfer a few parts from your original DVD drive, specifically the upper half of the metal housing needs swapped since the mounting points are different. Now if only I could find a matte screen for the thing that isn't just "glue on this screen protector"... :P

[@dmug]

That’s pretty rad putting a blu ray drive in a 2010. I like it. The blu ray drive was not quiet I used. Now I kinda want to do the same as that’s more interesting than a random external drive .

[@christopherwilliams9418]

@@dmugThanks! I always really loved how the white unibody MacBooks looked (second favorite Apple laptop design after the iBook Clamshell) so I wanted to try and build the "ultimate" version of it. It's also got a new battery and 1TB SSD from OWC and maxed out RAM.I wanted to put a backlit keyboard from a MacBook Pro in it as well, which you CAN do, but you have to power for the backlight from somewhere else on the logic board (I think the guide I saw suggested the fan) and you can't change the brightness on it. Mine ended up mostly being used for ripping music CDs and being used as a support system for my Clamshell. :P (I use it to download files off of Macintosh Garden because for some reason downloading them on my daily driver ThinkPad makes the files unreadable in OSX) You could probably make it work in a same-generation MacBook Pro if you'd prefer

[@MePeterNicholls]

Mac Pro 1,1 threw in a blu ray drive to replace dvd. Started burning Blurays with toast and even compressor. Just like that 😳. Now have that drive in a case and use with m2 after iMac i7. Never had a problem.

[@dmug]

Nice, yeah, I've kinda wanted to archive a few things, mostly my photographs, it'd only take 1 and half BDXL disks to back up 20 years of photos.

[@AndrewMackoul]

I'm curious about the make of the BD drive? I'm wondering if they are refurbishing old BD drives.

[@dmug]

I kinda doubt it would be, it’s almost certainly a white label product, as there’s sooooo many of them. It said the make in the system profiler and I have a feeling if you bought a bunch of the brands on Amazon they’d be the same innards.

[@yourussianfriend5115]

they are, most of these drivses iv token those apart and they are some old reused drives.

[@wileysneak]

are there any good external blu ray drives? maybe ones with xl write support?? :P

[@yourussianfriend5115]

look into the lg external blu ray drives, the extra cost is worth it

[@thedudely1]

the shot of the Power Mac on the coast at 1:03 😂

[@dmug]

Carting my computers for ridiculous shots is sorta an on going theme or meme on the channel as of late.

[@jouebien]

fyi the external DVD drive from apple has a custom power delivery implementation. This is so Apple could have a single cable on the DVD drive instead of a separate power cable. It works fine if you plug it into a USB port on an apple machine (some but not all) but not third party USB hubs.

[@dvuemedia]

Samsung SE-506 reads PS3 discs. I got it in 2014 to burn home movies on Blu-ray. Tested with Windows 10/11.

[@tokelahti]

Are there UHD-drives & M-disk support?

[@dmug]

Yes, may do a follow up with UHD.

[@liaminwales]

An old version of Toast may have drivers for the G4.

[@LoftechUK]

Thank you

[@alexsmith5621]

You lost me at Brew when I paste into terminal from the Homebrew link the password comes up but no way to move past that.. when you typed brew into terminal to test if it worked I can't do that.

[@dmug]

Sounds like you’re having difficulty installing brew, there are many tutorials out there to walk through that. Also using ChatGPT you can also use it to debug any errors the terminals spits out.

[@calorion]

Apparently the Superdrive does some magic to draw more power than USB devices are supposed to, which is why it only works plugged directly into a Mac.

[@dmug]

Yeah I’ve kinda figured that out recently. I have a video coming out that’s a bit of a sequels about a Microsoft branded drive

[@elephystry]

I believe what you have is a laptop blu-ray drive stuck in an enclosure. Also, I recently found out the hard way that MacOS 10.5 Leopard does not support exfat.

[@dmug]

Yeah others have said that there’s a bunch of laptop drives yanked and stuff in enclosures. If I would have been just a little smarter I’d realized 10.5 will read blu ray as I was able to read HD DVD in the latest. Interesting thought about exFAT. I’ve been having to relearn what as possible in old OS X.

