I don't believe there has been any new release or support of the Oracle JRE in years, which is what all of the playback software wants. Installing the modern JDK doesn't work (even when populating all of the paths and associations manually), and even at that, the ancient JRE menu support is spotty at best. I don't think I've ever gotten it to work on a 4K disc. At minimum, I will maintain my position that any software that is installed on a computer, running in the background for no reason, is a security risk. I don't think I've had any cause to install Java since I was in Java class in 2003... except to experiment with bluray menus 20 years later. 😂 From a user prospective, it has gone the way of Flash. If programmers are still developing with Java and it's as transparent to users as C++ or anything else, OK. That's beyond the scope of anything that would require a user to install the JDK and have a virtual machine just sitting there waiting to do... "stuff". With all of that said... I'm still planning to continue to experiment. If a solution appears that simply _works_ at an acceptable level, perceived or real security risks or not, I'd do it and share it. If there are legions of IT security professionals in the comments explaining how to secure it, that's even better.

Oracle Java has been updated on September 19th, 2023. Java is very much still in use today, though not many use it in stand alone sotlftware, it is very much still used as a platform on many web services, and especially in the financial industry. In fact, if you were to learn any programming languages, and wanted to have a successful career, I would suggest Java or Python. Rust and Go are newer languages that would probably be good as well. But most professional coders I know work with Java. As much as I hate it from a user point of view. Also, since when does Java just run with nothing running it? It has an update notification, but that is it.

@@slaapliedje The modern JDK doesn't work for this and the ancient version of the JRE (which is the recommended solution by the software vendors) only works sometimes. Running an ancient version of Java isn't recommended. I don't recommend running any version of it because you just don't need it. I wouldn't have any other potential security risk just hanging out either. So, the short answer is that Java runs whenever it's hijacked by malware. No Java, no hijack. Just like SGX on Intel chips. No SGX, no exploit. What I would really hoped to have seen in the comments from the Java experts is someone explaining how to make Bluray menus work reliably with the modern JDK. I'd be delighted to share that solution.

@TheBrokenTech I mostly use Linux. I will flash my drive (I happen to have the exact ASUS model needed because it was on a list of drives that can read / copy PS3 games that I bought and ripped to play on my Steam Deck). Pretty sure I have gotten menus to work on regular blurays via a library from mkv and VLC using Linux, have not tried in Windows yet.

@@slaapliedje I have gotten menus to work on some normal Blurays (inconsistently), but never a 4K, and never with the modern JDK.

With each advancing technology the durability seemed to take a hit. To a point, I understand it since the laser has to be more and more accurate with each evolution, that means finer and finer defects will cause read issues. In that regard, and probably only that regard, I won't miss physical media once it finally sunsets.

Thanks for watching it. I'm glad to hear it! 👍

I'm glad you enjoyed them! 👍

Awesome! I'm glad to have you! 👍

The good news for you is that I never shut up! 😂 Thanks for watching! 👍

@@TheBrokenTech I'm in good company then. Just finished the full video which is impressive considering I tend to act like a squirrel. I also come from the long lost time of CDs and know a friend that has quite the collection ripped in MP3/MP4 format. My question would be to ask for him is: Do you see MP3 files going the way of the dodo anytime soon or is my friend's collection safe from having to migrate again to another format. Thanks again.

I think most digital formats will be safe once they're back off of their optical discs. MP3s will be supported for a long time to come... but... There's really no reason not to re-rip as FLAC and get your album art polished up... maybe even add lyrics if you want. My CD audio collection is well over 1000 discs and I do plan to eventually do exactly that myself. In the mean time, the MP3s are still playing just fine in everything I own from my 20 year old car stereo to my tablet bought a few months ago. 👍

@@TheBrokenTech super cool, subbed and looking forward to more vids for educational purposes!

I'm happy to have you.

When you insert a new disc into the player, it updates its AACS keys from that disc.

Yep, but menu support doesn't work at all that well. At least for me. Then there's the security risks.

@@TheBrokenTech I'm just curious, what's wrong or security risk with java, I thought it's normal on windows, it even updates it sometimes? I thought Java is safe?

@@jglg7238 Java hasn't really been a normal thing for at least the last 10 years. The only thing I can think of that I use which requires it, is bluray menu support (which I can't get to work reliably). I believe HTML5 has outmoded it in most cases. Java created various security holes and exploits for years. You'd have to go back through all of the change logs to see all of the bug fixes. But, the biggest among my concerns is that it seems most of the playback software wants an _ancient_ version of the JRE to work, and those ancient versions haven't had any support in years. Anyhow... None of that is to say that it can't be done or can't be done safely. What I am saying is that it's not presently worth the hassle and risk for me to do it or recommend it to others. If it _worked,_ I would have at least shown the steps to implement it.

@@TheBrokenTech I see, yeah it's true VLC i had to download a old version of java to get the menu working for some reason it wouldn't work with the new java

@@jglg7238 The "old" version I believe is over a decade old by now and hasn't had support or security updates in years. It's like running Windows XP and Internet Explorer in the modern era. I wouldn't suggest it.

Thanks! It's hard to say, but I think DVD would have had similar problems in the long run. HDDVD discs were down almost 50% in capacity versus their Blu-ray cousins, then that became a factor of 3 in the UHD Blu-ray era. It seems that they may have had to change their discs mechanically at some point just to make room. That's why Blu-ray did it.

