OSX Blu-ray playback and libaacs working?

[SquishedSquirrel]

Is there any way to get blu-ray playback working in OSX VLC 2.0.1? The last post from feepk in another thread mentioned that he didn't think libaacs currently worked on Mac.

I have gotten as far as the "Missing keys?" error message, but can't get any further. The same drive with the same disc play in Windows 7 64 with VLC 2.0.1 using the same KEYDB file. The Disc is MKB v26, so it can't be a revoked cert issue (obviously... it plays.)

For anyone else trying to get to this point, you need libaacs.0.dylib and KEYDB.cfg. Both of those can be obtained from various sites. You also need libgcrypt.11.dylib from an older version of VLC (1.1.9 will do.) It is located in VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/lib folder.

Some instructions on a "whoknowsmy.name" site say to put the libaacs.0.dylib file in VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/lib, but that doesn't work. I've put them here:

/usr/local/lib/libaacs.dylib (rename libaacs.0.dylib, or create a symbolic link to it)
/usr/local/lib/libgcrypt.11.dylib
~/.config/aacs/KEYDB.cfg

Then, in the info.plist file of the VLC application bundle, I added an LSEnvironment dictionary. In that dictionary, added the key DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH with a value of /usr/local/lib

That allows VLC to be launched from the Finder, and sets the environment variable for you. Mind you, if you try and change that value, it doesn't seem to take effect. I had to keep copying the whole VLC app to get the Finder to recognize the changes to info.plist.

...
<key>LSEnvironment</key>
<dict>
<key>DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH</key>
<string>/usr/local/lib</string>
</dict>
...

I tried to set the environment variable to @executable_path/lib and @loader_path/lib so the dylibs could be in the app bundle, but for some reason, it just wouldn't work. That is why it ended up as /usr/local/lib

So, after all this, trying to play a disc, it says "Your system AACS decoding library does not work. Missing Keys?" I know it is reading the KEYDB.cfg file, as lsof showed that VLC had it open.

I tried to put a VUK entry for the disc into KEYDB.cfg, but that didn't work. I'm not sure I have the correct VUK. That brings up another question: Somewhere it said that if VLC plays a BD, the VUK is saved for it. I searched my PC, and could not find if/where it saved the VUK for the disc it just successfully played. I didn't find a VUK file on the PC... hmm... maybe it needs to have a file in the right place before it will save VUKs.

I don't know if I can help, but I am willing to try. I know enough to do basic source builds, but I'd probably need fairly detailed instructions to build a newer libaacs. It needs libgcrypt, and I don't know what need to be installed first before I can build it. Looking through the release notes for the past 6 months, I don't see any mention of OSX changes.

This shouldn't drive me nuts, but there are two software packages out there that are based on VLC the will play back BD on the Mac. It just doesn't seem right to solve the playback issues, and not contribute back to the source.

[fkuehne]

Hello,

first of all, please note that we don't provide binary builds of libaacs, got no idea who the guys behind the mentioned domain are and can't provide support on how to build libaacs at this point, since it is a research project.

That being said, from what I've seen in the source files, libaacs lacks support to access the BR drives directly on OS X. Unless someone contributes the needed code (which already exists for some VLC license violating solution as you mentioned), it won't support this operating system.

Regarding the distribution of libaacs, you can expect more news from our side by the end of the month.

Thanks for your interest!

[SquishedSquirrel]

Thanks for your reply Felix. I'm eager to hear the announcements coming this month.

I did have one other thought... If I did have the correct VUK for the disc, and I treated the disc as a folder in VLC (Opening it from the shell instead of the GUI, with the correct lib env variable set), I wonder if it might work. There shouldn't be any need for negotiating a host cert with the drive, and accessing the MKB? Forgive any lapses in terminology, just starting to wrap my head around all this aacs nonsense.

I think I'll have another go with getting the VUK for one of my discs and see what happens.

PaulMC, can you shed some light?

[PaulMC]

Hi SquishedSquirrel,

Sorry about this delayed reply, things have been a bit rough at my end lately...

You've probably already found out by now that VUKs do indeed work! (Assuming that your discs aren't also protected with additional DRM such as BD+, etc.) As you surmised, a "Stage 3" VUK lets you bypass the entire "Stage 2" negotiation process that's normally required between disc & player. ("Stage 4" Title Keys would also serve the same purpose; although, it terms of adding entries into a Key DB file, the advantage of a VUK is that there's just one per disc, rather than several.)

It's fairly straightforward to obtain VUKs (from user-contributed posts on certain websites, or with the help of various utilities), & then manually enter them into the 'KEYDB.cfg' file. [If some pointers about obtaining VUKs are needed, please refer to the tail-end of my response today in the 'VLC 2.0 AND Blu Ray. What Do I need?' (Page 2) thread.]

Kind regards,
--Paul