[@Throneos]

Small correction: the Xbox One S and One X are both capable of ultra hd bluray playback but not the original Xbox One. I bought one used for 60€ as it is by far the cheapest uhdbd capable device i could get

[@dmug]

Thanks, I probably should have double checked. I barely pay attention to anything Xbox after my Xbox 360 died many many years ago in the great Red Ring of Death controversy in the mid 2000s.

[@hanspeter24]

i think the extra usb a port is just for power only as some usb devices cannot supply enough power (only 500mw standard). in these cases you plug the a into a power brick and the c into the target device.

[@dmug]

I wondered that about that too as the power draw on that guy was spiking fractionally above USB 1.1's base spec (but below USB 3.0's)... however it worked just fine on a PowerMac G4 in a USB 1.1 port. Also to fuel the "What the hell is this?", the drive stopped being recognized if the power-ish cable was plugged in. There might be some edge case that requires being met for it to function but I certainly didn't find it.

[@GamesFromSpace]

I think it was just a slapdash way of making the cable work on both C and A. Old USB HDD cables did what you say, coincidentally.

[@hanspeter24]

whatever it might be it’s surely not a part of the official usb spec sheet… @@GamesFromSpace

[@rickkarrer8370]

I almost bought one of these when I got my Mac Studio. Glad I didn't. Thanks!

[@gabsterz180]

iv forced my windows pc with custom apo drivers and media player classic BE to support full blueray atmos/dtsx 5.1 (due to only haveing a 5.1 soundbar) over usb to optical so my laptop is my media player and vedio game console and everythang elts it supports atmos and dtsx due to transcodeing dolby/dts anythang to pcm or ieee float both 32bits in total

[@gabsterz180]

i have my desktop next to my home theater i use my laptop w a gameing monitor for my desktop then when i want a home theater i simply plugin my tv after unplugging my gameing monitor change my audio sorce to my optical extractor and bam full 1080p flatscreen w 5.1 surround sound i love it but have wondered how a mac would hold up in this setup

[@RoyCaratozzolo]

Pioneer Slot load drives are the best BDR-XS series and VLC plays them out of the box man.... cant play 4K on mac....

[@jalen4695]

You’re crazy and I love it

[@1337GameDev]

10:08 - Nope. That's about as slim as they come. EVERY cd/dvd/bd drive is basically the same, if you get one that has the same feature (eg: generation of disc, and writability, etc), and are basically laptop drive modules. Basically all the same. All portal drives are a laptop drive, in an enclosure, with any added hubs/adapters/power modules needed.

[@robsquared2]

I read your user folder as gregnant.

[@khaldub]

I grabbed a drive like that for archival purposes. No fuss, they just work. Never for Blu-ray though lolol

[@imark7777777]

I'll bite how much for the box set? Oh and unless Apple change some thing there a CD ROM DVD drive doesn't work unless it's directly plugged in to a Mac no hubs if's and's or butts. It would be nice if they change this it was one of the weird stupid things they did with the first MacBook Air. And the short cables is due to the USB power specification and the drives needing slightly more than what was available to properly function before the advent of USB power delivery. That's a separately derived USB port would be added for power or an additional power adapter.

[@dmug]

The box set was $30 used, has all the features the DVDs had so each movie is 4 discs.

[@chiptunememories5717]

You should dive into the rabbit hole that is playing 4k HDR UHD Blu-rays on macOS with properly rendered HDR.

[@dmug]

Oy, I don’t think VLC supports HDR macOS, it’d probably require traversing the high seas and ripping the movies into AVC or h265 so QuickTime can play them back. Eventually I’ll do a UHD video, I have another optical media video played that’s just plain silly.

[@polocatfan]

I still find it crazy that it's easier to rip a blu-ray on windows than it is to WATCH it on windows.

[@dmug]

Yuuuup

[@dreikelvin]

that was hilarious thank you 🙏

[@nooneinpart]

13MBPS for KZbin Premium is pretty generous, it's more like 4MBPS excluding very short peaks for their "Enhanced" 1080p. The 4K streams hit that bitrate but you don't need Premium for that.

