The VideoLAN Forums

I am playing a bluray disc, no encryption, no protections, so no addons required.
The disc plays OK if I open it within VLC, but I cannot open it from Windows Explorer BD-ROM drive context menu (Play with VLC Player), I get the error: Unable to open MRL dvd://...
I get the same error if I open the disc within VLC: Media - Open Disc, and choose DVD, as the MRL created (Show more options) is also dvd://...
But if I choose Blu-ray the MRL created is bluray:// and the disc plays fine.

So, how can I make the MRL from Explorer (Play with VLC Player) be bluray:// instead of dvd:// ? Who defines that, windows or VLC?
I am using Windows 7 64 bit, and this happens with all VLC versions: 2.11, 2.2.4 and 3.00.

BTW I think this problem/bug is one reason many people report difficulty playing protected blurays using the addons. I think many get this error and think is it a protection related issue, but it is not.

Thanks in advance.

In Windows Explorer, open the folder for the optical drive and then the folder "\BDMV \STREAM". There you see the file "00000.m2ts". This is the file for your video. Double-click on the file name to start the VLC with this file.

Thanks Kodela. I Knew that, but that is less than ideal solution, more trouble and loose disc features.

On the drive context menu, I also have "Play with PowerDVD", and it works OK. So VLC should work as well.
Also I just found that the same drive context menu has a "Open AutoPlay" option (that lists both VLC and POwerDVD) and it calls VLC fine. So that is what I am going to use from now on, although I still would like to find a way to get "Play with VLC" to work.

So it seems we have 4 ways to call VLC to play the disc:
1. Insert disc - AutoPlay
2. Drive Context Menu - Open AutoPlay
3. Drive Context Menu - Play with VLC
4. Within VLC - Media - Open Disc - Blu-ray
With PowerDVD all four work. With VLC all work except 3.


Meanwhle I found (Registry) where are defined the MRLs for the drive context menu:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, DVD, shell, PlayWithVLC, command: "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" --started-from-file dvd:///%1
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, DVD, shell, PlayWithPowerDVD, command:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\CyberLink\PowerDVD12\PDVDLaunchPolicy.exe" AUTOPLAY DVD "%L"

There is also a
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, Bluray, shell, PlayWithPowerDVD, command:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\CyberLink\PowerDVD12\PDVDLaunchPolicy.exe" AUTOPLAY BD "%L"
but it seems to not be used, as the list and strings on the context menu are the ones under DVD key. Probably that is why VLC does not define a key there under Bluray key.
I did not get to find where AutoPlay settings are defined, to check the MRL used.

So POwerDVD is called with the DVD command even with bluray disc, and it works OK.
So if it confirms that Windows Explorer does not use Bluray key, then VLC should not depend on different command for bluray, but do autodetect as PowerDVD seems to do.
I don't have Windows 10 to try, maybe this does not hapeen with Windows 10?