My Laptop Isn't Playing Blu-ray Movies

Blu-ray Player

As obvious as this seems, you should probably double-check that your system is actually capable of playing Blu-ray Discs. The laptop might have been sold to you as a Blu-ray-ready machine and then, perhaps through manufacturing mistake, might not have shipped with the Blu-ray player. Access Device Manager to find out: If you are using a Windows 7 system, for instance, click "Start" and type "Device," and then click "Device Manager" under "Control Panel" to load a list of all of your hardware. Expand "DVD/CD-ROM Drives" and check the device name carefully. Look for "BD" in the name to make sure you have the player.

As with any optical drive -- a CD or DVD drive, for example -- Blu-ray readers use lasers to scan information from the disc. If your computer's drive used to play discs and has stopped playing discs, it's likely that either the disc is dirty or that the drive is experiencing issues. You can try using a lens cleaner, which you can find at any electronics store to fix the issue.

Blu-ray Disc players in laptops come with an automatic issue: Blu-ray technology is patented, and not by Microsoft. Blu-ray Discs need special codecs to play in Windows, which Microsoft produces, but Microsoft doesn't provide these codecs. Your computer manufacturer should bundle your Blu-ray-ready laptop with the software you need to play the discs, but this issue needs to be addressed with the manufacturer. Microsoft doesn't offer any support for Blu-ray playback.

All video formats -- Blu-ray included -- need a special codec to play on Windows. Microsoft supplies basics codecs in its operating systems to handle common media formats like WMV and AVI, but Blu-ray is different. Your Blu-ray playback software has codecs, but if you format your computer or remove the software, the codecs are gone and need to be reinstalled or downloaded again. You can probably find free versions of these from the support site of your computer manufacturers.