[@dmug]

The quote is for 1080p enhanced, aka premium. Even as KZbin Red subscriber, I generally go for 4k streams but not everything is 4k so it's nice to have 1080p high bit rate. It is somewhat noticeable in situations where there's a lot of motion.

[@britishredfox]

It amuses me that in recent versions of macOS there's no Blu-ray icon -- they appear as just the disc name on the Desktop. They redrew icons a few versions ago and I guess they forgot to include the Blu-ray Disc icon and have never gotten around to correcting that...

[@dmug]

Interesting, know which version of the OS that was or thereabouts?

[@britishredfox]

@@dmug They were broken in Catalina - Mojave and earlier showed an icon.

[@stevenbenson9976]

Are all these instructions correct? I've followed the youtube and the webpage. When I try to run bluray in vlc it says blu-ray error - this blueray disc needs a library for bd+ decoding and your system doesn't have it. Followed by vlc is unable to open etcetc Downloaded the kybd file and placed in correct location. In finder I copied the file from 0.11.1 and pasted it where it needed to go. Vlc still does nothing. I just got bluray set up in my imac and can't use it. Really don't want to pay for software to do this

[@dmug]

Okay, so created an aacs folder in your useranmes/Library/Preferences and put the keydb.cfg in it and you have Libaacs installed /usr/local/lib ? Try taking the libaacs.0.dylib file, renaming it libaacs.dylib and placing it in the /usr/local/lib directory. I did this on 3 computers, my M1 Max, Mac Pro 2019 and MacBook 2017, worked each time.

[@stevenbenson9976]

@@dmug yeah I saw that in the comments and it didn't change anything.. Really hoping I can get this to work

[@stevenbenson9976]

@@dmug does it need java development environment installed? I got some message about that midway through

[@dmug]

@@stevenbenson9976 Java is only necessary if you want to try and get the menus to work. I assume you have VLC 3.0 or higher installed? You’re not trying to install the keyed into the /Library at the root of your boot drive but the user /Library? What is the exact error?

[@stevenbenson9976]

@@dmug keydb.cfg is in /users/username/library/preferences/aacs and is 52.9 mega in size.

[@misterjeffa2128]

thing is, afaik libaacs doesnt work anymore as it has been blocked. yes even vlc is affected by that

[@dmug]

Mind elaborating? It worked for me on blu ray. Does it not work on UHD?

[@ApolloVIIIYouAreGoForTLI]

Wait.... Battlefield Earth is out on BluRay?

[@newmedia2862]

Yeah, it's been out on Blu Ray since 2020

[@snitzelll3710]

Bro went to the mountains

[@drwrubel]

I can see why physical media is failing so convoluted to play a movie

[@christopherwilliams9418]

Honestly I'd be satisfied with higher density mini-DVD lmfao, I don't necessarily need 4K resolution to watch movies from the 70s and cartoons from the 90s, but could do with something that's smaller and easier to store while still being physical media that can't just be yoinked off a server and yeeted into the void at a moment's notice.

[@TheAtariSan]

You know you can spoof the speed of the cpu ot any g4 ppc cpu to bypass the limitation ot 10.5 leopard install. You can also install Arch PPC to bypass that, someone remade that Linux distros during the pandemy.

[@dmug]

I have leopard and sorbet leopard installed on the computer too, it doesn't have the drivers

[@TheAtariSan]

@@dmug Then, sadly, Arch PPC is your only option to have the driver. but man, that hardware cannot even play youtube video properly at 720p, i can not expect it to be able to run any bluray either.

[@dmug]

@riSan I wouldn’t of been able to play it back, even if it mounted as it wouldn’t have had the software on macOS. I was just mostly curious if you could use it as a data disk or if the drive would even mount DVDs. Also, my dual PowerMac G5 choked on 1080p video so there’s a little hope for machine that old ever to playback 1080p and I had a 6800 GT.

[@Controllerhead]

I saw it reporting is a MATSHITA, which means it's a actually a Panasonic drive (Matsushita is the parent company) or a hilarious knockoff brand. Neat and useful video!

