Shopping for a bd drive

[johnestan]

Hi, I'm looking into buying a blu-ray burner/writer. I'd like to have the ability to make copies and backups of my blu-ray collection. I also want it to be able to handle normal single layer blu-rays, BD DL, BD-RE, BD-RE DL discs. I have already bought DVDfab and I am very familier with it. I'd have a dell laptop running windows 7 and a desktop running windows xp. I rather have a external drive so I can use it with my laptop and desktop. I was looking at this. Would this handle all my requirements and is this a good deal? If not can you guys give me some other suggestions? I looking for something in the $100-$150 price range. Thanks.

[johns0]

I have that burner as an internal mounted one and it burns very reliable,haven't burned BD DL yet.Looks like a good deal for an external mounted burner.

[p_l]

I've had its internal 12x cousin for just about a year now, authored an burned some Blu-ray discs as well as DVDs and CDs, and I've been quite happy with my LG BH12LS35 Blu-ray burner.

Lucky Goldstar has come a long way.

[edDV]

I have the internal LG BH10LS30. Happy with it so far. Works great with the $1 Kodak branded BD-R's from Frys. No coasters yet and fast with DVDR.

I read elsewhere that users are having difficulty with DL BD-R discs and that LG plans no firmware updates. It is a 2 year old discontinued model. Just a warning. I haven't tried a dual layer Blu-Ray disc yet but it does OK with Verbatim dual layer DVDR.

[jman98]

Do understand that if you buy on Ebay you have no way at all to know if you buying used goods or not. It's your money, but that price is hardly enough of a savings that I would buy it that way over a place like NewEgg where I could do returns if there was an issue.

I've got an LG model that they don't make any more and it's OK. I also have a Pioneer and I don't remember that model either, but it seems to me to be a better drive than the LG by a little bit. I only have burned one BD-R DL disc and I burned it on the Pioneer drive and it was fine.

Do BD-RE DL discs exist? I'm not familiar with that. And they are not common but do be careful because the first 100 GB BD discs are starting to be sold. Please note that they are NOT compatible with burners unless those burners explicitly state that they can burn them.

[jamesj84]

Pioneer 206dk. I have just brought this and extremely happy with it. Its worked really good with dvdfab trial and anydvd.

I have not tried any others like LG or liteon but im happy. But this is not an external drive. Sorry i was quic reading your message.

Id go with the drive for your computer personally. Can always use a memory stick to watch on your lap top. Thats if thats what your trying to gain

[johnestan]

I've had its internal 12x cousin for just about a year now, authored an burned some Blu-ray discs as well as DVDs and CDs, and I've been quite happy with my LG BH12LS35 Blu-ray burner.

Lucky Goldstar has come a long way.

Thanks for all your feedback. I have also read about people having problems with dl discs, but no blu-ray drive in this price range has all good reviews on amazon. I was wondering if I were to spring for the newer LG BH12LS35 if that would fix the problem. Have you tried any DL discs? Also some of the reviews on amazon say it won't play Blu-rays it will just burn them. Is that true? I'm set on a having an external set up. So I'll need a reliable enclosure too. If any one has any suggestion please reply.

[p_l]

I haven't burned any DL Blu-rays, only single layer so far. Also, I haven't played any commercially pressed Blu-rays, only the ones I've made myself.

So for those points, I'll hand it over to anybody who has relevant experience.

[edDV]

Mine plays commercial Blu-Ray discs fine*. But for this to work, you need to install the included player (Cyberlink PowerDVD9 in my case) and have HDCP compatible display card and monitor/TV. In other words, all components in the chain to the monitor need to be HDCP compliant before the player software will allow HD playback from commercial Blu-Ray discs.

There is no problem playing self encoded AVCHD or Blu-Ray discs using any player (e.g. Windows Media Center, VLC or MPCHC).


* Single or Dual layer.

[jman98]

johnestan - You have to understand that some percentage of the people who submit reviews at Amazon are complete technological morons. ANY BluRay player is completely capable of playing a BluRay disc with the right software. Even if you don't have HDCP from the PC to the monitor the disc will still play with the right software installed. It may not be in full 1080p but it will play. If you check reviews at NewEgg you'll see fewer clueless morons there, but even they have some of them too.

Please understand that for an external enclosure it is absolutely critical that you get one with a power supply. You are asking for trouble if you try to run a burner in a non-self-powered enclosure.

[johnestan]

Ok. Thanks to everyone for helping me. I think I have a grasp on what I need now.