Has anyone tried using a Panasonic UJ-232A or UJ-242A in a MB/MBP unibody?

[dmblum]

Like many, I'm holding out that at some point I will find an internal Bluray drive for my Mac, despite Apple's refusal to endorse the medium. Has anyone looked into the Panasonic UJ-232-A or UJ-242A drives? These drives are apparently 9.5 mm thick and use SATA, which I understand have been the "gotcha" factors with other internal Bluray drives.

It's my understanding that neither of these drives are sold new. They are OEM drives for Lenovo notebooks. If the drive will physically fit into my Mac and connect, is there any reason that I couldn't use it?

Thanks for your advice,
David

[usually_quiet]

What do you plan to do for drivers? Without compatible device drivers, I don't think a BD drive would function.

[Edit]I almost forgot... Then there is a problem with software too. What will you use to play or burn discs? I think you would need to run some version of Windows to make use of a BD drive.

[dmblum]

Thanks Usually Quiet, I should have clarified.

Regarding software, a number of people on various blogs have been writing that VLC can play bluray movies on the Mac. I certainly haven't verified this, but VLC can play just about every format under the sun, so it sounds plausible a atleast. And even if I have to rip a movie first and then play it back from my HDD, that would be an imporivement over not having a bluray player at all. Regarding drivers, I've heard people with other Mac models, those which can support drives up to 12.7 mm thick, claim success using the Panasonic UJ-235A. I was hopeful that whatever drivers they are using would also work for the 232A/242A. I understand that this is a big question mark, but that's wy I posted, just hoping that someone had already tried it and could report back success or failure.

-David

[usually_quiet]

I suspect people using those drives in a Mac can only use them with Boot Camp and some version of Windows. In that case, they install the appropriate Windows drivers for their BD drive.

At present, no matter what OS you have, VLC can only play Blu-Ray rips (as unencrypted M2TS files), and not commercial discs. However, the only good Blu-Ray ripper software that I know about isn't available in a version for Macs, which makes sense, if you think about it.

[dmblum]

Makes sense, thanks.