[@dmug]

I didn’t think about googling the name, I just saw it and figured it was some knock off. It did cross my mind to see what windows would make of the drive but also, not really a pc channel

[@foxhack5011]

It likely is. I've used some of these laptop drive to USB cases and they pass through the internal name of the drive. Heck I have an HD DVD laptop drive on one. Works great. Still can't play the movies but it works great.

[@yourussianfriend5115]

most of these external drives are old refurbished drives, and matshita or hp is pretty common to see.

[@olahansen]

No mirror?

[@markstocker9522]

You can't state that higher bitrate means better quality unless it's comparing the same codec.

[@dmug]

Sure but The majority of streaming has been AVC, and while AV1 is here, it’s still not mainstream (yet), so most of the comparisons would be the same generation like VC1 vs AVC or the slightly better ish VP9. It’s a general rule and it would muddy the waters if I went too far down the rabbit hole. Short answer is there isn’t a streaming service regardless of codec that I’m aware of delivering better video quality than blu ray or UHD Blu ray

[@jamesburgess9101]

Thanks, this is great! However, your instructions go off the rails a little at 7:38 where you are making sure VLC can find the aacs dylib. Your words in the video (and your blog) don't match what you have done, visible from the video. You're probably going to confuse anyone who doesn't know what an alias or a dylib is. The important part from VLC's point of view is that there is something called /usr/local/lib/libaacs.dylib. That can either be a copy of the actual dylib or an alias. However if it's an alias it can't be the kind you can make in the Finder, it has to be a "symlink". So one solution is to copy both the dylib and the symlink to the dylib from brew to /usr/local/lib. The dylib will be called something like "libaacs.0.dylib" and the symlink is called "libaacs.dylib". That symlink points to the directory it is in, not the one back in the brew folder which is why you also have to copy the actual one that has the ".0." in its name. You do not need to copy the static library libaacs.a, that won't be touched at all. Nerd tip, the other way to create the file VLC.app needs to see is make the symlink like this: "ln -s /opt/homebrew/Cellar/libaacs/0.11.1/lib/libaacs.0.dylib /usr/local/lib/libaacs.dylib" adjust the first path if you are on intel since brew will put the dylib in some other location in that case. Now what do I have to do for the Bluray disks with Java-enabled menus?

[@dmug]

Yeah, There's always the debate of how much info dumping, explaining symbolic links vs alias are two different things but in the finder it's reported as a alias. As far as Java, I need to install the JRE on my MacBook 2017 as its my mess around computer and see what happens after that.

[@kramermccabe8601]

I used to live in Wasco. Not much to do there lol

[@dmug]

Just the Dirty Cowgirl, I’ve had food there

[@HCAZS]

RPCS3 already offers a superior experience, you don't need to wait for the future.

[@dmug]

Not if the game is glitched 🙃 some games certainly but many games not really.

[@Bobbylopezcreative]

Supposedly not suposably

[@xXRealXx]

0:13 holy shit, it looks almost the same as the blu-ray drive that I have! And it's compatible with PS3 and PS4 game discs

[@dmug]

There's a lot of these on Amazon... like a lot. So if not the same, probably a cousin of it as I'm pretty sure they're just white label.

[@xXRealXx]

@@dmug it's a Hitachi-LG BP55EB40 if you're curious. It was the only portable blu-ray drive I found being sold in my country (Hungary (as new, anyway)). It wasn't listed on the RPCS3 website when I bought it, but the model number was very close to the one that was listed and thanks to my discovery and me asking for it to be listed as a compatible portable blu-ray it got listed on the compatibility list.

[@Halon1234]

I do, man. I do love that movie. 🎉

[@taiga1295]

So, does it burn Blu-Ray? I must know.

[@dmug]

Almost certainly does as macOS sees it as a BD-R. I’ve seen returned it as the USB hub was near worthless. If you’re willing to spend more, for about $70-$95 you can get BDXL burners which if I remember right support UHD blu ray movies as well.

[@ozmond]

I’ve had zero issues playing and ripping blu rays in my Mac.

