Want to watch Blu-rays on Ubuntu with full menu support? I’m going to show you how to do it — and don’t worry: it doesn’t require buying any expensive software.
I recently bought an external USB Blu-ray drive with the aim of—finally—watching my Doctor Who Collection sets on my Ubuntu laptop, when I’m in bed.
Sadly, it turns out you can’t just pop a Blu-ray disc in and watch it on Ubuntu – or any OS – since license fees have to be paid when software wants to ‘decrypt’ Blu-ray content.
Unlike DVDs, Blu-ray discs use an encryption system (called AACS) that relies on regular key updates to ‘decrypt’ content. The effort is deliberately designed to make discs difficult to play without using officially licensed, paid-for software.
Honestly? It makes Blu-ray awkward and obtuse — a textbook example of how not to design a media format people want to use. Hassle, hurdles and hoops to jump through simply to watch something you’ve paid for is… Meh.
But there is good news.
You can watch Blu-rays on Ubuntu (or any Linux distro) without paying for pricey software, and here’s what I did to get it working.
Enabling Ubuntu Blu-ray Playback
There are several ways to watch Blu-rays on Ubuntu (and other operating systems) which do NOT require doing what I did — but the experience you get won’t be as good.
Before we get to into the setup process, a list of things you’ll need:
- An external or internal Blu-ray drive (connected to Ubuntu)
- Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or newer (though it may work on older versions)
- Internet connection (to download the packages needed)
- A Blu-ray disc to test (some heavily protected discs may still cause issues)
- Patience (since this won’t take long, but there may be edge-cases)
You can simply install VLC, download a meta-key file from an (oddly domiciled) website, copy it a location deep within your file system, wince, and then hope it works. If it does, it won’t display any Blu-ray menus, which is a bit of a bummer for TV series sets.
This is the method well documented and the main hits when you Google “how to watch BluRays in VLC”.
But …It didn’t work for me, no matter how many times I repeated the steps, or which OS I tried it on.
Besides, I like being able to access disc menus, and my Doctor Who Blu-Rays are crammed with bonus content, some of it short ephemera that I’d struggle to deduce or sift through using nothing but a list of raw time-codes.
Which is why I hit upon a better solution, using a free software called MakeMKV.
MakeMKV + VLC = Blu-ray Showtime
Now, before you follow me down this rabbit hole any further I must mention that MakeMKV is proprietary software. If you want to “nope” out upon hearing that, it’s understandable.
However, I reason that since Blu-ray is itself a proprietary format and I use plenty of other closed-source software for entertainment, e.g., Steam, Spotify, etc, I’m cool with the fact. I paid for my discs and I want to watch them!
MakeMKV is technically paid software, but you can use it (and all of its features – it’s designed to rip discs to MKV files) for “free” while it’s in beta. The app has actually been in beta for over 10 years – updated regularly, but yet to shake off the beta label.
To use MakeMKV for playing Blu-ray discs in VLC (with menus):
- Download and install MakeMKV
- Install VLC (from the Ubuntu repo not the Snap Store1)
- Fetch a few dependencies
- Popcorn time
To install MakeMKV on Linux you can compile it — not as hard as it sounds; the MakeMKV forums cover the process step-by-step.
Or, if you’re on Ubuntu, Linux Mint or a related distro you add the MakeMKV PPA. This 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 from people you don’t know is Not Clever™. That said, the PPA has been around for years and no-one, to my knowledge, has had any “issues” with it. Plus, you CAN compile MakeMKV manually yourself. The PPA is for the lazy and trusting!
To add the MakeMKV PPA to Ubuntu, open a new Terminal window and run:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:heyarje/makemkv-beta
Next, install MakeMKV itself:
sudo apt install makemkv-bin makemkv-oss
Now, install VLC from the Ubuntu archives (do not use the VLC snap), and install a couple of dependencies. I don’t know if the extras are strictly necessary, but they sound relevant, don’t take up much room, and won’t hurt to have on hand:
sudo apt install vlc libbluray2 libaacs0
With everything fetched, open MakeMKV and enter the latest beta key in the ‘register’ box.
This key is needed. It allows you to use the software for free, for the next few months. When it expires you have go back to the link above, copy the new key, and enter it again. Rinse and repeat for however long you want to use the software.
Finally—a crucial bit—enable Blu-ray playback in VLC by running this command:
sudo ln -s libmmbd.so.0 /usr/lib/
You’re all set!
Insert a Blu-ray disc, open VLC, then go to “Open Disc…” > Blu-ray > Play and enjoy!
Psst — if you’re on Windows and macOS you need to check a “VLC integration” option in MakeMKV’s Preferences section, but this (apparently) isn’t required on Linux.
Want to go further?
MakeMKV is more than a hack to watch Blu-rays in VLC with menus2. It’s also a very capable Blu-ray ripping tool. You can copy entire disks or rip specific titles on a disc to the MKV format, along with options to include multiple audio tracks, subtitle tracks, etc.
Personally, I’m happy watching my Blu-rays in VLC. I’ve neither the disk space or the patience to rip my entire media collection for wire-free viewing, but if you do let me know how you get on!