No longer able to play Blu-ray discs

[Accessless]

Hi all.

Title pretty much says it all, I tried to play a Blu-ray film today. Received an error message from VLC stating a lack of AACS libraries and Windows media player just says that the format is not supported.

I'm sure that I used to be able to play Blu-ray films on this PC but it's been so long since I last tried that I couldn't tell you what might have changed.

Help!

(Same PC as listed in my profile)

[Geek-9pm]

You really sure  the Blu-Ray disc is good?

My guess is your AV software removed a needed piece of software/
You might try other media players just as a diagnostic.

Turn of yu AV program and try getting a new download of some other media player.
That might not work, but is a step is the right direction,.
Search for:

free media players like VLC

That should give you lots  of things to try. 

EDIT: Earlier some reported Windows 7 had an issue with Blu-Ray
https://support.hp.com/id-en/document/c01897830
and:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/bluray-and-dvd-drives-will-burn-but-not-read/e84e7b66-6f1b-435e-bc4d-9b7cd377ea29
Does that apply to your problem?

[patio]

I'll bet a pint it's the player...they aren't built real well anymore...1 1/2 - 2 year lifespan can be expected...

[BC_Programmer]

VLC doesn't have Blu-Ray playback capability out of the box. Perhaps previously you installed it but in the meantime you refreshed or Reinstalled windows or something?

In order to play Blu-Ray in VLC you have to have the AACS libraries installed. Now, this is where things get tricky, because as far as I can tell, the website for it is currently down. That's a bit of a trouble spot!

I have it installed right now though and it largely involves two files; libaacs.dll for VLC itself, and KEYDB.CFG which contains encryption keys for playing most commercial Blu-Ray discs. I've put those into a zip file. I only have the 64-bit version of the dll though- so this only will work with the 64-bit VLC.

libaacs.dll goes into the VLC Folder itself. In my case it's under C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC

KEYDB.CFG goes in C:\ProgramData\aacs

This doesn't give unfettered playback though. I've found a number of Blu-Rays, both movies and TV Show sets, simply don't work; This is because the encryption keys for those discs aren't in the database. I've also found a few that play fine but the menus for the disc don't work and I have to use "No Disc Menus" or it get's stuck.

[Accessless]

Sorry for the massive delay in this reply (it's been a bit hectic lately).

As it turns out all of the above is true. The licences have been uninstalled and the drive itself has had it.

It won't read DVD's, Blu-rays have slow read times but I think it still does CD's :p