0 - There has been no technical advancement in physical media in a decade. Not even a rumor of an advancement. Oppo, perhaps the premiere manufacturer of higher end players, has exited the market at what _they_ said is the peak of their player's performance capability. 1 - The streamers, and the consumer in general, don't seem worried about actual quality. They will serve whatever resolution the consumer thinks they want at whatever diminished bitrate they choose that day (this is the primary reason I personally prefer UHD Bluray). MOST people, seemly can't tell the difference anyhow. This is compounded by more and more of the audience watching on tiny device screens, and frankly, boosted by the advancements in compression technology. 2/3 - This doesn't appear to be true. Disney is exiting entire markets, the most recent of which being Australia. I remember seeing something about Mexico being a media desert as well where there are simply no retailers remaining to buy from and no one importing the media. You can look up the sales data from whatever country you may have in mind, but I'm not aware of any market that is growing. Anyhow... Sometimes people mistake predictions for wishes. I don't _wish_ for any of this to happen. I just believe that it will. If I'm wrong, then that's good news for all of us. If I'm right, then we should get our ducks in a row now to enjoy our collections for years to come.

@@TheBrokenTech I think you are just a pessimist. Dude I buy boutique label blurays of Asian films and they all sell out within a month, the special editions that is. Then they will continually stock the standard editions. I know this because I have talked t them and they have to get new stock all the time.

@@saurelius5217 I openly admit my pessimism. I don't even think there's a debate. 😂 The penalty for my pessimism being wrong is nothing. There is no punishment for things going better than expected. The penalty for misplaced optimism could catch you without playback capability. I believe the media will continue on long after the players all dry up. That's my entire argument. Put systems into place now that ensure you can play your collection later. If you don't want to do that, that's cool. That's why I covered direct playback too.

@@TheBrokenTech I have done that and I do everything on the computer, which I think is better for a few reasons. I don't plan on ever living in, or even visiting a country that is not Fair Use and/or has strong freedom of speech. This is why I don't plan on ever living in Japan for example. People can complain about the US, but Japan is really a country where consumers have no say. I think it is because they tried to go in the exact reverse post WWII and thus promoted the populous to be docile, similar to Germany in that sense but more so. That of course is an argument all on it's own.

@@saurelius5217 Having a good system in place, that you're comfortable with, is really all I'm going for when I make those sorts of statements of opinion. If you're all set, then you're ahead of me. I'm still learning and tweaking as I go.

If it's any consolation, it was getting pretty expensive when it was around. 😂

Thanks! 👍

...I'm waiting to see how many of the other references people notice. 😂

@@TheBrokenTech Fun stuff 😁

That's one of the options that I plan to look into in the future.

If there's one thing KZfaq has taught me, it's that we all have our own opinions. 😂 I'm glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks for watching!

I wish you a successful operation! 😂

I agree, but a lot of people really do want to just play them. I see both sides of it.

You can still curse "the man". I'll allow it. 😆

Nope. No flashing required for regular Blu-ray or DVD. I prefer AnyDVD just for simplicity. Most people would probably use MakeMKV.

The menus rely on Java no matter what plays them back, so, that will always be a factor. As far as if PowerDVD will mount an ISO, or MKV (or any other format/container), I don't really know. Signs point to that not being a very good solution, but all of the information I'm finding is over a decade old. I will also add that VLC isn't the only player out there. I'm currently focusing on it because of its AI integration with certain nvidia chipsets. That will be the topic of a future video.

Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray are not the same format despite having really similar names. It was the worst marketing decision ever for them to be named in the way that they are. Anyhow, you need a drive that is able to read 4K discs. _Some_ regular blu-ray drives can be made to read 4K discs with only a software update. To see how to do that, if you have a drive which can be flashed, check out the video pinned in the description.

I _was_ a DVDFab lifetime license customer... until they nullified my lifetime license for changing email accounts... then they broke all of their features out into different products, which each seemed to require their own lifetime licenses beyond what I already paid for all those years ago. I also don't think they really offer a "free" version and I already know that 99.99% of my audience is going to pick MakeMKV _only_ for that reason... and I'm not a proponent of direct playback anyhow. So... 🤷‍♂️ I still did try their latest offering and it refused to flash any of my drives, then it complained about them once I flashed them with MakeMKV. I also couldn't figure out how to get it to work with multiple instances (the reason for that will be the subject of a future video). In short... they let me down so I couldn't recommend their products to people. If all of those problems were my own making, they're welcome to reach out to me and see about getting me straightened up. As for quality, I can't tell any difference at all between my set-top player and the PC. Except that the PC gives me a lot more control over things, like I can run a multi-channel audio EQ, AI upscaling, etc, which is all pretty cool. The data itself is indistinguishable to the input, so, it really shouldn't matter as long as you have a card which supports HDR@4K, which I think is almost everything these days. As far as your setup, that all sounds fine except for the Buffalo. My only beef with the "buffalo" drive is that tomorrow they could put any other drive inside that enclosure and no one would know the difference. I recommend people buy their own enclosure, and a BU40N separately, and assemble the two so they know what they have. It's only a couple bucks more (and will also be the subject of a future video) and removes that as a possibility. As they are presently being sold, I think they're fine. In the end, it really doesn't matter how any one prefers to skin the cat so long as we all get our cat skin hats at the end of the party. 😁

I just tried downloading the PlayerFAB app for free. It showed my disc, I clicked on it & it gave me an error message saying it couldn't play it. It didn't work :(

It seems to be a pretty common thing these days with these discs. 😔

I have viewers who swear they've gotten it to work with later revisions. It's something I need to look into more deeply.

I didn't know that.. Slightly less fun fact: PS4s won't play audio CDs. The hardware is capable of it, but Sony decided to just not support it.

In 5.25", the LG WHNS14/NS16 drives are a good bargain. In 9.5mm the LG BU40N is a good choice. I'll have a video on the BU40N in the near future. It looks like you already found the video for the 5.25" drives.

