Want to watch Blu-rays on Ubuntu with full menu support? I’m going to show you how to do it – and no, you don’t need to pay for software to do it.
I recently bought an external USB Blu-ray drive so I could watch movies on my Ubuntu laptop when I’m in bed or on my narrowboat.
But you can’t watch Blu-rays on Ubuntu (or most operating systems, including Windows) because of license fees. Fees need to be paid by the makers of software that wants to ‘decrypt’ Blu-ray content (which is why most software for the task costs money).
Unlike DVDs, Blu-ray discs use an encryption system called AACS that relies on regular key updates to ‘decrypt’ newer content. This is designed to make discs difficult to play without using officially licensed, paid-for software.
This makes using Blu-ray awkward and obtuse (a textbook example of how not to design a media format that people will want to own). Being made to jump through hoops to watch something you’ve paid money for is far from consumer-friendly.
But the good news is that you can watch Blu-rays on Ubuntu (and other Linux distributions) using free software and, in many cases, see and interact with disc navigation menus too.
Below, I list the process I used to get things working.
Enabling Ubuntu Blu-ray Playback
Before we get into the setup process, you need the following:
- An external or internal Blu-ray drive (connected to Ubuntu)
- Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or later (it may work on older versions)
- Internet (you need to download extra packages)
- A Blu-ray disc (heavily protected discs may still cause issues)
- Patience (this doesn’t take long, but follow the steps carefully)
Don’t need to see Blu-ray menus? Install VLC, download a meta-key file from a (sketchy-looking) website and copy it to a location deep within your filesystem. If it works – it often doesn’t – discs will plays without menus.
That is method is well documented online and is the one that Googling “how to watch Blu-rays in VLC” will cite most often.
However, that method didn’t work for me – not on Ubuntu.
Besides which, I want to see disc menus if possible since they make it easier to find a specific episode on TV series boxsets or riffle through the myriad of bonus features many discs are filled with.
I went looking for a better solution and I found one.
It uses the free Blu-ray ripping software MakeMKV to do it, but without needing to rip your discs first.
MakeMKV + VLC = Blu-ray playback
MakeMKV is closed-source software, although it is free to use. If you only want to rely on open-source software, this isn’t the guide for you.
Blu-ray is a proprietary format and I use closed-source software like Steam and Spotify regularly for entertainment. Personally, I’m comfortable using this; I paid for those discs and I want to watch them!
MakeMKV is technically paid-for software, but, importantly for us, it lets you use all of its features for “free” while it’s in beta – and it’s been in beta for more than a decade. It’s updated every few months, works well but is in no hurry to migrate to a ‘stable’ label.
Read into that what you will.
MakeMKV is what lets us play Blu-ray discs in VLC with menus (on non-Java discs) by doing the following:
- Download and install MakeMKV
- Enter MakeMKV’s ‘free’ license key
- Install VLC (Deb version, not the Snap1)
- Link a few files
The official way to install MakeMKV on Linux is to compile it by hand. This is not as hard as it sounds; the MakeMKV forums cover the process step-by-step.
But you don’t need to do that.
If you’re on Ubuntu, Linux Mint or another Ubuntu-based distro, the MakeMKV PPA provides pre-built packages of the latest MakeMKV release, making it easy to install MakeMKV on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and above.
Using random repos is a security risk. That said, this PPA has been around for years and no-one, to my knowledge, has encountered any issues from using it. You can compile MakeMKV manually yourself if you’d rather. The PPA is for the lazy – and the trusting!
Open your terminal to add the MakeMKV PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:heyarje/makemkv-beta
Then, install MakeMKV:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install makemkv-bin makemkv-oss
Give all of the packages time to download and unpack.
Then install VLC from the Ubuntu archives (do not use the VLC snap) and a few extra dependencies:
sudo apt install vlc libbluray2 libaacs0
I don’t know if the extras are necessary, but as I installed them and everything worked, I’m listing them too (they’re only small and don’t take up much room).
Once everything has installed, open MakeMKV from your app menu/picker/launcher.
The first time you open MakeMKV it warns that the app is ‘unregistered’. To resolve this, copy the latest beta key from the MakeMKV forum and paste it into the register box and click the ‘Register’ button.
The ‘free while in beta’ key is what lets you use MakeKMV without paying a dime.
When the key expires, go back to the forum thread above, copy the latest key and paste it in the register box again. Rinse and repeat every few months for however long you wish to use this.
Finally, enable Blu-ray playback in VLC on Ubuntu by linking a critical file:
sudo ln -s libmmbd.so.0 /usr/lib/
That’s it.
Insert a Blu-ray disc, open VLC and go to “Open Disc…” > Blu-ray > Play. After a short pause it will start playing.
On newer discs you should be able to see and interact with on-disc menus using your keyboard or mouse.
But older discs may have Java requirements that mean you can’t see a menu (no; installing Java won’t help). VLC will auto-play the main feature. Use VLC > Playback > Title to navigate other items, to change audio track, to turn on subtitles, etc.
If you’re on Windows and macOS you need to check the “VLC integration” option in MakeMKV’s Preferences. This isn’t required on Linux, but should you encounter issues with playback, go do it anyway.
What else can MakeMKV do?
MakeMKV is more than a bridge to watch Blu-rays in VLC with menus2. It’s a capable tool for backing up Blu-ray discs too. You can copy entire discs or rip specific titles on a disc to the MKV format, along with options to rip multiple audio tracks, subtitle tracks, etc.
Personally, I’m happy to pop a disc into my external drive and watch my Blu-rays in VLC. I’ve neither the disk space nor the patience to rip the hundreds of hours of content I own, even if the convenience of wire-free viewing appeals.