Eastfist

Solution: HPMediaSmart DVD on HP Laptops stop playing Blu-ray discs
By Chongchen Saelee

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-Systems-and-Software/Hp-mediasmart-dvd-play-the-avengers-blu-ray-disc/m-p/1851997/highlight/true#M109828

See, after 2012, 20th Century Fox slapped a bunch of their newly authored Blu-rays with BD+ and some other fancy DRM (digital rights management) techniques. So in order for you to play their content, you need to use their authorized firmware aka Blu-ray software players.

Unfortunately, if you’re an owner of an older Hewlett-Packard laptop who is stuck using their built-in media player software such as HPMediaSmart DVD, and you don’t have software upgrade or update support anymore, then you might be SOL or forced to buy a new commercial Blu-ray software that will play newer titles (Who has USD$100 lying around these days, especially to watch Blu-rays that have been collecting dust on our shelves for more than half a decade?).

HP, however, provided HP laptop owners with a FREE STANDARD VERSION of PowerDVD 10. The file is ~150 MB. (more…)