Windows Server 2008 x64 + Blu-ray: playback possible?

[timy]

Hi,

I do have a DELL Vostro 1700 and have installed a Blu-Ray drive Matshita BD-CMB UJ-120 Firmware 1000.

With BIOS A06 and VISTA 32-Bit I could play Blu-Rays using Cyberlink PowerDVD 7.3 (Iinstalled BIOS A07 but haven´t tested Blu-Ray playback since time of installtion of the new BIOS).

Now I installed Windows Server 2008 64-Bit. My problem: The Blu-Ray drive is somehow not recognized as Blu-Ray drive - I thing it´s just recognized as normal CD-ROM.


Cyberlink´s test program is telling me, that I don´t have a Blu-Ray drive installed (although I can access the file structure of a Blu-Ray disc via Windows Explorer and get the correct disc size clicking on "properties").
http://www.cyberlink.com/english/sup.../diagnosis.jsp

And Nero Info Tool
ftp://ftp6.nero.com/tools/InfoTool.zip
doesn´t help much more.



Has anybody managed to playback Blu-Rays using Microsoft Server 2008 64-Bit? And if so: What software are you using?

[Obiit]

You could try turning on the "feature" Desktop Experience from Server Manager. This installs things like Aero and Windows Media Player and may allow you to play Blu-ray's.

HTH

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by Obiit

You could try turning on the "feature" Desktop Experience from Server Manager. This installs things like Aero and Windows Media Player and may allow you to play Blu-ray's.

HTH

Definitely good to install/turn on "Desktop Experience." But it still doesn't help with DVD/BD playback. You can install PowerDVD 8.0 which will enable DVD playback, but there doesn't appear to be a solution yet for BD.

What happens when you put a BD disc in the drive? Can you see the files within Windows Explorer? If not, it sounds like you just need a UDF 2.50 driver to enable access to the BD file system. If you can see the files but can't play back a disc, then there's something else going on... but I'm not sure what.

If you were running 32-bit, I would suggest just installing the Toshiba UDF 2.50 drivers, but under x64 I don't know of any drivers (other than the ones built-in to Vista x64).

[Ranger-R]

Thats a good start, I would definetly troubleshoot towards the drivers of both the optical drive and then are there going to be issues with video card drivers under the new os/ plus the fact that its 64bit based. I know when I was doing alot beta testing on vista, there were alot of performance issues with 64bit drivers, if you could even find them.

[Obiit]

it is a SERVER OS not a workstation OS and it is based on Vista ............

Don't know about you but when did you last see an optical drive driver needed for an OS to see it? Blu-ray drives are not recognised as that under Windows XP but they work fine.

I have just tried Cyberlink PowerDVD 7.3 3319a and played a blu-ray from harddisk and everything was fine so i don't think it is either PowerDVD nor Server 2008 x64's capability to play blu. I can only think it is the drive or something with his set up.

Not too sure why you would would want to run over £500 worth of Server OS on a laptop but each to their own

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by Obiit

it is a SERVER OS not a workstation OS and it is based on Vista ............

Don't know about you but when did you last see an optical drive driver needed for an OS to see it? Blu-ray drives are not recognised as that under Windows XP but they work fine.

I have just tried Cyberlink PowerDVD 7.3 3319a and played a blu-ray from harddisk and everything was fine so i don't think it is either PowerDVD nor Server 2008 x64's capability to play blu. I can only think it is the drive or something with his set up.

Not too sure why you would would want to run over £500 worth of Server OS on a laptop but each to their own

You do NOT need a "driver" for the optical drive. You DO need a driver for the file system that BD discs use. That's why you can play a movie off your hard disk, but not directly from a Blu-ray disc. Vista includes UDF 2.50 file system driver built-in, and 32-bit XP has drivers available... which is why you can play BD discs on those OS's. For some reason, Microsoft hasn't included the UDF 2.50 driver in Server 2008, and no one appears to have released one, yet, though, so you cannot currently play BD movies directly from discs. Also, that means you can't view the contents of a BD movie disc when you put it in the drive.

