VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.
Last Updated on December 30, 2020 by Leo Standy
“This Blu-ray disc needs a library for aacs decoding, and your system does not have it.” You read this because you got a Blu-ray error when trying to play a Blu-ray disc with VLC Player on your computer. VLC is a good player software for Blu-ray content on Windows, macOS and even Linus, but it still can’t play Blu-ra disc that protected by aacs or BD+ nonetheless. Therefore, if you want to enable VLC to play those commercial Blu-ray discs, you must find the valid library for aacs decoding and put it into the right place, so that VLC can invoke it for decrypting Blu-ray content.
More Errors that you May Got when Playing Blu-ray with VLC
What is AACS? AACS is short for Advanced Access Content System which is a standard for DVD and Blu-ray content distribution and digital rights management. Accordingly, with the protection of AACS, all unauthorized access to the DVD and Blu-ray content will be banned. And that is the reason why you cannot play the Blu-ray disc on VLC. Luckily, many AACS decryption keys have been extracted and published on the internet, enabling decoding the AACS protected DVD or Blu-ray Media with third-party software such as VLC. So those extracted decryption keys are the library for aacs decoding that you need when playing Blu-ray disc with VLC.
To fix “this Blu-ray disc needs a library for aacs decoding…” error, there are two files that you need to implement to your VLC.
Step 1 Go to vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name, you will receive the privacy error telling you that Your connection is not private. Click on the Advanced button to enlarge the error explanation tab and click Proceed to vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name (unsafe).
Step 2 Download keys database file and AACS dynamic library file onto your computer. You should download the right version of AACS dynamic library according to your system. Since I am in Windows 10 60bit, so I will download the VLC 64 bit on Windows version.
Step 3 Install the downloaded files.
For Windows:
C:Users[Your User Name]AppDataRoamingaacs
. You can press Win + R to launch the Run application, and enter %appdata% into the Open text filed. Then click OK to open the directory of C:Users[Your User Name]AppDataRoaming, then Create a folder name “aacs” and copy the cfg into the folder.For Mac:
~/Library/Preferences/aacs/
(create it if it does not exist)./usr/local/lib/
directory (create it, if it does not exist).Note: since vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name has been out of update for years, so please follow our instruction to install those files.
Step 4 Restart VLC and open the Blu-ray disc once again.
Now you probably have fixed the “This Blu-ray Disc needs a library for AACS decoding, and your system does not have it” error. Make sure that you have followed the fix guide carefully. If it doesn’t work. Please repeat the steps once again.
If you still cannot play your Blu-ray movie with VLC. I will recommend you to use a third-party Blu-ray Player software to open the Blu-ray disc.
If you don’t want to see the Blu-ray errors when playing Blu-ray contents with VLC or you just can’t fix the “This Blu-ray Disc needs a library for AACS decoding, and your system does not have it” error. Then a third-party Blu-ray Player software is your best choice.
How to Play AACS Protected Blu-ray Disc with Blu-ray Player instead of VLC
Step 1 Install the Blu-ray Player software mentioned above on your Windows or Mac.
Step 2 Launch the Player and click Open Disc on the middle menu of the interface.
Then you are free to enjoy your Blu-ray movie on your PC now.
Besides turn to a third-party player, you have another feasible solution which is to rip the Blu-ray disc to a digital video file then play the video with any ordinary player on your computer. To rip a Blu-ray disc, you need to appeal to Blu-ray Ripper.
VLC Media Player is available on several popular platforms. This free and awesome player is readily available for Apple computer users. The software is freely available for Mac OS X systems. Different versions of the player is required for a different Mac OS X version and the VideoLAN team has got it covered. Read the instructions below to understand how you will be able to install VLC in your Mac.
Basically, you download a dmg package for your Mac computers from the following page:
You will see different download links for:
VLC for Mac OS X: 64 bit VLC dmg package download link which works for Mac OS X 10.6 and later.
32 bits Intel Mac: This dmg package is for 32 bit Intel Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard users.
PowerPC Mac: Dmg package for 32 bit PowerPC Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard users.
You will also see two web browser plugin download links. Those are for playing/streaming videos straight from your browser. The plugins are available for Intel Mac and Power Mac users. They require the OS X version to be 10.5 or lower.