[5 Best Picks] How to Play Blu-ray Discs on Mac Free

To play Blu-ray discs on a Mac, there are two main solutions:

• Instant play - use dedicated Blu-ray playback software.
• Rip and play - convert Blu-ray into a digital file such as MP4 or MKV, and watch the ripped content without the disc.

This article focuses on the former, playing commercial Blu-ray discs on Mac directly from the disc using 5 best Blu-ray players. This way you can enjoy BD movies on Mac with menu navigation, no ripping required.

What you need to play Blu-ray on Mac

Blu-ray Optical Drive

To play Blu-ray discs on your MacBook Pro/Air/iMac, a compatible Blu-ray optical drive for your Mac is required to read the disc content. If you haven't bought a Blu-ray drive yet, here are some I’ve used: Verbatim External Slimline Blu-ray Writer, ASUS BW-16D1X-U. You can also contact the developers of some Blu-ray players for right Blu-ray drives.

Blu-ray Playback Software

Normally Blu-ray drives are not bundled with Blu-ray playback software for Mac. You’ll need to a third-party Blu-ray player capable of bypassing encryption (e.g. AACS, BD+, Region codes) found on the disc and play the content. Here are some recommended options for Mac, all tested and work.  Click on the quick links to jump to details:

1. Cisdem Video Converter (Free built-in Blu-ray player)
2. Macgo Blu-ray Player (Paid Blu-ray player with menu support)
3. Leawo Blu-ray Player (Free with upgrade option)
4. DVDFab Player 6 (Paid player supporting 4K UHD Blu-ray)
5. VLC media player (extra steps needed)

[Guide] How to Play Blu-rays on Mac With Best Blu-ray Players

#1. Cisdem Video Converter

Price: Free Blu-ray player; pay $69.99 to unlock Blu-ray/DVD ripping and other features

Cisdem Video Converter is a video and Disc conversion software that comes with a built-in Blu-ray/DVD player. It can play homemade Blu-rays, AACS and BD+ encrypted Blu-ray discs, BDMV folders and ISO files smoothly, regardless of the region coding.

While the playback features remain free, an upgrade version is available to rip the Blu-ray to MP4 or any other format for easy playback without an external drive. Also, it's an all-in-one converter that can convert local media files, download videos from 1000+ sites, compress and edit media files, making it easy to manage your digital movie library seamlessly.

Free Download macOS 10.13 or later

How to play Blu-ray with Cisdem Video Converter on Mac:

1. Click the blue download button above to download and install the software.
2. Plug Blu-ray optical drive to your Mac via USB port, and insert a Blu-ray disc, label side up.
3. Launch Cisdem Video Converter, go to the Blu-ray panel by clicking the second tab at the top.
4. Directly drag-n-drop the Blu-ray disc to the interface to import the Blu-ray. Or go to the “File” menu > “Add Blu-ray/DVD” to add from the Finder. It will start to decrypt the disc and load all video titles.
5. Find the main movie title or episode, click on the Play button on video thumbnail to start playing the video. Settings: Blu-ray may provide multiple audio tracks and subtitles, you can click on the drop-down menus to select preferred language for playback.
6. In the player that pops up, you can resize the window, take screenshots, move fast forward/rewind, etc.

Tip: How to Rip Blu-ray to Mac for easy playback without external drive

Cisdem allows you to rip Blu-ray to digital format files with compressed size, so you can watch favorite movies with QuickTime Player or cast to big screens.

1. Select the titles you want to rip.
2. Click "Convert all tasks to" button at lower left corner, and select an output format from the list.
3. Click the "Save to" field to choose output folder.
4. Click on the "Start" button to begin ripping process. If needed, check the "Merge" option to combine multiple titles into one file.

#2. Macgo Blu-ray Player Pro

Price: $39.95 for 1 Mac (website version); $64.99 (App Store version)

Macgo Blu-ray Player Pro is a paid Blu-ray player for Mac with full menu support, allowing you to watch Blu-rays and DVDs with a virtual remote control. You can try it for free, but must pay to remove the watermarks on the video.

However, Macgo is not a region-free Blu-ray player, and it only allows you to change the region code 5 times. If you have many Blu-ray discs from different regions, consider other options.

