Can I connect my Panasonic Blu-ray DMP-BD35 to my late 2008 build 15inch MacBook Pro?

Essentially, I want to be able to watch Blu-ray disks using my MacBook Pro's monitor. Does the Panasonic Blu-ray DMP-BD35 player support this (in ANY roundabout form)? I have limited financial resources - I appreciate that there are other Blu-ray players that have better capabilities (and other MacBook Pros too), but I could probably fund a wire/connector or two...
I know that there has been talk of firewire/USB/[ExpressCard/34 slot] input connections in other forums but I can't make heads or tails of what exactly is going on. I'm aware that the mini-display port is strictly output, but how about these others? Or is this impossible?

Thanks,

J.

PS- Don't bother telling me that I can do better by ripping the Blu-rays and converting the files etc.. I want to have some kind of real-time connection!
PPS- Let me know if you require more specifications, and I will be more than willing to provide them.

Judging by the silence, I'm going to surmise that the answer to my question is "no".
As a consequence, I have been looking into buying an external Blu-ray player that connects directly to my mac via USB hub. I was considering the Plextor PX-B120U but noticed that the software is not officially supported by OS X. Is there a way I can _unofficially_ support it?

The best way to watch BluRays on a MBP atm is to install Windows and use Cyberlink PowerDVD '11, which will play this discs in real time. Smooth real-time playback. you could probably manage it via a VM if you don't wanna reboot. you'll need a USB external BluRay ROM drive.

The only option to play Blu Rays natively via OSX is a spammy looking piece of software (can't recall what its called), that a lot of members here tried, and said their experience was glitchy at best.

I have VMWare Fusion 4.0.1 (474597) with some pretty ancient Windows OS versions that I needed for compatibility issues (including 98 SE, but I do have XP Professional). However, I realise that even XP is probably not recent enough to support Blu-ray. What OSs can I use? Also, VMWare can be pretty slow at times (especially when playing recent PC games with 3D graphics card accelerators) so can anyone tell me that it will play without any delay glitches through Fusion?

To answer your questions in order:

1. You can use any Windows you want, but for what you want to do Windows 7 is your best bet.

2. 2D movie watching has absolutely nothing to do with 3D game playing, and the video card is thus almost irrelevant.

I use this The First and Best Mac Blu-ray Player Software, movie/DVD/video player and an external blu-ray day connected by USB.

Not sure if this is the same software mentioned above or not but personally I've never had an issue with it. Playback is smooth, no glitches and no need to install Windows in bootcamp or a VM

chas_m said:

To answer your questions in order:

1. You can use any Windows you want, but for what you want to do Windows 7 is your best bet.

2. 2D movie watching has absolutely nothing to do with 3D game playing, and the video card is thus almost irrelevant.

Click to expand...

The point I was making had less to do with video cards and more to do with RAM etc. - I was just trying to say that VMWare can get pretty slow at times and I was wondering if Blu-ray playback might also be slow. Thank you for your input anyway.

To the comment above (mrplow) - I couldn't quite tell whether 'Macgo' had a means for accessing the native top menu of individual Blu-ray feature disks. Does it just provide access to a generic menu for all disks? I do want the FULL experience, and I'm willing to 'pay up' for it.

Thanks to all for providing some answers.

OK - I have Windows 7 x64 on VMWare now.
I've also tried installing Cyberlink PowerDVD 11.
The installation went cleanly and yet the software is completely unresponsive. Total blank screen and I can't get any of the software buttons to work - Task Manager tells me that nothing is wrong, however.

I'd very much appreciate some more help.

Further information:
I've noticed that PowerDVD will not load at all unless I have 3D acceleration turned on in the VMWare settings. The software is still being non-responsive.
Do you think this could be a VMWare Tools driver issue? I'm trying to run 11 v1719 at the moment.

PPS - Updated to v2024 and had the same problem, the only difference was that the application loaded in full screen.

What a bag of hurt.

I've now updated again and am still having this problem. If it helps:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: AppHangB1
Application Name: PowerDVD11.exe
Application Version: 11.0.0.2321
Application Timestamp: 4eca118e
Hang Signature: 6639
Hang Type: 6144
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Hang Signature 1: 66393118f16d492c77be99c098a64f73
Additional Hang Signature 2: 72e7
Additional Hang Signature 3: 72e740a270856325583681c323243ee5
Additional Hang Signature 4: 6639
Additional Hang Signature 5: 66393118f16d492c77be99c098a64f73
Additional Hang Signature 6: 72e7
Additional Hang Signature 7: 72e740a270856325583681c323243ee5

This topic has now changed course. Do you think I should open another?

I just tried the PowerDVD 12 trial and that hasn't worked either.
I cannot believe that I paid for PDVD 11 and went through all the patches etc. to then discover that, though Cyberlink do not say so anywhere other than an obscure forum, VMWare simulation is not supported by PDVD.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some kind of refund. This is mind, however, I do need to find a different software that WILL work with VMWare and play Blu-rays with full functionality.

Thanks to all who respond. Onto problem 3 now!

Forget it.
I've given up.

Have you tried running in through Bootcamp?