How to Play Blu-ray Discs in VLC Using MakeMKV

One of the biggest advantages of VLC Media Player is that it's free, open source, and capable of playing almost every video format imaginable. Unfortunately, commercial Blu-ray discs are one exception.

Lately I've been ripping the few movies I have on Blu-ray to MKV using MakeMKV. Mainly so I can enjoy Dolby Atmos content over Plex without having to pop in discs. I've been using this LG drive and have had no issues with it!

The good news is that you don't need to purchase another media player. MakeMKV, you can enable Blu-ray decryption and preview or watch your Blu-ray collection directly in VLC.

This guide walks you through the process.

Why VLC Can't Play Blu-rays by Default

Unlike DVDs, nearly all commercial Blu-ray discs are protected with AACS and often BD+ copy protection.

Because VLC is an open-source project, it doesn't include the licensed decryption libraries required to read these discs.

Instead, VLC relies on third-party software to perform the decryption.

That's where MakeMKV comes in.

Rather than ripping your movie first, MakeMKV can decrypt the Blu-ray on the fly and stream it directly to VLC. This will

Step 1 – Install VLC

If you don't already have VLC installed:

Step 2 – Install MakeMKV

Download MakeMKV from:

https://www.makemkv.com/

Install the application using the default settings.

Once installed:

  1. Launch MakeMKV
  2. Select View → Preferences
  3. Open the Integration tab
  4. Enable VLC Integration
  5. Click OK

This integration allows VLC to automatically use MakeMKV whenever a Blu-ray disc is opened.

What Does VLC Integration Actually Do?

Enabling VLC integration tells MakeMKV to act as a transparent Blu-ray decryptor.

When VLC tries to open a Blu-ray:

  • MakeMKV removes disc encryption,
  • VLC gets an unencrypted video stream,
  • And the movie starts playing without needing to rip the disc beforehand.

The process happens automatically in the background. This way, you can preview discs in VLC before starting processing in MakeMKV, so you can determine which streams are which.

Hope this helps!