What Is a BDMV File?

This article explains what a BDMV file is and how to open one on your computer.

What Is a BDMV File?

A file with the BDMV file extension is a Blu-ray information file, sometimes called a Blu-ray disc movie information file. It contains information about the contents of a Blu-ray disc, but it doesn't hold the actual multimedia files themselves.

One file that uses this extension is index.bdmv, which stores data about the contents of the BDMV directory. Other commons ones include sound.bdmv and MovieObject.bdmv.

AVCHD information files (BDM file extension) are similar, but is usually seen only on hard drives. BDMV files are commonly used on optical discs.

How to Open a BDMV File

Most popular disc authoring programs that support Blu-ray playback and burning will open BDMV files, like the free VLC. These programs support the format, too, but none of them are free (unless they offer a limited-time trial): CyberLink PowerDVD, JRiver Media Center, Nero, and Macgo Mac Blu-ray Player.

You might also be able to use Notepad or another free text editor to open it. Many files are text files, meaning no matter the file extension, a text editor can properly display the contents. Since BDMV files just hold information about the Blu-ray disc, it's possible that a text editor can open one.

How to Convert a BDMV File

Given that BDMV files are descriptive files only, you can't convert them to a multimedia format like MP4, MKV, etc.

However, there are some converters available that are advertised as "BDMV converters" that work by converting the video/audio contents (like the MTS/M2TS files) of the Blu-ray disc to other formats, but never the actual .BDMV files.

UniConverter is one example, but it's not free. There are also free converters like EncodeHD that can convert the media files from the Blu-ray disc, but they probably can't import the BDMV files or folders directly; you'd instead just choose the whole disc.

Check out our list of the best free video converters if you want to convert a video disc to MKV, MP4, or ISO.

Still Can't Open It?

If you can't get your file to open in the programs mentioned above, you might be misreading the file extension. If this happens, you'll end up trying to open a different file in a BDMV file opener, which most likely won't work.

For example, BMD (Mu online game data), MVB (multimedia viewer book source), DMB (BYOND game executable), BDB (Microsoft Works database backup), BDF (binary data), and MDB files all share common letters with the BDMV file extension, but they're in other formats that aren't related to the software mentioned above.