Blue Ray burners for PCs Are they any good?

[bryankendall]

Hello everyone.

I am interested in the state of blue ray players / burners to install in my PC.

Are they relaible? Expensive? Should I wait for the next generation to come? Who makes the best one?

I want to get a SONY video camera to reord in hi definion then burn to a blue ray disk on my PC.

I would appreciate your opinions.

Thanks

[rcguy1]

If you want to pay$15/20 dollars for a blank disk and possibly create a coaster--- then no.

[wtsinnc]

Consider the expense of a burner. Newegg shows models ranging from $225.00 to over $400.00.

Consider the cost per 25gb blank (again Newegg) from $7.00 for a Ridata which is of questionable quality to over $27.00 each for Verbatim. Even in quantities, Verbatims are about $25.00 each- roughly one dollar per gigabyte of storage space. They also have a 50gb blank for about $38.00 per disc.

Consider the cost of burning software. What will you use to transfer the HD content to disc ?

I wonder how much definition you will lose by simply downloading the HD content to the hard drive, segmenting/editing the files so that they do not exceed 5 to 10 gb, burning to 4.7 gb or 8.5 gb dual-layer media, then upconverting the signal for viewing.

If you choose to go the Blue-Ray route, I recommend buying the rewritable discs (at least to start with) so that any failed burn or mistake on your part doesn't result in an unrecoverable monetary loss.

Finally, be sure that your computer has the horsepower to accomplish the task and- in my opinion- you should consider adding another hard drive dedicated solely for the video storage and processing.

[yoda313]

Yes I agree with wtsinnc to check on your computer power for high def video.

If your computer profile is up to date and the pentium 4 you have listed is a single core processor you may seriously want to consider upgrading. Plus a 1gig of ram may not be sufficient - consider 2gb at least.

The recommendation for an extra dedicated harddrive for video is also wise.

Depending on your budgetary constraints you may want to sit out the bluray recording phase for now. Prices will continue to drop and probably not too far off in the future it will become much more economical.

Edit - also your computer needs a hdcp compatible video card and monitor to view commercial bluray movies. Home movies should not be effected but if this will be your only bluray playback device for awhile you may want to go into prerecorded hollywood movies.