Enable WD TV Live Plus to flawlessly play Blu-ray/DVD movies, protected premium content such as movies or music from the iTunes Store, Movielink, Amazon Unbox, and Vongo.

Western’s WD TV Live Plus is really a great 1080p HD Media Player. Using it, you can play media from your home network and the Internet on your big screen TV. Plus, enjoy access to your Netflix unlimited membership and other premium content. Don’t confine your movies, music, and photos to your small computer screen. Experience them as big as life on your TV in Full-HD 1080p with WD TV Live Plus HD media player. Can WD TV Live Plus play Blu-ray in ISO, M2TS(BDMV) and MKV format? Of course, YES. WD TV Live Plus supports for playing Blu-ray backups via HDMI. The HD Media Player can plays Blu-ray lossless backups in different forms: ISO, BDMV, M2TS, and MKV.

The Article mainly contains two parts. Part One tells Blu-ray Ripping Tips for WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player. Part Two tells how to play protected premium content such as movies or music from the iTunes Store, Movielink, Amazon Unbox?, and Vongo.

Part 1: Blu-ray Ripping Tips For WD TV Live Plus

Which is the best format when ripping Blu-ray to WD TV Live Plus for playback?

MKV format-Personally i will advise you to select because it plays lossless quality, multiple audio tracks, subtitles, and chapters.

To keep lossless video quality for backing up Blu-ray Disc, you can either copy m2ts streams straightly from BD, or make the whole BD into an ISO image file. But there is a problem- the WD TV Live Plus will not allow you to forward movie or select a chapter to start with when playing BD ISO or m2ts clips. That’s why many WD TV uses turn to MKV format, which holds a whole movie in a single file including lossless video, multiple HD audio tracks and subtitles. MakeMKV can do this. But another issue comes up-when a Blu-ray is copied to MKV without changing anything, subtitles are not displayed when you watch the ripped Blu-ray movie (in MKV format) on HDTV, because WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player does not supports PGS subtitles in MKV container. There are two ways to get subtitles for MKV Blu-ray backup:

1. Convert the Blu-ray subtitles to something compatible with WD TV Live Plus when ripping Blu-ray to MKV. This can be done with ByteCopy. (A guide here)

2. Rip the Blu-ray Disc to MKV with MakeMKV first, and extract .srt external subtitles from Blu-ray Disc with SubtitleEdit later. This takes longer time.

WD TV Live Plus supports subtitle format srt, ssa, sami, and ass. But mostly people use .srt subtitles for MKV.

Blu-ray ripping tips for newbies

1. It requires a Blu-ray Disc Drive to read BD, not an optical DVD drive.

2. It takes much more time to rip a Blu-ray than that of a DVD. DVD to MKV rip can be done in10 minutes while Blu-ray to MKV rip 1-2 hours or even longer based on the computer you use.

3. A Blu-ray movie may contain HD audio (e.g. 7.1 channels TrueHD, DTS-HD streams). Better check if AV receiver support them before ripping a Blu-ray. If not, downmix the audio when ripping Blu-ray.

4. Keep in mind that not any HD media player so far plays full role of a Blu-ray Disc player- they may decodes video, audio, subtitles and recognize the chapter mark, but none support full BD navigation- you lose menus when playing Blu-ray rips with HD media player.

5. Personally I recommend ByteCopy for ripping Blu-ray and DVD to HD media player, cause it’s very flexible with various backup solutions.

Related Links:
[Knowledge] The advantages of MKV format for Blu-ray Ripping
[Solution] 1:1 Blu-ray to MKV ripping in 2 steps
[Test] Lossless DVD to MKV backup:10 minutes?

Part 2: Enable WD TV Live Plus to flawlessly protected premium content (such as movies or music from the iTunes Store, Movielink, Amazon Unbox&trade, and Vongo)

Remove DRM – The key to stream and play portected movies on WD TV Live Plus.

According to the Specifications of WD TV Live Plus, this Western’s HD Media Player does not support protected premium content such as movies or music from the iTunes Store, Movielink, Amazon Unbox&trade, and Vongo. It is for DRM which is a term for access control technologies that are commonly used by the entertainment industry to limit the use of digital content and devices. Many online movie and music stores, such as iTunes Store, Amazon.com, BBC, etc., have implemented DRM. DRM-protected files can be used only in a particular way. Content providers, such as online stores, can specify how you can use the protected files that you obtain from them. For example, Apple allows you to play your purchased music on up to five computers, burn it to CD, and play it on an unlimited number of iPods and iPhones. If you put an iTunes video purchase onto an Android tablet, or drag an iTunes rental movie to Windows Media Player and HD Media Player such as WD TV, you’ll find them unplayable due to DRM-restrictions.

What’s the best application for removing DRM?

ChewTune-a piece of easy-to-use and intuitive DRM remover and converter software.

To have the full access and control of your purchased videos, movies, and TV shows from online stores, you need professional DRM removal tool that convert DRM-protected contents to DRM-free videos. ChewTune is a kind of converter app that helps you remove the DRM protections and enjoy your video purchase in any way you like- and it does convert the movies to a compatible format when the media player you use does not support the format of original video or music. It helps you convert DRM protected Videos and Audios to avi, mov, mkv, mp4, vob, mpg, etc. Then you can watch and play DRM protected mvoies and videos from the iTunes Store, Movielink, Amazon Unbox&trade, and Vongo on WD TV Live Plus at ease.

Learn More, Entry: ChewTune’s offical WebPage

Related posts:

1. How to play Blu-ray movies on HDTV with WD TV Live Plus ?
2. Enjoy dvd movies on HDTV with WDTV Live-DVD Disc/DVD Folders/VOB Files to MKV
3. Solution: Making blu-ray ISO image from protected blu-ray discs