@@TheBrokenTech yeah lol

This video is only part of a series on this topic. The previous part was about how to get your drive ready for use. I'm not sure if your Pioneer can be patched (probably not) but the LGs I show in most of my videos can. Then you can do whatever you want. You will find the links to those videos in the description.

No. You have no way to plug anything into the "monitor" on a laptop since that's all internally hardwired.

I tried exactly that first, in addition to blowing it off with compressed air. 😂 The _painter's tape_ (specifically designed to be gentle) was a last resort and I was attempting to correct a read error. I didn't do it just to experiment.

@@TheBrokenTech As a last resort for me, I used an alcohol wipe to get a stuck on film off one of my 4k discs. I bought a Jurassic Park 5 disc set and disc 3 wouldn't rip. I was able to rip the other 4 discs, so I knew it wasn't a computer hardware issue. I tried a dry microfiber cloth a couple of times and the disc still had errors. Before I finished a claim on ebay to return it, I tried the alcohol wipe and it worked. At the time, I didn't have a stand alone 4k bluray player, so I needed to be able to rip it, so I could watch it. I bought the same player you have, Sony BP700 because it was $158 on black Friday and I don't expect it to get any lower. I also use PowerDVD19 to play my mkv files, not VLC. I have my PC connected to a receiver with HDMI and I can use settings to play higher end audio codecs, that at least 3 years ago didn't work with VLC and Plex. I'm also both too cheap and paranoid to buy the Any Time DVD. I use MakeMKV to do the ripping. I then shrink it with Handbrake to a lower bit rate to save size, then re-rip with MakeMKV to enable chapters and subtitles to work correctly. For now, I'm keeping an uncompressed version on the computer I rip them but I copy them to the HTPC and shrink them there.

You could do something like that, but in my experience, the old version didn't work anyhow. I have several people that have reported trying different methods/versions/whatever and getting menu support to work reliably. I need to look more deeply into those suggestions and see if I can replicate their results.

PS3 drives are _notorious_ for blu-ray failure. I have a dead laser in a slim right now (a project which may come to the channel). 😂 Anyhow... I love me some PS3, but that would be the last platform I would trust for reliable blu-ray playback into the future.

​@@TheBrokenTech I own 3 PS3s. 2 fat ones since day 1 and 1 newer super slim. I personally never had any problems with any of the drives. I've had other issues, but not the drives. Then again, I've never owned the 2nd gen slim. If there are a lot of Playstation Blu-Ray drives failing it's most likely from neglect. More kids own game consoles than anyone and you can see how they are treated when you look on the used market. And the sheer numbers of PS3s out there is gonna give you a higher number of possible failed drives. Anyway, these days I mainly use the PS3 and PS4 for 3D content via either Sony's Playstation 3D LCD monitor or one of the DLP projectors I have. I'm a huge 3D nerd.

@@nonsuch I'm not a Playstationologist or anything, but the blue laser dying in the drive is probably the first well known problem of them that I heard about. I remember hearing about it before the YLOD was a thing and that came on to my radar probably around 2010-ish. It's interesting you mention the owners of the machines. The failed slim I may repair is actually my Dad's. He's 78 and has never put a game in it. It was purchased as an entertainment unit where it has primarily played MP3s off of a USB drive. My fat 80gb has taken a beating, and as far as I know, the drive is still fine. 🤷‍♂ I'm still pretty comfortable in the direction I've chosen. As long as I stay in ISO format, I can always mount the image and do anything with it I want to play it back on whatever system is the best in the future... optical drive or not. I was very disappointed to discover that 3D had been discontinued from modern TVs, and most content, when I went shopping a few years ago. 😢 My PSVR is as far down that trail of nerdom as I've gotten.

Thanks! Disagreements in opinion are always welcome. On the hardware side... Have you tried to buy a new laserdisc player lately? Or a compact cassette or 8-track deck? Maybe even an _official_ UHD Bluray drive? Software? Sure. There is no real barrier to entry for software development other than the talent to author it. Since there really was only ever one "major" (Cyberlink), I think this ball is already in motion. Frankly, I'm banking the future playback of my collection on those talented authors. What we have today is pretty good, but I'm expecting it to continue to improve for some time to come. The AI hardware upscaling and integration into the playback software is shockingly good already and very promising. That said, I still predict a complete collapse of physical media within ~15 years and a virtually complete collapse within the next 5. I also predict a long period of time where it will be pretty cheap to collect as people of my age die off, or downsize, and their collections go to second hand shops. Once Gen Xers are gone, there won't be many people holding a candle for discs so demand will be low while supply is extremely high. Since I'll be in the great beyond by the time that happens, I won't get to see the accuracy of my prediction. 😂

@@TheBrokenTech hw side: yes. I just purchased a pioneer Cld-R5 regenerated in Japan (I have about 170 laserdiscs). But those were different times. It was all analog. With the digital handy tech, it's easy to reproduce clones especially for the Chinese, with their grey laws. And as well, I'm optimistic for the boutique labels. Do you know the channel "films at home"? Compared to him I'm a noob but even him isn't that much worried. Surely won't be cheap, that's the only downside. About second hand, I agree, it will be dirty cheap. Now I'll try to buy and hack an LG (thanks to your older vid) and I'll make all the backups (about 700 disc's 😅) but I'll play them by connecting 2,5mm external hard drives to my oppo 203, via USB. So it will survive at least another decade even with the laser dead. 😂 About pc playback I'm not a big fan by past experience. It's like with videogames: I'll end to spend more time on settings (upscaling, rendering, deinterlacing, madVR, etc) and at the end I won't enjoy it. For the same reason I play on consoles rather than on pc! Hahaha EDIT: sorry for the typos but I write really fast and I overlook my mistakes. 😅

