Do you own a Mac and want to play Blu-ray discs right there on your screen? The good news is that it is possible even though Apple doesn’t support the format.
We’ve see many Windows computers include Blu-ray Disc optical drives which are useful for not only watching movies but for burning data on to the 50GB capacity discs.
But Apple’s support of the format hasn’t been forthcoming.
Apple was actually one of the companies listed in the Blu-ray camp when the war against rival full high definition format HDD was raging.
But when the dust settled back in 2008, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was waiting for the format to be more widely adopted.
The result on Apple’s side was that no Blu-ray optical drives were ever included on any of its computers including the full high definition 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs.
Today the iMac doesn’t even have an optical drive so it can’t play even play DVDs let alone Blu-ray.
Apple has a USB SuperDrive available separately which can connect to the Mac to play DVDs.
But you can also play Blu-ray right there on your Mac if you want to.
The first thing you’ll need is an external Blu-ray drive. There are several available including models from Buffalo, Samsung, LG, ASUS and Sony.
And while none of these state on the packaging that they support the Mac OS X operating system they will still work.
These are connected by USB to your Mac. Depending on the drive, it might be necessary to connect two USB cables from the drive to your Mac to have enough power.
We used the Buffalo MediaStation External Blu-ray Writer BRXL-PC6U2B ($125 from JB Hi-Fi) which had two USB cables to attach to our brand new 27-inch iMac running Mountain Lion. This way we don’t need to connect the device to power.
Playing DVDs wasn’t an issue because the Mac’s native DVD player is still pre-installed on the computer despite the fact there is no longer a DVD optical drive on board.
We were able to see the DVD mount on the desktop after being loaded into the Buffalo drive and could play the disc using Apple’s DVD player software.
But what about Blu-ray? We inserted a Blu-ray Disc into the Buffalo BRXL-PC6U2B and saw the disc on the desktop.
Now to play the disc you need third party software. There are a few options available including Mac Blu-ray Player and iDeer which cost about $35
But we settled on the Free Mac Blu-ray Player which we saw to be almost identical in terms of functionality and the best part – it didn’t cost us a cent.
Now to burn Blu-ray discs there are also a few options including programs which can be downloaded from the Mac App Store like Blu-ray Creator and NTIDragonBurn.
There is also Roxio Toast Titanium 11 which allows Blu-ray burning as well.
It’s also possible to export to Blu-ray from Apple’s own video editing software Final Cut Pro as well.
If you’re into Blu-ray and also happen to own a Mac – it’s good to know they can now work together.
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7 Comments
There is only one Mac Blu-ray Player: http://www.macblurayplayer.com
This was the original program and the one that works the best.
All the other look-alike programs you see on the market are copies of that, but that in no way has anything to do with the original.
VLC does not support playback of commercial Blu-ray discs with copy protection. Those require decryption keys, which only a commercial player can provide.
The reason is that direct playback of commercial Blu-ray discs is restricted and requires decryption keys. Without internet access to a decryption server or a standalone player with the keys built-in, they will not play.
Hey, I am also looking at a good blu-ray player for Mac with high quailty. When I search “Mac BLu-ray player”, I found most items are about Macgo Mac blu-ray Player, then I visited the website, I saw the mac blu-ray player for $39.95 and Windows version for free. Seems that Macgo Blu-ray player is a good choice for the player can play blu-ray menu, ISO, BDMV folder, also play 1080p HD, and many other formats. What’s more, it has a trial version, we can try for free.
Apple Mac doesn’t play Blu-ray with its own media player and super drive, that’s why we need install third party software and Blu-ray drive. I’m currently testing the Macgo software and it seems ok.
I just picked up a Blu Ray drive called USB 3.0 Aluminum 6X BDXL 3D Blu-Ray Writer for my iMac and also wanted to canvass current opinions on what the best playback software is. I’m currently trialing the MacGo software and it seems OK, albeit that it doesn’t display the menus properly sometimes. I’ve also experimented with the VLC Player workarounds with no luck yet. This is already the best one among my using.
I have used some free tools on mac and failed to play my blu-ray collection, so i searched on google and forum and last i found UFUSoft Mac Blu-ray Player, which is a great tool to let us enjoy blu-ray disc, iso files on mac with ease.