How to play Blu-ray with full menu support on Mac:

1. Download and install Macgo Blu-ray Player Pro from its website or the Mac App Store.
2. Insert your Blu-ray movie disc into BD drive.
3. Launch the player software, it should automatically detect the Blu-ray disc and play the menu.
4. Hit Play button or select scene/chapter to play content.

Tip: If your Blu-ray disc fail to play due to region code comparability, go to the player Preferences settings from the menu bar, click the Blu-ray panel, and change region code to A, B or C there.

#3. Leawo Blu-ray Player

Price: Free; $99.95 to unlock BD/DVD to MKV ripping feature

Leawo offers a free Blu-ray playback software for Mac and Windows PC. It supports most standard Blu-rays and DVDs from all regions except 4K and 3d Blu-rays. When you open it for the first time, you will be prompted to download a JRE file for Blu-ray menu playback. However, not all Blu-ray menus are supported.

Instructions:

1. Download and install the player from https://www.leawo.org/blu-ray-player-mac/.
2. Launch Leawo Blu-ray Player, follow on-screen instruction to download and install JRE dmg file for BD-J menu playback.
3. Click on the Blu-ray disc icon to load inserted Blu-ray from optical drive. Or click “Open File” button to browse and play BDMV folder, ISO file.
4. If the menu is supported, it will play the menu navigation page. Otherwise it will skip to the movie main title. You can open the playlist panel to view all titles.

#4. DVDFab Player 6 Ultra for Mac

Price: $69.99/lifetime license for 1 Mac

DVDFab Player 6 offers an Ultra version that can play back 4K UHD Blu-rays on Mac, while its cheaper Standard version supports 1080p Blu-rays only. It’s a multi-purpose media player that can play DVDs with menu support, play back local videos, and manage movie library with poster wall. As for Blu-ray support, it offers a simple playback mode without menu, allowing you to play main movies and select titles.

Instructions:

1. Download the installation package from DVDFab and install it on your Mac.
2. Launch the player, choose PC Mode to go to the main interface. Then it will start scanning the optical drive connected to your computer.
3. Play the Blu-ray disc in the Discs tab. Or select the BDMV folder under My Computer on the left side to watch.
4. In the player window, you can right-click on the video to adjust playback settings, like audio, subtitles, speed, etc.

#5. VLC media player

Can VLC play copy-protected Blu-rays on Mac? It's possible. As the most popular open-source media player for Mac, VLC doesn't support Blu-ray playback due to encryption issues. If you want to get your VLC to play BD on Mac, there are many tutorials about how to install libaacs and keydb.cfg decryption library manually for VLC Blu-ray support, which are also be shown below.

VLC can also play Blu-ray menus with Java JRE 8+ installed (like Leawo Player). However, BD+ encrypted Blu-ray discs and folders are hardly supported by VLC. you can check the encryption technology of your Blu-ray movie by navigating to disc folder to see if there is a AACS or BDSVM (BD+) directory. It's better to choose other methods if it's a BD+ Blu-ray.

How to play Blu-ray with VLC on Mac:

1. Download keydb.cfg file. Go to FindVUK Online Database to download keydb.cfg file and extract it. Go to ~/Library/Preferences/ in Finder, create a new folder name "aacs" in Preferences and put keydb.cfg file into it.
2. Install libaacs.dylib. Install Homebrew on your Mac. Then enter "brew install libaacs" in Terminal to install libaacs decryption file via Homebrew. Then, go to /opt/homebew/cellar/libaacs on Silicon Mac or /usr/local/homebrew/cellar/libaacs on Intel Mac, find the libaacs.0.dylib file. Copy it and paste to /usr/local/lib.
3. For Blu-ray menu support, download jre-8u311-macosx-x64.dmg file from Oracle or other platform and install it.
4. When all's set up, open VLC, click “File > Open Disc”from top menu bar. Then play the inserted Blu-ray disc or BDMV folder with VLC on your Mac.

Final Words

Now you can easily play most 1080P standard Blu-ray discs on your Mac with a reliable Blu-ray player like Cisdem and Macgo. If you want to play Blu-ray on Mac without optical drive, saving the ripped Blu-ray to Mac is also viable.

Related reading: How to Rip Blu-ray on Mac for Beginners | How to Play Blu-ray on Windows