@@alexroot1980 So you were not able to purchase a new LD machine and had to seek out a repaired unit from Japan. How long will it stay repaired? How long will the parts continue to be available? When will all of the technicians die? Your laserdisc experience is exactly why I'm making the case I'm making. The hardware is going extinct. Back up your titles (and/or buy extra hardware) now if you want to continue to view them in the future. This will happen with Bluray too. It's unavoidable. Sure, the Chinese can knock-off exceedingly low quality versions of hardware. We see this on compact cassette decks where there is _one_ Chinese mechanism of extremely poor quality and it gets farmed into everything. That's not really what I want to rely on. Once the only laser reader on the market is of that quality, which it will be once major manufacturers like Sony, Pioneer, etc aren't maintaining standards in lens manufacturing, we're going to have problems. Then we're relying on used equipment that never really was supported in the aftermarket. I've never heard of someone having a DVD player repaired. Yep, I'm a regular viewer of Films at Home and I'm aware of the boutique studios doing small batch releases (I regularly rent KL releases). His channel is actually what motivated this series because he's been raising the same flags (Oppo exiting the market, Disney exiting Australia, etc). Maybe "worried" isn't the right term, but he's aware of where this is headed. Where he and I differ is that he doesn't seem interested in backing up his collection... yet. Or maybe he just has the wisdom to be doing it very quietly? I hadn't seriously considered using my set-top player in combination with a HDD, in part because a single drive of the size I would need doesn't exist so a media server was always my plan. I'd also like to stream to every location in the house and not just be bound to one player. But, I have experimented with it and MKVs work fine on my Sony. I imagine that would go well for your Oppo as well as long as it would still boot and operate with whatever potential laser defect. The primary attraction for me to PC playback is the extreme flexibility of configuration. It's really not as bad as it may have once been and software selection plays a big role in that. Right now just the nVidia AI upscaling on my RTX card is paying big dividends and that's a technology they are improving all the time. VLC deinterlacing is pretty much perfect and it does it with a check box. I have multichannel digital EQ processing that I could only dream of a few years ago and it's a freeware app. The stuff is incredible. That says nothing of being able to make my own custom edits if I want. I have a few titles that I have radically reduced in brightness for viewing while falling asleep. I can set audio peaks, bandpass, etc too. I'm with you on PC gaming. It was a pain in the '90s and it's a pain today too. 😂 My experience with movies on the PC has been vastly better.

I had spotty support at best. I'm not sure any of my 4Ks had menus. It's a subject I need to revisit.

Blu-ray and UHD 4K Blu-ray are not the same format, despite having similar names. Regular Blu-rays don't require Intel SGX.

What is on the disc is also compressed (even what you see in the theater is), just not as heavily, not by the same technologies, and it always stays the same where streamers can change at will. That's why a 4K disc technically has 4 times as much information (4x the pixels) as a standard Blu-ray, but isn't 4x the data size (usually 4Ks are around 1-1.5x larger than their Blu-ray counterparts). Better compression technology is being used on UHD discs. If you really, really, want to nerd on out this topic you can start researching various international versions of your favorite movies and you'll discover that certain releases may be more desirable for how they were processed, including how compression was applied to them. When you see reviewers talking about "artifacts", they're talking about compression.

Yep, there is. I use a box that appears very similar to this one: amzn.to/4cqYkbk ...to perform that task. I'd link you to the _exact_ one I have, but it appears to no longer be sold. That box will take HDMI video (and audio for that matter) and pass it through while pushing out audio into digital coaxial (what you're describing), digital optical, and L/R stereo.

@@TheBrokenTech Thanks a lot, I've been looking for a solution since last Christmas.

Ho-ho-ho! 🎅 🤣

You're running on an unsupported configuration that happens to still work for now... I'll explain. Intel's official position on SGX support in Windows 11 is that any Windows *10* SGX driver "should work" in Windows 11, but they're not developing SGX any further (including _for_ Windows 11). Cyberlink's official statement is that PowerDVD "should work" with UHD Blu-ray as long as your Intel drivers (and the rest of your hardware) are fine, but you need to check that for yourself (and you need to check before every update to make sure none of them break SGX) and they're not going to help you do it. Dell's (or any other hardware vendor) position on it is that SGX compatibility is dictated by Intel, but Intel's position is that OEMs are the ones who supply the drivers, so it's on them... MS also points the finger right back to the drivers... and so it all goes. So... All of the entities in this series of events did drop support. Right now you're in a situation where the crew of your vessel have all passed away, but the sails are up and in the wind, so your UHD Blu-ray ghost ship continues onward until something stops it. The thing that stops it could be a security update to your BIOS, Intel driver, Windows update, etc. Maybe it never stops? Who knows? In the context of this video, and especially through the message I tried to convey about future proofing yourself, I stand by my statement.

Rip them.

So you want a preview image or cover artwork or something as the default icon for MKV files instead of whatever VLC defaults to? Also... I'm not sure that VLC includes any codecs. I use the K-lite codec pack behind the scenes with VLC running on top.

Thanks, and thanks for watching! 👍 1 - Correct... AMD chips never have supported SGX, so you will need to go through the steps required to unlock your drive via a firmware flash (if possible depending on your model...) and then you can watch or rip your discs with the software of your choosing. 2 - That sounds like Amazon applying compression to their streams. My opinion is that anyone who buys anything that is digital only, without an assurance of quality or a local copy to download, is wasting their money. That's the majority of the reason why I prefer physical media. That said, I do have a few Blu-rays that also have the type of compression artifacts you're talking about, but it's pretty rare. I can't think of any UHD 4K discs that do.

