I got a new computer recently which is 4k-capable (meaning it puts out a real 4K signal to my TV, my older one was just 1080.) It doesn't have a disc drive built in but I bought an external 4k drive for it.

It plays regular DVDs and Blu-Rays fine, but it will NOT play 4K UHD discs. The drive can read them and I can open the folders to see the files, but it will not simply play the content on the computer. I bought a legit disc playback program Cyberlink and it gives a message on 4k discs that they are "not supported". Emailing the company says that 4k playback was disabled a while ago. I can't find any other software that will do it. The only hints I've gotten, including some on the Tech forum here, involve illegally defeating the encryption which isn't allowed to be discussed here so that's the only mention I'm going to make of that. I'm NOT trying to copy any discs or anything like that, I just want to be able to PLAY them normally and get screen captures off of them. (They don't seem to want anyone getting screen captures of regular Blu-Rays either, but that's another topic. Suffice it to say all the review sites do it and I don't think they'd be as effective without them, and those reviews are supposed to help SELL discs.)

When DVDs first came out, they used computer compatibility as one of its selling points. Now they don't want people to play them on a computer at all? While I would never seriously watch a movie on a computer, it's silly that they would now just make that nearly impossible.

I spent 5 minutes googling. Apparently the issue is no current CPUs have the required Intel SGX extension to enable playback. That's required for DRM. Last Intel series CPU that has it is the 10th gen. Blame copy protection.

The demand just wasn't there. Few computers came with regular blu-ray drives and now getting any type of optical drive in a computer is a niche market.

Cyberlink does need to stop advertising that PowerDVD will do playback of 4K.

Suppy vs demand

What’s suppy?

And some have noted that it’s easier to play an illegal copy of a movie from the high seas on a computer than it is to play these legitimately-purchased discs. Yet they want to screw consumers in the name of copy protection.

snoopy

There’s no market for it. It’s the same reason that basically zero PC games come on physical CDs/DVDs (and I’m not sure any ever came on BDs).

Why do you need captures of a 4K playback for review screenshots? No one is going to be looking at them full res on a 4k monitor.

And yes, I don't think any publisher is even considering that someone would want to play a UHD on a computer these days since almost no computers even have a disc drive them in anymore. Why would they pay to license the DRM tech if no one uses it?

I posted them in my reviews. People are interested, even if they're not viewing them in 2160p; zooming in and comparing against Blu-ray editions, yadda yadda. Plus there's a trend towards UHD sets not including BDs, so if you want screenshots, that can be your only option.

UHD screenshots are often flawed for a long list of reasons, including HDR->SDR mapping, but there can be an element of keeping up with the Joneses as well. If XX number of other reviewers are including UHD screenshots, why aren't you?

The computer industry has wanted to remove itself from the optical disc for many years now. Both Microsoft and Apple never officially supported Blu-ray with Steve Jobs famously calling Blu-ray "a bag of hurt" referring to the cumbersome and expensive licensing fees involved.

This can all lead to a lot of consumer frustration. For instance I bought one of those cheap RCA projectors several years ago which has a built-in speaker. I was playing a DVD and getting video but no audio until I realized RCA did not pay to license "Dolby Digital" audio on this device. I change the audio output on the DVD player to LCPM and it worked fine.

When I looked at the reviews there were numerous "No audio!!! This thing sucks!! I'm returning it ASAP!!"-type responses. There is a certain functionality that people come to expect from products but little information about the co-operation among the various companies which help make it seamless.

Eh. I'm not investing the money, time, or effort into equipping my computer for 4K screenshots - not to mention wasting the web bandwidth I'd have to pay for to host the larger images - for the benefit of the literally one human being on Earth who might give a sh-t and will read precisely one of my articles and never return to my site again afterwards anyway. In the cases where a UHD disc doesn't come with a BD copy, I can usually grab an HD screenshot off the Digital Copy. And if it doesn't have that either, well, I improvise and look for an older video copy or something on streaming. Whatever it turns out to be, I'll footnote where the images come from.

I'm definitely not denigrating anyone who doesn't post UHD screenshots, and I completely understand and generally agree with all the arguments against 'em. Maybe I spend too much time on home theater-centric message boards, but I've seen a lot of interest in UHD screenshots on those forums. Speaking only for myself, once I saw other reviewers incorporate UHD screenshots, I felt like that was an arrow I needed to add to my quiver too...especially when I'd get a disc where I didn't have a BD or readily-available streaming option to source images from.

But I'm a weirdo who did things I've literally never seen anyone, anywhere do, like embed audio excerpts, so I'm sure I'm not a good example to follow.

In my experience, the people on forums who raise a big fuss about screenshots don't actually read reviews with any regularity. When they hear there's supposedly a problem with a disc, they'll follow a link to look at the screenshots on Caps-a-Holic or whatever for a couple minutes that one time, so they can return to the thread and raise hell about the three bad pixels they saw. But they're not going to stop on a site to read a text review, and won't go back to that site on their own until directed there for the next controversial release.