[@bobbiesterling574]

nerd time (finally a chance to use my uselessly in-depth knowledge of Blu-ray): the 40Mbps number is often quoted but its worth noting that 40Mbps is the MAXIMUM video bitrate supported on standard Blu-rays; the average sits somewhere around 25Mbps in my experience, and the highest average bitrate ive seen is ~35Mbps. that being said, anything above ~20Mbps is generally going to be transparent for 1080p h.264 4:2:0 8bit (the most common Blu-ray format) so youre good, and that point is not reached by any streaming service i know of at 1080p, hence Blu-ray still remains on top regardless. UHD/4K Blu-rays do indeed use BDXLs. BDXL is the physical disc, UHD Blu-ray is the data format. physically, there is no difference, its the data that changes (altho UHD Blu-ray releases dont ever use quad layer discs). the reason why you see BDXL compatible drives that do not support UHD Blu-ray is because UHD Blu-ray uses AACS 2.0 which usually needs specialised hardware for official playback. funily enough if you want to rip UHD Blu-rays, the most common way is to get a drive that is BDXL compatible and can be flashed with custom firmware which allows for direct disc acces (bypassing the copy protection). libaacs is often pointed to but honestly thats like the hard mode way to decrypt Blu-ray discs. you'll have a much nicer experience with MakeMKV, altho its not truly free so do with that what you will. while it is primarily intended to be used for ripping discs, VLC can piggyback off its decryption for real-time disc playback (no need to bother with keys). on Windows there is also Xreveal, which is free, but also requires faffing around with keys. for PS3 games, rpcs3 has a list of known compatible drives which will read PS3 Blu-ray discs, and on the topic of the drive in general, i personally would recommend buying a drive from a reputable brand; LG and ASUS are the big ones, usually the cheap drives work, but good drives are faster, more reliable, and last longer in my experience.

[@dmug]

I appreciate the long reply. Yeah, I should have labeled maximums, as at least for the KZbin and Apple, it's the maximums as well as Blu-Ray. As far as BDXL and UHD discs being the same, that's not true. There's a lot of people who've tried to use BDXL in UHD drives and it doesn't work, see for example: arstechnica.com/civis/threads/uhd-bd-and-bd-rom-drive-compatibility.1471491/ And BD-66/BD-100 are listed as such whereas BDXL is BD R-100 and BD R-128 . There's a massive overlap of BDXL drives that'll read UHD disks but not many UHD drives that'll read BDXL burned discs. There's not really clear verbiage that states BD-100 ≠ BDXL-100 that I can find but there isn't any stating otherwise either. I'm happy to admit if I'm wrong but It's best thought the formats as not completely interchangeable. It's much akin to early DVD drives not being able to read DVD-RW disks, so when buying a BDXL burner, one should not expect their home UHD player to read said discs. It's absolutely bonkers that the Blu-ray Disc Association has made zero efforts to clarify this. With Blu-Ray more or less on it's way out, I doubt we'll see any push for UHD drives to support BD-R XL media.

[@bobbiesterling574]

​@@dmugyeah ok so it is a bit confusing, info out there is unclear and ive taken another look around to see if i have missed anything, and overall my understanding is: - BDXL is the physical disc type. there is basically no evidence to suggest that they are different enough to be seperate disc types. it makes no sense for 2 disc types to have the exact same layer size and both be called "Blu-rays" and yet be substantively different. the lack of burnable BD-66s and UHD BD-128s can only make me think its a cost issue (i.e. BD-128s are cost prohibitive for distribution) but there is no info regarding that so cant go further than speculating there. - what makes commercial UHD BD discs incompatible with some BDXL drives is AACS 2.0 (DRM); in some drives UHD BD reading can be enabled with custom firmware (which also bypass AACS 2.0). - what (likely) makes burnable BDXL discs incompatible with most UHD Blu-ray players is (probably) the differences in construction between a pressed and burned disc (and subsequent lack of firmware feature); this was a thing with all previous disc types, its just that there was significant demand previously to support burned discs, for UHD BD its such a rare use-case that its barely worth considering (not to mention the film industry is quite twitchy about potential piracy which doesn't help support). that being said, there seems to be some players that do support burned media but i cant verify that first hand, i dont have one, ive only seen discussions of such players. so, to be fair, on a practical level, you probably can consider them to be different, but the underlying technology is almost certainly largely the same. i have to say, this is a very interesting take i dont think ive heard before, i will be on the look out in the future if any more concrete info pops up

