Getting frustrated with our $$$ Bluray Home theater system, I should have just built a media center pc but I'm wondering now with bluray, am I able to play those or do i have to use some DRM infested OS? Can I rip them to the hdd? I tried a google search and found info on one blu-ray ripping program for windows that was free while in beat trials about a year ago but nothing recent.
I finally got my file server back up and running after turning my server room into a nursury a about 5 years ago then we moved to a decent neighborhood and I'm finally digging stuff out and getting it working again. Our fancy blu-ray home theater has the ability to see a (windows) file share so I setup a samba share and it can play mp3's and videos but the speakers are good enough that I can hear the reduction in sound quality for the loseless format so I want to get somehting setup that can play flac or some other loseless format. at the same time building a media pc has been a long term goal so I may just start buiing parts, get a small case, blu-ray drive, etc so I can start ripping the movies as well.

Yes, you are able to rip Blu-Rays to a file in Linux and also play them, but it is a bit cumbersome. MPlayer allows you to do this. Check these websites out. They each provide a solution and depending on how you want to continue, choose which is best for you. Hope I helped!

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Re...BluRayAndHDDVD
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1327197
http://themediaviking.com/software/bluray-linux/

In short

Linux r0c|<z, Bluray 5uc|<z :P

I have mixed feelings about bluray, and I am only considering it from a backup point of view.

As far as movies are concerned, you're not really getting that much for your money anyways for two reasons: VC-1 or AVC; some titles are only encoded in either, this may sound trivial but this also depends on how good the encoded material is. Also, 'bonus' features on the disc; the vast majority (99%) of all movies on bluray, are encoded only in low resolution mpeg2. So much for getting your money's worth

Of course movie studies would 'prefer' you just watch your movies in Windows (not even OSX support bluray), but technically there is nothing written that states you absolutely must play said movie under windows. There is no EULA for movies, just your standard 'don't pirate this movie' warning.

Since you do own a fscking copy, then by all means play it under whatever platform you wish, you should not feel obligated to use windows.

But can it play it ok or is there drm crap embedded in the disc that will prevent it? And unfortunatly I can't get away from bluray now, wife can see the difference. We have a decent TV (toshiba 42") that you can see the difference in resolution between dvd and bluray. I'm thinking the issue will be once I get the storage online ripping the bluray to be able to play without the disc.

As far as I know, AACS has been successfully broken, BD+ is another type of DRM which isn't even implemented (I think?).

Plus even 'licensed' software under Windows is funny in it's own way, for example: On your standard dvd/bluray set-top player, you are usually restricted on how you navigate the media, meaning you cannot skip the fbi warnings, commercials, etc; these are called PUOs (prohibited user operations) under DVD, I don't know what it is called under bluray. Nevertheless, in a software player, you can actually just skip to the root menu, forgoing any ads, and copyright warnings, this is with a licensed player mind you, (PowerDVD, WinDVD, etc).

Anyways, didn't mean to get too OT, sorry back to DRM in general: Bluray unlike DVD has much stronger DRM measures, while yes over time DVD introduced more measures such as ARccOS, CPRM, etc but even those have been easily defeated.

Also movies now come with hidden firmware updates for set top players to 'undo' any kind of 'tampering' such as modding your player to ignore regional restrictions, etc.

I don't know if this applies to PC hardware. Either way, since AACS is the main mechanism for decoding a bluray, all you have to do is perhaps find your key or the 'master' key somewhere online if you cannot play your disc; if your intention is merely playback there is nothing wrong with this, and even though more 'updates' to the DRM will be introduced in the future, someone will find ways around that too. It is essentially a pointless cat-and-mouse game that the big studios wish to play, and don't want to accept the fact that the restrictions they are imposing on others does not in any way prevent piracy, and even legitimate users will find ways around it, just so they can play it in any platform they wish, and in the resolution they were promised (full hd), which I also heard that HDCP has been broken now as well .

--edit

If you want to read up on bluray DRM, see this wikipedia article on bluray and drm.

Probably for now I just want to be able to play (in linux of course, so no windvd or powerdvd), but eventually as I get more storage I'll want to rip them so we can put the discs away.
I guess I need to just get a drive first and see if I can get them extracting in handbrake or whatever before I build a dedicated system.

Whenever I buy CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays, I usually rip the stuff I want and put it on my iPod, HTPC, PSP etc..., and put the disc away somewhere safe. With storage space so cheap, I don't worry about re-encoding anymore, just rip the streams to mkv and watch...

The ripping part is easy. But if I want to watch the movie straight from disc, my PS3 is my only option. The Linux players I have either don't support Blu-Ray yet, or claim not to have access to the disc.

Some Blu-Rays do include PS3 firmware updates, I'm not sure if they contain updates for other players, or able to install them without you knowing. As far as I know, Blu-Ray players can include several ways to detect if a disc is a copy, and refuse to play it. As far as the BD+ protection, it is implemented. I've only come across one Blu-Ray with BD+ (and AACS), and I think it was a Sony release. Every type of DRM eventually gets defeated.

I am only guessing, but I think the 'firmware' updates are generic 'bluray player updates', since the PS3 would have a function dedicated only to bluray-video, and I think you are probably right the movies themselves would issue the updates without you knowing or being able to actively accept or deny, they would just be updated without your control.

I guess that is also why bluray discs essentially 'take longer to load' than DVDs, since it has to query the player's firmware, make sure it isn't compromised, and if it is, issue the update OR issue the update anyways if for some stupid reason the 'firmware is considered too old.'

Nevermind also now that there is the ridiculous idea that Java for some reason has to be incorporated with Bluray (BD-J, *ugh*), it just gets worse!

Java is used for bonus content, menus and other stuff. It's supposed to be for better features and more seamless than navigating a DVD. I've never had a problem with Java. Now if they had used Flash, that wouldn't be so great.

Thats true, Java is the lesser of two evils since Flash is worse.