[Obiit]

Originally Posted by JadedRaverLA

You do NOT need a "driver" for the optical drive. You DO need a driver for the file system that BD discs use. That's why you can play a movie off your hard disk, but not directly from a Blu-ray disc. Vista includes UDF 2.50 file system driver built-in, and 32-bit XP has drivers available... which is why you can play BD discs on those OS's. For some reason, Microsoft hasn't included the UDF 2.50 driver in Server 2008, and no one appears to have released one, yet, though, so you cannot currently play BD movies directly from discs. Also, that means you can't view the contents of a BD movie disc when you put it in the drive.

Erm I never said you did need a driver for the optical drive I also haven't installed any special drivers for the file system to enable me to play blu-ray off disk on an XP system either (ok you cannot see the file system as you say but it plays just fine).

I unfortunately don't have a blu-ray reader in my development machine to test (hmm wonder if i can map a drive to my HTPC......) but i have just created a UDF 2.5 format CD (using Imgburn) and put it in one of the works Server 2008 x64 machines and i could see the structure just fine.

Curiosity piqued

Still think it is the drive or setup and not the OS or player software.

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by Obiit

Don't know about you but when did you last see an optical drive driver needed for an OS to see it?

Originally Posted by Obiit

Erm I never said you did need a driver for the optical drive

Huh? It sounds to me like either you said it or were saying that I said it.

Originally Posted by Obiit

I also haven't installed any special drivers for the file system to enable me to play blu-ray off disk on an XP system either (ok you cannot see the file system as you say but it plays just fine).

Some player software includes the file system driver needed within the program. However, that driver isn't compatible with x64 versions of Windows. A certain "helper" program that shoudn't be mentioned here also has a UDF 2.50 driver built in -- I have idea if that works with Server 2008 x64 or not.

Originally Posted by Obiit

I unfortunately don't have a blu-ray reader in my development machine to test (hmm wonder if i can map a drive to my HTPC......) but i have just created a UDF 2.5 format CD (using Imgburn) and put it in one of the works Server 2008 x64 machines and i could see the structure just fine.

Curiosity piqued

Still think it is the drive or setup and not the OS or player software.

I don't have a test setup either. But it's a well known problem with Server 2008 x64... that no one can actually play a Blu-ray from disc -- only from a hard disk. Also, it's not a drive issue as the OP can watch movies using Vista.

[Obiit]

Ranger-R said about the driver for the optical drive not you JadedRaverLA. I was just throwing that question in the air - nothing personal Last optical drive driver i saw was for Windows 95!

I have just thrown a AVCHD format DVD into PowerDVD on Server 2008 x64 and it plays fine and i can see the file structure as well in explorer.

You could be right about software programs putting their own UDF driver on but on my XP install i cannot see the file structure but PowerDVD plays it just fine - i honestly don't know. Now the test will be if you have no PowerDVD installed and you can see it in explorer. Think that AVCHD disk could get popped into a server at work

That little helper program works with Vista x64 but not needed now for me as ATI have fixed their drivers - at last - cost me 40 quid to fix the HDCP error due to some lazy ass programming

I've looked around for this problem but i cannot find anything that says either way about UDF 2.5 on Server 2008 x64. If the AVCHD disk can be seen at work tomorrow i'm going to go with it can see UDF 2.5 BUT may not like blu-ray drives. When Vista p!$$'s me off again on my HTPC (like loosing the TV tuner AGAIN) i may dump the trial of Server 2008 x64 on it just to see if it can play blu-ray - as i said curiosity piqued

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by Obiit

Ranger-R said about the driver for the optical drive not you JadedRaverLA. I was just throwing that question in the air - nothing personal Last optical drive driver i saw was for Windows 95!

Gotcha. I misinterpreted that. My bad.

I have just thrown a AVCHD format DVD into PowerDVD on Server 2008 x64 and it plays fine and i can see the file structure as well in explorer.

You could be right about software programs putting their own UDF driver on but on my XP install i cannot see the file structure but PowerDVD plays it just fine - i honestly don't know. [/quote]

I should be more specific. The "built-in" file format readers in some player apps aren't file system drivers for the entire OS, just within that program (same with the "helper app's". The one built-in to PwerDVD only works on XP 32-bit, which is why it can't play BDs on XP x64. The "helper app's" built-in driver supposedly works under x64, but...

Originally Posted by Obiit

Now the test will be if you have no PowerDVD installed and you can see it in explorer. Think that AVCHD disk could get popped into a server at work

That little helper program works with Vista x64 but not needed now for me as ATI have fixed their drivers - at last - cost me 40 quid to fix the HDCP error due to some lazy ass programming

That's obnoxious. It really bugs me that honest consumers end up giving money to a commercial "hacker group" to get things working when the major corporations screw them over. Oh, well.

