4K UHD Blu-ray Playback on PC Desktop is officially dead in 2021?

[BijouMan]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

While playing standard Blu-ray discs is possible from any Windows PC in the last 16 years. Since Intel no longer supports SGX security technology in their latest CPU’s, this means that 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc playback is no longer possible for all new PC’s using Windows 10 and Windows 11. Only around 1% of the PC’s in the world use Intel’s SGX technology.

It is up to the Blu-ray Disc Association to come out with a hardware or software solution that allows 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc playback from a Windows PC. If the BDA does not want to do a secure software solution that works with all Windows 10 and 11 PC’s, then there is another option. The Blu-ray Disc Association should authorize the use of a hardware solution that uses the TPM 2.0 security chip built into the latest CPU’s by AMD and Intel. With a software update to PowerDVD Ultra and other Blu-ray software this would allow 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc playback from all Windows 11 PC’s and beyond. If the BDA authorizes the use of TPM 2.0 security instead of SGX. Then any AMD or Intel PC that is capable of running Windows 11 will playback native 4K Blu-ray discs as long as one has a 4K BD-ROM drive attached. I prefer a 4K Blu-ray software solution that works with all existing Windows 10 PC’s. However if a hardware solution for security is a must have then all PC’s that run Windows 11 with the required TPM 2.0 chip would be a solution (It would be another reason to upgrade the PC to one that runs Windows 11 and beyond).

4K Blu-ray has greater security when compared to the weak encryption on DVD. 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray are much harder to rip to ones hard drive since they use renewable security with the encryption keys being able to be changed (which requires a Blu-ray player firmware update with the new keys to play the newest releases). I know there are some in the industry that are suggesting that all 4K Blu-ray and standard Blu-ray BD-ROM drives for computers should go out of production as a way to get rid of piracy. The logic is that if there are no optical drives for computers, then piracy becomes impossible since people can no longer rip movies to their hard drive. However the problem with that logic is that there are already several millions of consumers that own optical drives in their computer. The real piracy problem with ripping is occurring on the DVD format with its weak 25 year old encryption system that cannot be changed. If the Hollywood studios are worried about piracy, they should then stop releasing movies on the DVD format. Then consumers will have 4K Blu-ray and 4K streaming for choices to watch movies. At least with 4K Blu-ray it becomes 100% secure for new releases that use the latest encryption keys.

TPM has been around since Windows 10. It is required to use BitLocker. TPM doesn’t require Windows 11.