I need to find an external blu-ray player that will work with an iMac 2021

Prince1369LBC wrote:

OK, maybe you are not reading this correctly I need a physical, external portable Blu-ray player. I don’t need software or anything to install into an iMac that already comes with minimum memory on it. All I keep getting is software and software I don’t need software I need a physical machine to plug into the iMac.

You can't use a 24" M1 iMac as a hardware monitor for another device. So it's not a matter of buying a Blu-Ray or 4K Blu-Ray player designed for the home theater market, plugging it into the iMac, and calling it a day.

You can attach a DVD or Blu-Ray drive as a data storage accessory. Then, to play movies, you need software that is designed for that purpose. Macs once came with DVD drives and a DVD player application. It appears that the application has "gone missing." They never came with Blu-Ray drives or Blu-Ray player applications.

All you will get with just your 24" M1 iMac, a "physical machine to plug into the iMac", and no software, will be the ability to read and write Blu-Ray DATA discs. If you are lucky. You might be able to put a movie disc into the drive and see that it has a whole bunch of files on it. But without software to interpret those files, you're not going to be watching any movies …

I have a Pioneer BDR-X13U-S UltraHD Blu-ray burner that the free MacGO Blu-ray Player Pro supports for non-UltraHD Blu-ray discs. I do not burn Blu-ray discs. nor do I have the Leawo software. Finding UltraHD player software for Mac may be a challenge, and expensive, typically for Windows, or written in China (DVDFab). In the latter sense, and for privacy reasons, I won't even run their trial, much less purchase the expensive software.

The Pioneer device works with my M2 Mini Pro (Sonoma 14.0) and my 2020 27-in iMac (Monterey 12.7). It also worked on my M1 mini with Big Sur.

Blu-ray discs when mounted will not show an image of the disc on recent releases of macOS.

As rkaufman87 already explained, Macs do not natively support Blu-ray. If you want to watch Blu-ray disks on a Mac, you need both a Blu-ray player and Blu-ray software.

Prince1369LBC wrote:

I just want a blu-ray External player to watch movies.. I don't need to burn anything, and after updating my xbox to digital, I have no way to watch Blu-ray Disc. I can't understand why apple won't sell something like my apple dvd drive and call it a day.?

As I recall, Steve Jobs referred to Blu-Ray as a "world of hurt" (or was that a "bag of hurt"?).

I'm not sure if he was referring to the insane DRM, to the patent licensing, or to both. If you go to buy an external Blu-Ray drive for your Mac, I think you'll find that

• Getting a drive is one thing,
• Getting software that lets you author home video Blu-Ray Video discs is another, and
• Getting software that lets you play (watch) commercial Blu-Ray movie and TV discs is yet a third

IF you want to have Blue Ray capabilities you have to install some software because Mac OS does not natively support Blue Ray, it is that simple. However as for the hardware, this is what I got:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MR3UBDRW16/

I’ve had success watching Blu-Ray using a pioneer external blu-ray reader/writer and VideoLAN VLC software.

Hi!

Here to help!

But. I am afraid this is an Apple-forum!

Please refer to your local hardware-tech-store for compatibility questions etc.

I would love to help you further, but your question is out of scope of this forum :(

If there's anything else, just holler,

Kind regards,

RRD

edit

also, just in case; check

https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/leawo-blu-ray-player/id961975824?mt=12

Hi!

Thank you for sharing those feelings! I completely understand, why don't you leave your thoughts at

feedback.apple.com? I understand the frustration - but - the forum is of course a great way to share those feelings - but to get things done: contact Apple directly ;)

Kind regards

RRD

Hi,

The latest version of Leawo blu-ray player, version 3.0.3 is available at Leawo site.

Just to add, the non-Pro version of the Macgo Blu-ray Player app in the App Store is about the same size as the default Sonoma.heic wallpaper.

I have a dearth of Blu-ray discs. UltraHD or otherwise. 😎