[@Darwin-dj9jj]

That dent on you palm rest hurts

[@dmug]

Freak accident within two weeks of owning my M1 Max, mic fell on it

[@Darwin-dj9jj]

@@dmug sorry to hear that

[@acf2802]

Most bluray movies are not encoded at 40 mbps. If you are lucky it's in the mid 30s and on average it's probably closer to 25.

[@dmug]

Yeah, been pointed out a few times. I should have labeled this as maximums. :/ Even when you think you have your video button up tight, people find the errors.

[@jackofallgamesTV]

Here's a question: Will it play 3D Blu Rays? The PlayStation 5 any Xbox series X lock out 3D. Thankfully the Xbox One S does not lock out 3d movies.

[@dmug]

I’m a big AV nerd and can talk at length about surround sound formats but I know absolutely zero about 3D. I’ve never used any home 3D formats. Isn’t it contingent on a 3D capable display too?

[@jackofallgamesTV]

@@dmug I have my Mac Mini hooked up to it and I get a few 3D movies through a service. Of course getting 3D assumes that you can get it in a side-by-side half format which this service does and assumes you put on manual side by side half mode which my TV the PlayStation 3D TV does. One time I even burnt a side-by-side half DVD-R of my friend's wedding. Also there's a program called Bino3D which could take pre-recorded films and convert their 3D format into 2D or into various other 3d formats. I'm looking for a 3D to 2D converter for my twitch website because I can broadcast on Twitch on 32 by 9 and have it be in perfect Google cardboard 3D. The only problem is it turns off people who have 2d only. If I knew some instant converter that could go from 3DS to 2D, Adventure them and say watch it through that relay

[@David-nd4to]

I own a SuperDrive just cos it’s a fucking fossil time capsule thing

[@TrimeshSZ]

I still have an Apple CD300 - but sadly no longer any machines it will work with..

[@1337GameDev]

A ps3 emulator on mac? Oh man... The data bandwidth alone of the cell processor would crippled most systems.... afaik at least

[@dmug]

It’s not as bad as you’re thinking. I’ve only really tried it on my Mac Pro 2019 and M1 Max so I may have a skewed view but I recall people having pretty good success on a base M1 and late gen intel MacBooks. See the tutorial: How to play PlayStation 3 Games on your Mac (PS3 emulation on macOS) kzbin.info/www/bejne/b2OZhHqvibp7nMU

[@tokelahti]

Chronologically, bdxl came in 2010, uhd in 2016.

[@dmug]

Interesting, hadn’t see that, source?

[@tokelahti]

Well, Wikipedia for instance. I bought Sony Optiarc BDX-S600U for 160€ in 2011. Was angry for Apple to ditch the most reliable consumer digital archive format: optical disk. That was logical move from Apple, since they want to charge you monthly for that archive.

[@tokelahti]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray#BDXL : "The BDXL specification was finalised in June 2010."

[@tokelahti]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_HD_Blu-ray : "Released February 14, 2016"

[@j_shelby_damnwird]

Yeah definitely weird. You know what's even weirder? Scientology. Battlefield Earth 😂

[@dmug]

Of course. I tried watching that movie and I didn’t make it through.

[@yourussianfriend5115]

those blu ray drives you bought are junk. i bought them once and they all fail quickly or have some dumb thing that makes it unusable. only buy it from name brands like lg or pioneer as they at least offer warranty. tip: desktop drives typically are much better in general and more cost effective than a external drive due to physical limitations. also desktop drives can be fitted into a enclosure. happy burning

[@dmug]

I already returned it, it’s basically eWaste sadly.

[@justin8894]

I prefer MKV over blu-ray. Haha…

[@dmug]

I think we all do

[@Synthematix]

Everything on the mac is weird