@@TheBrokenTech Hey so I downloaded anydvd and tried to rip the 4k uhd and it didn't work :( I get this error message: Media is AACS protected! AACS MKB version 61 UHD Blu-ray disc. Drive supports bus encryption! Disc wants bus encryption! couldn't retrieve AGID (bus encryption)! ERROR processing Blu-ray disc!

@1adamantium1 It sounds like you skipped step 1 from my original response. You will need to unlock your drive, by way of a firmware revision, before you'll be able to use it to read 4Ks. I linked a video in the pinned comment that explains how to do it, if your drive is supported. Not every drive is...

@@TheBrokenTech Hey, so I downloaded the SDFtool Flasher and it doesn't recognize my drive(there is no option to select) I get an unhandled exception error when i load the app, I just click continue and the app loads, but no drive can be seen to flash??? I have the drive plugged in to the usb, and it reads dvds, blu rays.

@@TheBrokenTech ok, so I figured it out, for some reason I need to have MakeMKV intalled on my computer, now the disk is readable, and I flashed the drive! Just iso'd my first 4k disc...Thanks!!!!!!!!!

MPHC is one of the options I plan to experiment with.

I switched over once I noticed the colors were washed out on VLC, I don't have a physical drive yet tho does it support the blurays?

You may enjoy browsing the software selections displayed during the Redfox portion of this video. 😂 For that matter, any competent capture card will do it too. It's just slightly more work and considerably more money.

Yep. 😁

6th-10th generation Intel CPUs support SGX and can play 4K UHD Blu-rays if everything else is also compatible. HDR is not a function of the CPU.

Yeah... No good thing ever lasts. 😔 I think there are ways of integrating MakeMKV with VLC and getting playback to work that way, but I didn't have any luck with it. Direct playback is so finicky in general that you're better off to just rip your discs and play them back that way.

@@TheBrokenTech yeah i'll take a look into it, if not i'll invest in a portable hardrive and do just that, thanks heaps

Thanks for watching. 👍

My personal opinion is that "the industry" probably really isn't concerned with it any longer, which is why the tools that enable playback on unsupported systems haven't been chased out of existence. That said, I'm not trying to be the one to poke the bear. ETA: We are _finally_ getting UHD Blu-ray releases of Aliens, True Lies, and The Abyss! So... New big titles are still trickling in. Every month we get a few more.

@@TheBrokenTech Exactly. Also, if you had the intention of breaking the law by copying a disc, where would you find such a disc in the first place? I don't know anyone who owns 4K discs. I'd be happy to pay for 4K discs, if only they were available. The remastering of my favourite movies has stopped at 1080p, and whatever is on the market as 4K is either brand new movies, or old blu-rays which have been upscaled but not remastered.

@@jacquesmertens3369 I don't think I edited my original comment in time for you to see the change. New discs are coming out all the time. The 3 Cameron movies I mentioned are all full re-scans and complete updates. In fact, the true film snobs are upset about it because they don't like how Cameron has been color grading them and such. Depending on where you live, you may have to import them though. 😔

@@TheBrokenTech You also showed the deplorable quality of the discs that are currently being produced. They are more vulnerable than ever before. The manufacturers are shouting 'please, don't buy our products'. Last but not least: the discs have reached their physical maximum. 8K just doesn't fit. Never will. It's game over. Is there ever going to be a new physical format again? Crystals maybe, like in the Superman movie?

​@@jacquesmertens3369 Oh, I have no doubt that this is the last generation of physical media that we will ever see outside of extreme niche markets. I'm openly advocating the people get the things they want now while they still can.

I just don't have the patience to mess with that stuff anymore. Put the disc in the drive, click the mouse 3 times, and I'm done. Hard drives are cheap. Let's fill 'em up. 😎

@@TheBrokenTech I do have a decent excuse. I like to load up a portable USB drive that I connect to an Nvidia shield. I take this off grid. For the portability and convenience, I want them on a 2.5 external drive powered only by the shield's USB port. My largest one is only 5gb. So I want a lot of content selection with some pretty tight constraints. Hunting cabin with a group. But yes, it's a pain😂

@@jdogi1 We all have our constraints and reasons. For me, I'd probably be more willing to cart in a USB dock just the one time and pack in full-size drives after that. 20TB 3.5" drives are sub $300 and will hold ~300 full-size 4K movies. Plus, the efficiency of running the drive straight from a 12v power source, rather than stepping it down to 5v via USB, may actually be more power efficient from your source (presumably 12v batteries charges from something). It would be an interesting study. But... If I'm honest, I would just pick 20-30 titles and "rough it" for the trip. That's what I normally do when I travel. In fact, I have to load up some holiday favorites soon. _Die Hard, Die Hard 2, etc._

I believe the day is coming where we won't see physical releases of features and we will be left with only assorted digital versions. This has already happened with most of the original content being released by Netflix, Amazon, Apple, etc. We see some of them go to the theaters so they can compete for awards and then straight to streaming afterward. I don't think it will be too long before the other studios follow suit. That said, I don't have anything in particular against streaming. I just like to have options, particularly regarding the massive back catalog of stuff that isn't streamed (my personal collection exceeds Netflix's streaming library when excluding their originals), and I prefer to have control over my own content. That's why I'm hording playback equipment and sharing various options for archival. This human is already rising against the corporate machines. 😂

Ehhh... I think a boycott is what they're hoping for at this point. I say you should collect what you want now, because tomorrow it will be gone. 😔

Boycotts will kill physical media, and we need it more then ever

They think poor sales are due to streaming and not all the crap they have shitted out for "copy protection".

@@mattisandersson9661 I personally think it's mostly because of streaming. The youth market is always who drives entertainment and many of them have now grown up in a world without physical media and probably even less desire to play it back on a large centralized screen that is chained to one room. It seems they prefer to stream to their phones or tablets.

