Recognizing Blu Ray data/disks in Windows XP?

[Fofer]

I have a MacBook Air running OS X 10.8.3, with Parallels 8 newly installed, and Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 3) as my VM. I'm happy with this setup and it's working pretty well so far. Thanks, Parallels!

I also have a Samsung "Slim Portable Blu-Ray Writer" as my external optical drive. Model SE-506BB/TSBD. It works fine, as expected, on the Mac side, recognizing CD/DVD/BluRay disks. I can play Blu Ray movies with a 3rd party app, but don't care to do that... I'm using this Blu Ray drive primarily for data.

In Windows XP via Parallels, the drive works with CDs and DVDs. I can explore what's in the disk's folders. But when I insert a Blu Ray disk, it's not recognized. The same Blu Ray disk mounts just fine on the Mac side. But when I start Windows, it's unmounted from the Mac side, and when I click to explore via Windows what's in the optical drive, I get nothing.

Here's what my "Devices" menu looks like:

So how do I set it so that Windows XP recognizes this Blu Ray disk just as I can recognize regular DVDs? I am not trying to play Blu Ray movies, I am just trying to get the OS to recognize the disk is inserted and show me the files located inside.

Ideally I would like to be able to use this setup with Vudu's new Disc-to-Digital at Home beta that doesn't have a native Mac client yet. It works fine in Windows (via Parallels) with DVDs, but should work with Blu Rays too... so long as my OS actually recognizes that a Blu Ray disk has been inserted.

So what do I need to do to get Parallels/Windows to recognize that I've inserted a Blu Ray disk? Is there some driver I need to install, some Parallels configuration I need to change, some other/better way to "share" this volume from the Mac side (where it does mount properly?)

Thanks.

 

[Parallels User]

You have to connect via the USB menu, so Windows has full control over it.

 

[Fofer]

You have to connect via the USB menu, so Windows has full control over it.

Yes, isn't that what my screenshot above shows is exactly what I've done? That "TSSTCorp BDDVDW SE-506BB" is the name of this drive.

If not, then please tell me how to "connect via the USB menu," differently from what I've already tried.

 

[Parallels User]

No, your screenshot doesn't say that (If you have trouble finding what I'm saying,the USB menu is above the CD/DVD in your screenshot).

 

[Fofer]

No, your screenshot doesn't say that (If you have trouble finding what I'm saying,the USB menu is above the CD/DVD in your screenshot).

I've tried that. The Blu Ray drive doesn't appear in that menu:

The only way I am able to get Windows XP inside Parallels to recognize/mount Blu Ray disks is via the "Real CD/DVD" option, and only if I first disconnect via the entry above it:

Then, and only then, does the disk mount like this:

Still, this isn't providing native access to the disk's content. It's more like a "virtual disk" or something. And when I try to use the VUDU "Disc to Digital" app mentioned in my first post, it doesn't see the inserted disk at all. Which defeats the purpose of the whole exercise.

In any event, I but the bullet and upgraded to Windows 8 yesterday. And without changing anything else in Parallels, the Blu Ray disk's data is now recognized and mounted properly and the VUDU app works fine.

So my conclusion is that Windows XP simply lacks the proper drivers to be able to mount Blu Ray disks. (DVDs work fine.) And Parallels offers the "Real CD/DVD" option, but it's not native access and isn't good enough for an app like VUDU's. Whereas Windows 8 mounts them just fine. Perhaps then Parallels doesn't have anything to do with this, it's simply a limitation of the old Windows XP. Maybe there's some extra download out there that would enable Windows XP to properly mount Blu Rays (in a "native way" that allows apps like VUDU's to work) but now that I've got it working with Windows 8, I'm not going to worry about it any longer.

Hopefully this helps someone else out there.

 

[rgustafson]

Hi Fofer,

This helped me a great deal. I have the exact same drive. Now can you go one step further. To satisfy my curiosity if you install the Blu-ray player that Samsung provides with that unit and insert a standard Blu-ray movie does it play? I suspect not due to the absence of a discreet video card in the MB Air and digital rights management issues... but I'm curious if by some miracle this works in Windows 8. That would convince me to put more money in Microsoft's pocket. Thanks!

 

[Fofer]

Hi Fofer,

This helped me a great deal. I have the exact same drive. Now can you go one step further. To satisfy my curiosity if you install the Blu-ray player that Samsung provides with that unit and insert a standard Blu-ray movie does it play? I suspect not due to the absence of a discreet video card in the MB Air and digital rights management issues... but I'm curious if by some miracle this works in Windows 8. That would convince me to put more money in Microsoft's pocket. Thanks!

Just for you I tried this, and was really hoping it would work, because I didn't feel like shelling out the ~$40 for software like this, for the rare occasions that I'd want to watch a Blu Ray on this 11-inch MacBook Air.

Unfortunately, it did not work: