Looking to purchase a multi region Blu Ray player for my iMac

[the8thark]

Could anyone recommend a good external multi region Blu Ray player to work with my iMac (2012 model)?

Also what would be the best software to use with this?

Would such a thing even work on the iMac? I think kicking back and watching a movie or two here on the iMac (27 inch screen) would be really nice. Also the ability to import and not worry about region codes would be nice too.

I am not sure where else on the MR forums to post this so I thought I would ask here.
Thank you in advance.

 

[HDFan]

I avoid the region issues with my 3 players (2 4K, 1 1080p) by ripping the disks to .mkv and playing them with Plex or Infuse. The 2 4K players have modified firmware so that I can rip 4K movies. Since I always rip have no information on playing a different region disk directly on a Mac.

If you have an appropriate drive the problem is finding software that will play an optical disk on a Mac.

 

[Fishrrman]

Some very general suggestions.

Get either a "tray loader" or a "top loader" (avoid the "slot load" designs).

You should be able to find a small, portable USB CD/DVD/BluRay drive (reads and burns). I would suggest that you get one that also has "M-DISC" capabilities.

For software, there are several 3rd party apps out there that are designed to play BD discs on the Mac.
The one I have is "Free Mac Blu-Ray Player".

BE AWARE that it will run "in free mode" (without paying for a registration), but will put a small "icon" towards the upper edge of the display (easily ignored). It may also offer extra features after registering.

There is something called "Make MKV" that will rip a BD to your hard drive. The file size is enormous (around 20gb or larger), but you can do this, watch the video, then delete the ripped file when done.

 

[Nermal]

Unlike with DVD where the region protection is part of the drive, in Blu-ray it's done in software. Virtually any drive will work.

As far as I'm aware, all MacOS-compatible software ignores the region code when playing a disc.

 

[HDFan]

Unlike with DVD where the region protection is part of the drive, in Blu-ray it's done in software. Virtually any drive will work.

But isn't the effect the same?

• The region code settings for a Blu-ray Disc player device cannot be changed.
• The region code settings for a computer Blu-ray Disc optical drive can only be changed within computers that have software capable of effecting that change, and can only be changed a total of five times. Refer to the Blu-ray Disc player software documentation for instructions on how to change the optical drive region code settings.
• For most Blu-ray Disc optical drives, whatever the region code the software is set to upon the fifth region code setting change will become the permanent setting. Once this occurs the region code setting cannot be changed again.
• If the region code of the Blu-ray Disc optical drive has been permanently set to an undesirable region, and you wish to use Blu-ray Discs with a different region code setting, the drive will need to be replaced.

https://www.sony-asia.com/electronics/support/articles/00029369

 

[Nermal]

It wouldn't surprise me if Sony's doing something special. My LG and Toshiba drives have been through dozens if not hundreds of different-region discs without an issue and there's definitely no 5-change limit.