Does it support Nvidia Super Resolution?

its just a virtual dvd drive iso loader@@TheBrokenTech

Oh, OK. Just so it's clear, VLC is able to mount the ISOs directly. It doesn't require an external loader.

yes you can do it directly through vlc too, but i found that to be flaky especially with the old VideoCD , so i use an WINCDemu but it also take care of data as well so its just a go to. but thank you for the heads up for the super res for VLC as i known it was coming but after you mentioned it i started digging and found the cookie jar i shall try on my babylon 5@@TheBrokenTech

Super Resolution is pretty incredible. That's, at least, in the top 3 reasons to have a media PC for your home theater.

Really, I think less than half of all of the movies ever filmed where even released to home video at all. DVD has a stout catalog, bluray is pretty good, but you're right in that 4K is trailing badly. Ehhhh... Some of the bonuses and such on the 4K discs are what I would expect. I'm not that familiar with the previews updating, but I don't allow my players to internet connect so it could just be a feature I never noticed.

@@TheBrokenTech I was told a few weeks ago that certain blu rays would crash a ps3 because they were trying to use that old Javascript to load online previews and they had to disconnect the internet to skip it. In terms of the physical media argument, I think the average consumers would prefer to own the movies they like but it's so costly to keep jumping from DVD to bluray to 4k and the DRM got so out of hand it seems like a controlled demise. I think it's gonna be just like video games where only a minority own the physical copies and dump them online without concern for legality, for preservation of the art

@@dustymofo917 I don't have any experience with that issue on the PS3, but I quit playing Blurays on mine probably a decade ago. It sounds like something that is entirely plausible. I see video games and movies as slightly difference things. These days, a video game actually takes longer to install from disc than it does to download and the disc is only used as DRM while the digital version doesn't (so you don't have to change discs to change games). In those regards, the digital version is actually a better product. With movies, we're not there yet. 4K UHD Bluray is currently the best quality available. It's not the cheapest or fastest, but that's not what most of us would be after.

@@TheBrokenTech PS4 and 5 games don't need internet or DRM to install the 1.0 ver of games, unless it's a online only/multiplayer game, but you won't get any patches unless you manually jailbreak your system and install them offline. I agree tho, I was more referring to retro game/movies because let's be honest, that's the majority of what's worth owning. And it is a case by case basis, from what I've seen with 4k sometimes has a worse color grading than the bluray version. Hell apparently the Laserdisc and VHS versions of Bad Lieutenant are the only true uncut ones because of a song licensing lawsuit with Led Zeppelin

@@dustymofo917 When I mentioned DRM, I was referring strictly to the mechanical presence of the disc. In my PS4, that's all the disc drive does. Everything is installed to the internal drive. I remember RDR2 took like 6 hours to install off of disc. 😔 4K does seem to go on a title-by-title basis, but for the most part I think it's a good format. I think for most people the difference between 4K and 1080 Blu-ray won't really be noticeable until screen sizes grow to 75"+, unless the mastering/processing is really improved between releases. At around 130", just the resolution increase is very noticeable. Other people really think that HDR is the cat's meow, but... I can't really tell. I'll have to assume their vision is just better than mine. If I let the brightness on the TV go to the point that maybe I would notice, it would burn my retinas out. Yep, there are still things out there on Laserdisc that have never seen the light of day beyond that format. Sometimes its licensing issues, sometimes its censoring, sometimes its simply lack of demand. That said... LDs look terrible on a screen of modern size. You _can_ watch them, but... I'll normally opt for a more modern version even if it isn't the truest one.

I've never seen a set-top UHD 4K burner. I also wouldn't recommend trying to burn them because the media is astronomically expensive. Waaaay back in the DVD days, I heard similar arguments and they may have had some merit at the time, but I believe that time has passed.

i agree and at a1500 bucks was what price id seen crazy the guy was a high end audio and video collect that told me about it' the thing i found interesting is that their also able to copy game disk and play' from what i was told. if true the price is a little more untannable lol@@TheBrokenTech

@@josephsaucedo8691I'd have to know what specific machine he may have been talking about with you, but I'm not aware of any such machine being able to cover so much ground. Copying game discs has also been a little sketchy, depending on what system. Almost always, it requires a minimum of a firmware update to the game console. With all of that said, approaching 20 years ago my Dad had a set-top DVD recorder/DVR combo and it was like $900. I don't think it had any capability to copy an actual disc. It could only write from what was stored from its hard drive (which could be input via component inputs).

As luck would have it, I was _just_ looking at PS3 replacement lasers as about an hour ago I bought a broken PS3 that may need one. 😂 I haven't personally had any failures of my consoles, but my Dad's slim refused to play Blu-rays awhile ago. I hear that's a pretty common failure with them, so... I'm thinking of stocking my spare parts up while I can still get them.

@@TheBrokenTech Yeah you're right, however for the particular disc I mentioned, I remember there being a ton of people with the exact same problem because of the exact same game. Mine was one of the 60gb ones (no BC). Also the experience corrupted the OS at least 10 times so worth going into the safe mode and refreshing everything at least once to be sure. For spare parts I have no experience, they don't build tech like they use to, still can't believe I used my PS3 that long, almost daily back then and it still works perfectly after the laser replacement.

For sure there are bad runs of discs out there. Normally you hear that they don't work at all, but weirder things have happened. I imagine if the disc is manufactured _just_ wrong that the laser could constantly gain and lose focus, and eventually that mechanism goes out of calibration from the excess wear. The primary reason I just bought that wonky console is because it _is_ backward compatible, as is my original one. I've also used mine for thousands and thousands of hours and also never really had a problem with it. I bought it in early 2008, tore it down and repasted it in 2011 when the first YLOD reports were gaining popularity, and put it on a laptop cooler since then... So, as far as I know it's never even been "hot", and being a CECHE01, it's already on the "cooler" side of the BC models. I've been wanting a second one as a spare, or parts, for years and today was the day. I don't have any experience with the spare parts market for them either, but I'm about to. 😂 I do know that bad spare parts are still better than _no_ spare parts so that iron is hot for striking. Looks like new laser assemblies are only like 30 bucks and R/YLOD PS3s are out there by the dozen to harvest parts from pretty affordably. edit: Glad we had this chat... I went to look at what I was buying again and realized the ad was wrong and it wasn't what I was looking for. Unwound the sale before any harm was done. 😅 The search continues!

@@TheBrokenTech Likewise, forgot to say great video btw, I don't even own blu-rays other than old games but it's very useful info for future reference.

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. 👍

Thanks for watching! 👍 I'm just learning about that today. 😔 The only reason I prefer AnyDVD is that it simplifies my workflow. 3 clicks and I'm done and I have a file in my desired container. If you're not interested in _simple_ direct playback from disc (which, really, I'm not), there really isn't a huge advantage to AnyDVD. But, if you really wanted it, and wanted to wait for a sale (which they have all the time) I wouldn't be _that_ offended by a 2 year license. Two years in this game is _forever._ The studios could stop publishing discs tomorrow, the software company could go out of business (this happened to Slysoft once, which is why they are RedFox now), a new version of the software could just be "bad" (my opinion of what happened to DVDFab... combined with other issues), better software could come out from a competitor, or whatever... But... MakeMKV for 60 bucks for a forever license is such a better deal that I don't think I can continue to recommend AnyDVD to anyone unless they just HAD to have easy direct disc playback. I had so many people asking about doing so that I HAD to show how to play discs on unsupported hardware even though I don't recommend that people take that approach. Anyhow, the easiest way to use MakeMKV to rip is to do that is what I showed in the video. Just File -> Backup. For me, I then need to run those files through ImgBurn to get an ISO of them, but that's really straight forward too. It just takes more time and effort for me to do it that way than it does to use AnyDVD to do it all in one step. FWIW, MakeMKV does make DVD ISOs directly, so, if you have a lot of DVDs to process, then there is literally no disadvantage to MakeMKV for those titles.

Yep. I'm still holding a very small amount of hope that they pop up at some point, but.... It's not looking good. Existing AnyDVD installations are still functional (for now). For those who don't demand direct playback, MakeMKV is still going along just fine.

@@TheBrokenTech Yeah I went through the slysoft shutdown now looks like Red Fox too. Like you I hold a small amount of hope but this long in silence, not much hope.

Given the ridiculous laws all over the world, I can easily imagine scenarios where they are well served to simply evaporate. I can't blame them for that. I blame the industry that put us in this position in the first place.

@@TheBrokenTech Amen!

Unfortunately, it's not that easy anymore. As far as hardware, the video in the pinned comment will help you out. This is the software video.

Some of you guys pick the weirdest statements to latch on to in these videos. 😂 That said... nearly any 10 year old $20 phone is a better music player, with a better screen, a better charger, a better UI (especially for file management... no iTunes to fight with), higher capacity, and less weight than an iPod. I'll take your word for it that they may be popular again for some reason, but I find it hard to believe it would be for practicality. That said, if someone wants to pay me a bunch of money for mine, they're for sale. 😆

What code number?

It's been awhile, but as I recall... You had to chase after various library files, and keep them updated on your own, that aren't built into MakeMKV. So that system required a constant cat and mouse game of trying to stay ahead of the discs (which AnyDVD does for you). I also couldn't get it work when I tried it. No matter how anyone decides they want to get there, my overall opinion is still the same: direct playback of discs on a PC is more hassle than its worth, although possible.

@@TheBrokenTech might have been a thing in the past, from watching your videos you do know a lot more than me when it comes to this, though as far as I'm aware unless it's a recently released disc, makemkv updates it's keys automatically, though menus only work with Java, if u want to see how I managed it, I uploaded a 2 min video explaining how to do it from fresh (about 3 years ago, still works) seems to be hit and miss with the people watching. Really like your videos, only stumbled across your channel recently and it's very helpful! I'd be super interested on your take of HTPCs btw as I'm either thinking a Sony TV with android tv or Nvidia shield, unless there's software (other than Kodi) they I can load onto a mini PC/ r58x to work similarly to a smart TV UI with my streaming apps just with less clutter and more support for thinks like PGS Subtitles in Plex (hence Nvidia shield). Keep it up!

@@Pixel_Box First, thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the videos. Working only from memory, MakeMKV playback just started to get more complicated than I thought my audience would be interested in when it comes to direct playback. Most people in that camp just want to put a disc in a drive and play it. That's the experience that AnyDVD provides. If someone has more than the minimum level of knowledge or technical capability, then the odds are good that they won't need my help. 😆 My very short take on HTPCs right now is that it's a very good way to go. I have a 4 year old entry level Dell with an i3 in it and an RTX4060 plugged straight in to my TV and it's serving my needs pretty well. I don't stream much, but when I do I just use the web interfaces of those streamers. I haven't experimented with more client/server style applications like Plex yet as I primarily only watch on one screen. That said, as I understand it, you can run a Plex server on just about anything and stream from that server with not much (or anything) more than a Firestick. For what I'm interested in right now (AI upscaling DVD content) I think Plex would actually hurt me since I don't think it supports nVidia Super Resolution. For me, a Plex client would basically be a companion app next to VLC (which does support Super Resolution) so I'd likely be using a PC as my client anyhow... which means I'd need 2 PCs (one server and the other a client). That day _is_ coming, but I don't know how soon. I do have a couple of videos scheduled along that path though. The next one will probably be about managing and playing a collection on a local PC (plugged into a TV or not) with upscaling.