Originally Posted by Obiit

I've looked around for this problem but i cannot find anything that says either way about UDF 2.5 on Server 2008 x64. If the AVCHD disk can be seen at work tomorrow i'm going to go with it can see UDF 2.5 BUT may not like blu-ray drives. When Vista p!$$'s me off again on my HTPC (like loosing the TV tuner AGAIN) i may dump the trial of Server 2008 x64 on it just to see if it can play blu-ray - as i said curiosity piqued

Yeah, I'm half tempted to temp install Server 2008 x64 just to see. I think I got a copy at the end of the beta (or at least still have a release candidate disc laying around), just to see if there's any way to make it work. The UDF issue is what was brought up during the beta on the official Server 2008 beta forums as the explanation for the issue. Not all UDF file format drivers (even those that technically support UDF 2.50) can actually read the file format as implemented on Blu-ray (and formerly HD DVD) discs. Microsoft does a number of dumb little things to try to "lock down" the Server OS and keep people from using it as a full-featured workstation OS -- this would be one of them.

The UDF driver in Server 2008 "should" allow the OS to read Blu-ray discs, but it doesn't. So, either a different files system reader is needed, or there's some software lock implemented by Microsoft specifically preventing software from properly reading and playing Blu-ray movies under the server OS. Either way, you should be able to get around that, but I don't really think there's enough consumer demand for anyone to really get to work on creating a new driver or figuring a way around the "lock" on a Server OS.

[Obiit]

Hmm well that AVCHD disks structure was readable on Server 2008 x64 without any form of blu-ray software on it so who knows!!

As Vista kept my TV tuner last night i won't be doing the test (until it disappears again ) but i will do just to see !

As to the OP original question - no but watch this space

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by Obiit

Hmm well that AVCHD disks structure was readable on Server 2008 x64 without any form of blu-ray software on it so who knows!!

As Vista kept my TV tuner last night i won't be doing the test (until it disappears again ) but i will do just to see !

As to the OP original question - no but watch this space

Yeah, I'm getting more and more tempted to see if I can get it working now (with the newer versions of the playback software + that "other" software). I'm thinking it may work now, though it will definitely require some "work" to get going. I still haven't seen anything online about anyone actually getting it to work, so maybe there's some more difficult "locks" in place preventing it from working... or maybe there's just not enough people interested to make it worth anyone's time yet. Who knows?

EDIT: BTW, to the OP, we're really talking hypothetically at this point... unless/until one of us (or someone else) gets it working, the simple answer is that NO, there's no way to play BDs on Server 2008 x64.

[Obiit]

Well Vista lost my TV Tuner again........

So i downloaded a trial version of Windows Server 2008 x64 Standard edition and ....... You can play blu-ray on it - sort of

Added PowerDVD 8.0 to the install and it kept crashing on running of PowerDVD. Enabled Desktop Experience and it worked. Wouldn't play Batman Begins (played the Warner Bros Home Video Logo though) nor AC/DC Live at Donnington. It would play The Last Samurai. It wouldn't show any Information but would show the bubble? Looks like it is possibly a Java issue? May try adding that for IE and see what happens.

Anyhow matter sorted. Will have a play for a short while to see if i can get it to work fully. Now where did i put my Windows XP Media Centre disks......

[Barnum]

May I ask why you installed it on a server platform and better yet one that is not even out yet for the masses. I know that some people think its cool to have the newest stuff but Vista or XP is the best way to go. Chances are the app isn't certified for 08 and there may be software design changes making the software not work. Go back to what is known to work and you should be fine.

[rolver1954]

Sorry, but I don't have the answer either.

I just thought that I'd add that Cyberlink replied to me today that nothing they make is supported in Win XP x64.

That would include any version of PowerDVD.

[RealLifePixelShader]

Hi AlL

Yes blu-ray works fine on Server 2008 with powerdvd.

I tested it last night with a LG BR drive and server 2008 standard edition 64bit it plays fine after powerdvd 7.3 was installed.


Im happy it is working

Microsoft Server 2008 Standard Edition 64 Bit = BLU-RAY PLAYBACK WORKS FINE