<p>
Greetings and welcome to Hacker Public Radio. </p>
<p>
My name is Peter Paterson, also known as SolusSpider.</p>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
In my spare time I like to watch scifi shows and movies, including
those about superheroes. </p>
<p>
I am so looking forward to the new Superman movie by DC, with
James Gunn as showrunner. In that film the actor Nathan Fillion
plays a Green Lantern named Guy Gardner. </p>
<p>
Recently I remembered that I owned a Green Lantern Blu-ray
animated movie with Nathan Fillion as the voice of Hal Jordan.
That movie is named Emerald Knights.</p>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
These days when I purchase a Blu-ray it normally comes with a
digital code for <a href="https://moviesanywhere.com/home"
rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">
Movies Anywhere</a>
. Therefore I often never play the physical disk at all. This
particular disk did not have that option.</p>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
I searched the streaming services for where to watch Green
Lantern: Emerald Knights. Seems it is only available for rent or
purchase. Obviously since I own the disk I am not going to do
that. </p>
<p>
Therefore, I tried once again to try to play the disk directly on
my Linux system. </p>
<p>
We do have dedicated Blu-ray players in the house. One is a
Samsung unit in our living room, but that is where my
Dragon-in-Law Eva lives. The other is a Playstation 3 in our
bedroom. There is also the factor that I wanted to watch while
doing other computer projects in my own room.</p>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
My main computer system is a <a href="https://system76.com"
rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">
System76</a> Thelio desktop running <a
href="https://www.pclinuxos.com" rel="noopener noreferrer"
target="_blank">
PCLinuxOS</a> as the operating system. </p>
<p>
Connected via USB is an <a
href="https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/optical-drives/external-blu-ray-drive/bw16d1hu_pro"
rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">
Asus External Blu-Ray BW-16D1H-U player</a>
.</p>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
Rather than go into detail with all that did not work, I shall
instead focus on informing you what worked well on my own system.
</p>
<p>
Many of the forums lead you down strange paths.</p>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
It all came down to installing all I needed from Flatpak via <a
href="https://flathub.org" rel="noopener noreferrer"
target="_blank">
Flathub.org </a>
</p>
<p>
Here is all that I installed:</p>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<u>
VLC</u>
: org.videolan.VLC</li>
<li>
<u>
MakeMKV</u>
: com.makemkv.MakeMKV</li>
<li>
<u>
Blu-ray java plugin</u>
: org.videolan.VLC.Plugin.bdj</li>
<li>
<u>
FDK-AAC encoding plugin</u>
: org.videolan.VLC.Plugin.fdkaac</li>
<li>
<u>
MakeMKV plugin for VLC</u>
: org.videolan.VLC.Plugin.makemkv</li>
</ul>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
Detailed program names are in the shownotes.</p>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
To install these direct from terminal type: </p>
<pre class="ql-syntax" spellcheck="false">flatpak install (name of program)
</pre>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
These instructions assume that you already have Flatpak installed
on your Linux system. </p>
<p>
If you do not, then the Flathub website will give you guidance for
your particular distro.</p>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
I did have to uninstall VLC first from PCLinuxOS, which had been
installed from the repo. This enabled all the relevant library
files to be accessible across Flatpak.</p>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
<a href="https://www.makemkv.com" rel="noopener noreferrer"
target="_blank">
MakeMKV</a> is a format converter, or transcoder, that converts
the files on a physical disk to MKV files. Many use this program
to copy their Blu-Rays to a storage medium for their own
home-streaming purposes. I have yet to go down that road, as I
just wanted to play the disk. Plus I don't have that much storage.</p>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
I originally purchased MakeMKV for $50 in 2020. </p>
<p>
Yes, paid. </p>
<p>
It is a proprietary program, but then again so is the Blu-Ray disk
encryption. </p>
<p>
These days it costs $60 for a lifetime licence. </p>
<p>
That said, MakeMKV is beta software that is free to use, and they
supply a licence key that is good for a month. The only downside
is that you have to visit their <a
href="https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1053"
rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">
forum page</a> every month to obtain the updated key code.</p>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
Once all this was installed, I opened VLC, clicked on 'Open
Disk...' from Media, selected Blu-ray from Disk Selection, then
clicked on Play. </p>
<p>
For me it just worked! </p>
<p>
Hope it shall do for you also. </p>
<p>
It's so great to be able to directly play Blu-rays on my Linux
system again.</p>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
Remember the Green Lantern oath: </p>
<blockquote>
"In brightest day, in blackest night, </blockquote>
<blockquote>
no evil shall escape my sight. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Let those who worship evil's might beware my power… </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Green Lantern's light!"</blockquote>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
Thank you so much for listening to my latest topic of interest. </p>
<p>
Please leave me a comment on the HPR show page. </p>
<p>
I look forward to hearing from you.</p>
<p>
<br>
</p>
<p>
Now go forth, take care of yourself, also your fellow neighbours,
and record your own HPR show!</p>