​@@TheBrokenTech to be fair I used Plex on my main system for over 4 years before I built a dedicated server for it, now it has 12 drives a 1050ti a i5-11600 and 16gb of ram with 20tb storage on triple parity, ofcourse using this for home assistant pi hole, sync thing and game servers when I and my friends wanna play anything, my only issue I have with Plex is PGS Subtitles have to be software transcoded and other than using a HTPC/Nvidia shield TVs can't natively play that subtitle format, I want the fancy formatting with text (if there is any) also, HDR tone mapping on PC instead of HDR compatible support. I only use Plex for the content I own on disc (content that's worth owning) and stream everything else I am less bothered about. I'd want to use my current gaming system as it's balls to the walls for the HTPC but I'd want a android tv like experience up until I'd want to use the desktop for steam and other desktop stuff, just nothing currently suits that specific criteria other than just using a smart TV then switching input source 😆. I'm unsure if Plex supports Thier super resolution though nvidias new HDR mapping tech affects it on my client app so I'd assume that the upscaling also works!

You're already pretty far over my head with a lot of that. 😆 The only thing I can really speak to is my general preference for running a PC interface vs. whatever smart TV style apps. I use Logitech K400 keyboard/touchpad combos and pretty much never any Smart TV style apps (none of my screens are internet connected). So... I wouldn't have any clue how to back up into any of that stuff. I also only just looked in passing, quickly, and found mostly old info, but it doesn't appear that Super Res is supported by Plex. BUT... it appears that it _is_ supported by some browsers/technologies, so it's possible whatever playback hardware you're using is doing it on its own if its nVidia based (a Shield would make sense).

Existing installations should continue to work for awhile... I don't think we know what happened to RedFox yet, but... It's probably not temporary at this point. 😔

Yep. Many people do. 👍

What gives you that idea?

@@TheBrokenTech Calvin wouldn't piss on a SGX chip, he would vaporize it with a missile or something.

As far as I'm aware, Calvin never actually pissed on anything in the comics. It's a meme, before memes, from the '90s.

I think I said in the video that doing that in AnyDVD prevents me from having to do it as a separate operation..? You absolutely can do it as 2 operations if you want, but I don't want to mess with that. 3 mouse clicks and I'm done. You have not seen it yet, but I have a ripping tower with 7 drives in it, plus one in the host PC. When you're processing 8 discs at a time, streamlining the process gets to be important.

I'm not going to cut my arm off to prove I'll bleed to death either.

@@TheBrokenTech I wouldn't want you to do that.

Are you just stating agreement with me or did I do something that looked like I was compressing something?

Um, what? You realize blu-rays ARE digital, right? It drives me nuts people keep using digital and analog wrong.

I think I answered another of your questions in the comments for the video where I showed how to enable 4K playback on those drives?

If it makes you feel any better, not all that long ago segments of humanity were conquering entire civilizations just for spices. A largely anonymous group of corporations cheating you out of playing a movie on your computer is a marked improvement in behavior over the last few hundred years. 😂

Lol @ you assuming I'm doing any particular thing in any particular way, including the assumption that I'm not trans myself. Bigot. 😂

@@TheBrokenTech "I identify as Gotcha!" 😂

Don't get me started on software subscriptions. I'm with you 100%. That's actually the reason I'm using the editing package that I do and not something more advanced (not that I am such an advanced user)... I can't buy one anymore. As for media formats, it's been so long that we actually "owned" them that I don't really know a world where we did. Even back in the VHS days there was macrovision on selected titles. For better or worse, we're probably at the end of the physical media road and side industry has come along to at least partially free us from the DRM problems. So... this is probably the last time we'll have this specific issue. It will be virtual DRM we fight going into the future and that will be a much harder battle. Personally... I plan to just let them win. There's plenty of stuff to watch before today to get me entertained for longer than I'll live to watch it. 😂

@@TheBrokenTech I agree 100% with you, once this ship has sailed with owning physical media I dont think we will be able to truly **legally** own digital media again. Thats another battle for others to take up as you said. Peculiar situation we are in though, most of the new movies/tv-series are shit while most of the good movies/tv-series are on disc and prices for blu rays and dvds will continue to plummet.

@@xtexasredx6051 It really is difficult to predict what the future will hold and what content people will want. I would have never guessed that a format like TikTok or "Shorts" would ever be popular, but, here we are. It could be that television and movies are completely made obsolete in favor of trillions of 30 second tidbits random sewn together. We may actually be lucking out and enjoying the peak of entertainment right now. 😂

It appears that thousands of people disagree with you.

​@@TheBrokenTechcorrect answers aren't derived from consensus.

😂

I plan to re-rip my collection as straight .wav or possibly even just copy it as CDA. Those two options seem to be the most compatible and "lossless". Since storage space is essentially free as it relates to audio files, there's really no reason for any compression anymore.

Who is we? A tiny niche of audio enthusiasts? Apple didn't "bow" to FLAC. ALAC was developed by Apple separately from FLAC. Apple doesn't support FLAC. The industry moved on to MQA for lossless streaming. I don't know how you arrived at "far more widespread" when all iOS devices and Android devices support ALAC natively and Apple doesn't support FLAC. So, fewer devices support it. No streaming services support FLAC. Apple Music uses ALAC. Other services use a combination of codecs, none of which are FLAC. So, far fewer people listen to FLAC. You can buy FLAC tracks, for the 0.001% of people who do that, I suppose.

​@@jefferyG499MQA isn't lossless, MQA is bankrupt and Qobuz uses flacs

FLAC is completely loseless. How can anything else be "better" (unless it's also loseless and compresses more)?