But what the hell do I know, anyway? I suck at SEO and my recent page view numbers are in the toilet.

The secret is to be a YouTube influencer and not actually watch anything you're reviewing. All you need is a thumbnail with you making an incredibly exaggerated expression and a needlessly incendiary title!

True. And if you can somehow find a way to work in footage of playing Minecraft into every video, that's a surefire recipe for gaining 5 million followers and making huge bank.

I will mention all 4K screenshots on DoBlu.com for reviews and the accompanying Patreon are ripped directly from the UHD.

I say it's less about market forces and more about Hollywood strong-arming the computer industry into protecting their IP. And Apple's inherent hostility towards all physical media didn't help much either.

Don’t see how disabling legitimate playback is “protecting their IP.” There was a joke when Disney’s paranoia about piracy was at its highest, and the joke was either they would erase your memory as you left the theater after one of their movies, or they were just going to put out movies consisting of literal nothingness that therefore couldn’t be pirated.

They decided that playback is not legitimate if it does not include hardware and software meeting all of the following:

• PowerDVD
• Intel 7, 8, 9, or 10 gen CPUs that explicitly support SGX (software guard extensions)
• Integrated Intel HD 630 or Iris 640 graphics
• Motherboard with SGX enabled in BIOS
• HDCP2.2 for external monitors or screens
• UHD certified optical drive
• Intel Management Engine driver 11.6.0.1126

If they can’t control the entire pipeline above, by way of PowerDVD being the only authorized software, then their IP is not protected because anything missing from the above could allow for unsecured playback and copying. So they have PowerDVD control the entire experience since they’re the only legitimate software with the access to all the code to confirm everything mentioned.


I’m not even talking about other options at this point (the other thread was locked despite nothing actually illegal being discussed). The fact is they’ve made it so there’s ONE option only, and if you can’t comply with that option 100%, then you don’t get to play those discs.

Heck, even if you bought a PC that’s 100% compliant with everything mentioned, you STILL won’t be able to take screenshots. They’ll just show up as black screens. You’ll notice the same happens when you try to screenshot Netflix or anything else with DRM.

so good luck. You’re better off dropping the idea completely, or going to a forum that at least lets you talk about the existence of alternatives.

I have PowerDVD, it can’t play them and when I emailed the company about it they said they recently disabled UHD playback, and suggested I buy a regular player for them.

My TV should be HDCP certified, even if it isn’t I should still be able to play discs on the laptop’s own monitor. I know my drive can read UHDs as it can show the volume label and folders, but according to research its firmware isn’t “UHD Friendly”. Don’t know about the other stuff as I’m largely computer illiterate, I just know it can still play regular Blu-Rays and DVDs, and probably has the capability to play UHDs but something is telling it not to, and it’s illegal to defeat that so I won’t discuss that part here.

I am ready to just give up on being able to play them on the computer, but don’t get why those involved decided to make it so hard if not impossible. The real pirates have still figured out how to do what they do with them anyways. In fact it seems easier to play one of their illegal copies (the very thing all this is trying to prevent) on my computer than a legitimate disc I’ve purchased and given the studios money for.

You're all speaking words I'm trying to understand but I just can't quite follow.

I have never figured out how to do a screencap in the first place unfortunately. I have zero idea how anyone can make and use either screencaps and/or clips legitimately.

There were only 2 applications that were legally certified to allow UHD BD playback on computers that had the appropriate hardware (Intel SGX extensions among them, as previously mentioned): PowerDVD and WinDVD UHD BD (a hardware bundle version only). PowerDVD dropped support for UHD BD playback in Nov. 2023, and WinDVD dropped support in Oct. 2023. So, even if you had the required hardware (you don't), you would not be able to playback the discs, because there is no current software that supports it.

Yeah, true. You may be able to find a previous build of either of those programs, but I don’t know if they’d even work without being forced to be updated because one of the requirements I didn’t mention is that you must have an active internet connection to play the first UHD in the drive; likely because they want to ensure everything’s current, at which point they’d see you’re using old software and force you to update it. Pretty sure that’s not the case with standalone 4K players, just PC.

It’s funny Alan mentioned doing reviews for DVD Talk’s sister site because I’m pretty sure that site has a thread dedicated to this same topic.
edit: maybe it was avs.

As the PowerDVD article above states, it requires online authentication in order to play, probably on every disc play, and since the companies are no longer providing that authentication, even if you found old software builds they would not be able to initiate playback.

I have to wonder if the aacsla and 4Kbluray patent holders decided to unilaterally hit the "kill switch" on further licensing renewals for computer playback functionality.

Just about all the pc games I found 20-25 years ago, were typically on a cd-rom disc. Rarely ever a dvd-rom disc.

I only ever found one pc game that was on a dvd-rom disc: Grand Theft Auto San Andreas