A question about Windows XP and Blu Ray

[ewanmclean2005]

I switched back to Windows XP recently because I was displeased with Windows Vista. I am having no problem playing movies with PowerDVD. It was easy enough to open the file system on a Blu Ray drive in Windows Vista, but on Windows XP its a whole different story for me.

This is what the drive looks like with nothing in it, Windows XP seems to recognise it as a DVD RAM drive. Now I understand that because Blu Ray came out long after Windows XP that there will be no icons made in shell32.dll for the drive and that there would have been no initial native support for Windows XP and Blu Ray.



This is the funny thing though when I insert a Blu Ray disc into my drive this is what happens next. The disc is inserted and it has now magically turned into a CD Drive



Okay if thats not enough, once I click on the drive to browse the contents of the Blu Ray disc the following message appears. Windows XP obviously doesn't like the file system that is on the Blu Ray disk.



Is there any sort of fix that allows me to browse the contents of the Blu Ray disk?

[quexos]

Originally Posted by ewanmclean2005

I switched back to Windows XP recently because I was displeased with Windows Vista.

Welcome to the club. Expect membership to take a while before full processing as there are huge masses wanting in

[essinger]

If you install Nero's InCD (it's free) you will be able to browse the files on a blu-ray disc. Be warned that it might interfere with protected blu-ray playback in some software.

[Blue_Baron]

You might want to try and disconnect your Blu-ray drive, uninstall the drivers for it, then reconnect it and install the software that came with your Blu-ray drive.

Also, it might be that Vista was using the 64-bit of PowerDVD. If so see if you can download the 32-bit version for using it on Windows XP.

I have a Sony Blu-ray drive and I'm running XP using Cyberlink PowerDVD and it works for me. I did however, have to run a firmware update for the Blu-ray drive and a software update for PowerDVD before it worked.

PM if you have further questions.

[ewanmclean2005]

Originally Posted by essinger

If you install Nero's InCD (it's free) you will be able to browse the files on a blu-ray disc. Be warned that it might interfere with protected blu-ray playback in some software.

Thank you. I wasn't only able to read the contents but I am now able to see the volume ID now as well

You might want to try and disconnect your Blu-ray drive, uninstall the drivers for it, then reconnect it and install the software that came with your Blu-ray drive.

Also, it might be that Vista was using the 64-bit of PowerDVD. If so see if you can download the 32-bit version for using it on Windows XP.

I have a Sony Blu-ray drive and I'm running XP using Cyberlink PowerDVD and it works for me. I did however, have to run a firmware update for the Blu-ray drive and a software update for PowerDVD before it worked.

PM if you have further questions.

Thanks, but I can say for sure it was the 32 bit version of Windows Vista I was using.

[bigalan2k7]

hi and thanks for any help new to the blue ray world lol

just got a blu-ray writer installed it running windows xp

if i put a hd movie in the drive it doesnt read it at all ive tryed and installed power dvd 8 doesnt do anythink

ive installed all the software that come with it

just dont understand why its not playing anythink


can any one help me out thanks

or do i need to install vista

[Obiit]

Windows XP dosn't have a UDF 2.5 driver so it cannot read the file structures of blu-ray disks. Vista (spawn of the devil) does.

AFAIK there isn't a native 64 bit version of PowerDVD - just one size fits all

PowerDVD 7.3 Ultra or PowerDVD 8.0 Ultra are the only versions of PowerDVD that play Blu-ray. The other PowerDVD versions don't (including the ones that come with a lot of drives as they are too outdated now). If you are looking for an alternative browse the forum and look for Totalmedia Theatre (but not if you have an ATI graphics card on XP) and WinDVD9.

HTH

[dadkins]

Back when I first got my VGN-AR190G(XP MCE 2005) DVD RAM also changed to CD Drive but it did register the size of the inserted BD - 19GB/46GB/whatever and you could explore it.

*NOW*, it still changes to CD Drive but states 0GB and will not explore.
They play fine... just can't look at 'em as a disc.
No idea what was changed...

This Vista laptop can explore them fine.
As long as I can play/manipulate/burn them I'll live!