The Best Region-Free Blu-ray Player Software Review

If you want a program for playing a region-locked Blu-ray disc on the go, these are the best region-free Blu-ray player applications available.

It may be hard to believe, but over ten years physical media sales have dropped and individuals relied upon the online services for their favorite movies or TV shows, Blu-ray discs still live on these days. In fact, there are numerous of hot movies that are coming out on Blu-ray, like The Irishman and Blackbird. But the vast majority of BD discs contain regional coding and could not play in other regions/countries, for instance, you can't play Region A locked Blu-ray titles in Ireland (Region B).

"If only there was a way to play all my region-restricted Blu-rays with ease" — you mutter. The good news is, there are some programs, commonly referred to as region-free Blu-ray playback software, that allows you to do that.

What's Region-Free Blu-ray Player?

Although there are about 70% Blu-rays not locked to a specific region, region-free Blu-ray playback programs can be effective when you have a number of BD discs from other regions to play. For example, you can use them to view BD movies from the UK that haven't made it to your country; you can play Blu-rays of popular international TV shows, not just in your region. And you don't have to download additional codes to play region-locked Blu-ray.

What's Blu-ray Region Codes?

Blu-ray region codes are additional layer of protection embedded into Blu-ray disc (BD) to prevent losses of publishers and distributors. They divide the world into three major geographical regions where the BD can be played — namely Region A, Region B, and Region C.

Region A: North America, South America, U.S. Territories, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and other areas of Southeast Asia.

Region B: Europe, Africa, Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand.

Region C: Central and South Asia, Mongolia, Russia.

Region ABC: A version is not restricted to any region, which can be classified as region-0 or region-free. Region-free discs have no code or three codes written on the disc cover.

Tip: Ultra HD Blu-rays aren't region-locked. But if you have lots of Ultra HD Blu-ray discs and other BD discs, picking an all-region Blu-ray playing tool for (Ultra HD) Blu-ray playback would be better.

How to Remove Region Codes from a BD Disc?

For the sake of bypassing Blu-ray region code and play your Blu-rays on your computer freely, here we introduce two ways:

• Using Blu-ray Converter: The alternative is to digitize your Blu-ray disc. The converter will shrug off copyright protection from a BD disc and convert it into some formats that can be played on your preferred device.
• Using a region-free Blu-ray player: It's the easiest way. The player will automatically remove the regional coding and play your BD smoothly.

Finding the best region-free Blu-ray player solution may seem like an intimidating task, but we will help you. Below it's a list of five best BD player for playing your region-coded Blu-rays.

The Best Multi-Region Blu-ray Playing Programs

Aiseesoft Blu-ray Player

With a suite of sought-after features, Blu-rays and DVDs support, and the ability to play videos & audios, and control playback, Aiseesoft Blu-ray player is probably the most powerful region-free Blu-ray playback utility around. And it's our top choice.

Don't be fooled by its basic user interface. It is really versatile and features playing physical Blu-ray discs freely in any regions besides the geographical area in which it was released. It also grants you to play standard BD discs, Blu-ray files and Blu-ray ISO image. Plus, it only takes 5 seconds load your Blu-ray (the fastest-starting Blu-ray playback software).

It includes DTS and Dolby Atmos audio format, offering you the best surround sound quality. What's also neat about the strong all-region Blu-ray playing solution is that it provides support for source menu system. This means you can play a particular (BD) title or chapter to play with freedom, and select bonus content to play.

The download speed is fast, and setup is simple. To play the Blu-ray discs that are limited to their regions using the region-free Blu-ray playback tool, there are no complicated controls:

• Insert your BD disc and fire up the software.
• Click Open Disc, and double-click Open Folder...
• Locate the disc you want to play.

So, if you're looking for a feature-rich multi-region Blu-ray player to play your Blu-ray without stuttering, just taking Aiseesoft Blu-ray Player out for a spin.

Leawo Blu-ray Player

Leawo Blu-ray Player is an option for anyone who wants to watch region-coded Blu-ray videos and movies without paying a dime. While it can't be considered as a perfect region-free Blu-ray playing tool, it is a user-friendly Blu-ray player and can be used to reliably play different media files.

With Leawo Blu-ray Player, you'll find many features that are available to you. These include the ability to play (1080p) Blu-ray disc, standard DVD discs, and rewritable discs, and to play back video, audio and ISO files. The multi-region Blu-ray playback software also packs in playback settings so that you can control volume, adjust subtitle, fast forward/backward, or stop your video during playback.

A few niggling glitches of the freeware: it is ad-supported; it sometimes freezes when playing Blu-ray movies; it can't resume a video from the point where you leave off. However, Leawo Blu-ray Player is still useful as it's a cost-free all-region Blu-ray playing application that's compatible with Windows PCs and Macs.

Macgo Blu-ray Player

Macgo Blu-ray Player is also a solid region-free BD playing option for Windows and Mac users, in that it offers a raft of significant features wrapped in an intuitive, straightforward interface. It can play Blu-ray discs released with region coding, traditional BD disc, Blu-ray (BDMV) folders and BD ISO files. And it supports many other media formats, including MKV, FLV, MPEG, WMV, MP4, AAC and more.

The region-free Blu-ray playback application has two versions: Macgo Blu-ray Player and Macgo Blu-ray Player Pro. Several features (including BD-Live online feature, Blu-ray menu support, and virtual remote control) are available for Pro version only. If you want an improved experience, you can upgrade to Macgo Blu-ray Player Pro.

It's easy to get the hang of the all-region Macgo Blu-ray Player like Aiseesoft Blu-ray Player, just pop in a Blu-ray disc, click on Open Disc > Open Folder... to play your region-locked BD discs.

Free Mac Blu-ray Player

If you want another robust Blu-ray player to handle commercially-produced Bu-ray movies, look no further than Free Blu-ray Player. It's a region-free Blu-ray playing application that only works on Mac computers.

Under the hood, it supports playing Blu-rays encoded to a particular region, Blu-ray folders and Blu-ray ISO image files. But that's not all. It allows you to play back 4K/HD/SD videos, and offers support for massive amounts of digital video file formats, such as M4V, MP4, MOV, WMV, etc. The multi-region Free Blu-ray Player also includes audio playing feature, granting you to play video files like FLAC, MP3, WMA, AC3, and M4A. Unlike Aiseesoft Blu-ray Player, the (BD) videos reading speed is not fast.

Using the application, you can change subtitle, customize audio/video track, or adjust options for playback to create more comfortable watching experience. And you can take still images from a video and save them in the necessary format: JPEG, BMP, or PNG.

Aurora Blu-ray Player

While not as excellent as other all-region Blu-ray playback solutions on the list, Aurora Blu-ray Player is usable enough for basic Blu-ray playback. It can be used to play Blu-rays which includes the content from region-coded/region-free BD discs, Blu-ray folders, and ISO files. Also, it allows you to view multimedia files (videos, audios, and images.).

The main benefit of using the region-free Blu-ray player tool is that it doesn't have flashy interface and is pretty customizable. There are some functions included that enable you to adjust audio and video settings, change the color, font and size of subtitles, as well as share your current feeling about the movie you're watching to social media platforms, Facebook or Twitter.

The catch is Aurora Blu-ray Player doesn't support lossless audio playback, though if you don't care about sound quality, this may be the least of your worries.

Bottom Line

Are you a movie buff looking to get a multi-region Blu-ray playing utility for the sake of watching the BD discs you purchased from other regions? Don't stress! Any of the above BD playback solutions would be a good choice for achieving region-free playback.