Need Help Connecting My Blu-ray Player

It sounds like you're trying to use the Blu-ray player like a peripheral for your computer, which is not typical. Generally, you want to connect it directly to a television or receiver. Since you have HDMI, try connecting that to the HDMI input on your TV—the picture and sound should come through that way without any extra hassle.

Just to clarify, Blu-ray players aren't exactly vintage yet—more retro, maybe? But anyway, most of them require a connection to a TV rather than just a monitor, especially since some older monitors may not support the Blu-ray technology. The USB port on the player is more for media playback and won't connect to a computer.

You might want to consider that some monitors don't support the HDCP encryption used by Blu-ray players, which could be why you're not seeing anything when you try to connect. If you're using a monitor instead of a TV, you might want to switch to a TV for setting it up instead.

If you're using a standalone Blu-ray player, you really just need to hook up the HDMI output to a TV. That's basically the entire setup. The Ethernet port is typically for firmware updates or apps like Netflix that some models offer. As for USB, that might allow for playback of photos or videos from a camera, but it won't connect to a PC.