cheapest BD drive

[-Sandro-]

what's the cheapest blu-ray writer and/or player for PC right now on the market? When are prices gonna drop to DVD drives?

[ocgw]

Here is 1 for $75USD

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106294

ocgw

peace

[jagabo]

That drive can't write to BD media, only read it. Try these if you want to write to BD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&SubCategory=600&N=2010100600...TabStoreType=1

[-Sandro-]

still over $150

[blizno]

I bought that Lite-on BD-ROM (read-only) almost a year ago. I got it for US$80-shipped from Newegg on a shell shocker deal. I expected prices to have fallen long ago.
I don't understand why prices have been stagnant so long, unless demand for BD drives is still low.

[-Sandro-]

maybe because the war is over and they don't have any competitors

[yoda313]

still over $150

Don't forget its not just hardware costs you need to factor in. Bluray recordable discs are still pretty expensive. I don't know what the current prices are for bd-re and similar types cost but are considerably more than dvdr obviously.

Fyi if you are looking solely for a player you might consider a settop model. IF you don't need bd live you can find great deals on models they are trying to closeout - many under 200.00 I believe.

[-Sandro-]

I'd like to buy directly a burner, but the prices are too high. IMHO also the simple players for PC are too high, they don't seem to drop

[zoobie]

they used to be $300-400, didn't they?
the industry keeps the prices high with sales few and far between
this way come christmas, that $99 down from $150 looks good
then up they go again

JMO

[RabidDog]

There doesn't seem much innovation in the models tho .. PC BD readers were at 4x reading speed 12-18 months ago and even now they have barely crept up to 8x with very little choice in the market...

[funnel71]

I bought a pioneer blu-ray burner for $209 from newegg. If it's anything like their line of DVD burners, I got a good deal

[ocgw]

There doesn't seem much innovation in the models tho .. PC BD readers were at 4x reading speed 12-18 months ago and even now they have barely crept up to 8x with very little choice in the market...

Blu Ray and DVD are quite different in their speed specification, 8x BD may more "rpm" than 16x DVD, & Blu Ray will never hit 18x or 20x like DVD, if I remember what I read correctly,

I will see if i can find the article I read

edit: here it goes

http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/

1.7 How fast can you read/write data on a Blu-ray disc?

According to the Blu-ray Disc specification, 1x speed is defined as 36Mbps. However, as BD-ROM movies will require a 54Mbps data transfer rate the minimum speed we're expecting to see is 2x (72Mbps). Blu-ray also has the potential for much higher speeds, as a result of the larger numerical aperture (NA) adopted by Blu-ray Disc. The large NA value effectively means that Blu-ray will require less recording power and lower disc rotation speed than DVD and HD-DVD to achieve the same data transfer rate. While the media itself limited the recording speed in the past, the only limiting factor for Blu-ray is the capacity of the hardware. If we assume a maximum disc rotation speed of 10,000 RPM, then 12x at the outer diameter should be possible (about 400Mbps). This is why the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) already has plans to raise the speed to 8x (288Mbps) or more in the future.

yep, blu ray is almost @ the physical limit already

ocgw

peace

[funnel71]

Well if I just go by that paragraph there, they can spin a HD at 15K, so why not a BD reader?

[jagabo]

Well if I just go by that paragraph there, they can spin a HD at 15K, so why not a BD reader?

Hard drives platters aren't made of polycarbonate plastic, their diameter is smaller than a CD/DVD/BD, and they are permanently mounted within the drive casing.

[redwudz]

Yep, a HDD disc is made of aluminum and coated with a magnetic material to very precise specifications. It's also in a somewhat sealed environment and there is no dust or other crud in there to cause problems. A HDD drive head rides on a cushion of air to maintain a very tight clearance with the discs. A human hair on the disc would destroy the drive head.

On the other hand, DVD/CD/Blu-ray discs are plastic and can function with some dirt or dust. The mechanism that steers the laser can make adjustments 'on the fly' for slightly warped discs and other problems. The read/write system is self correcting. The higher density of Blu-ray discs make it fairly difficult to raise the read/write speed very much. But the data throughput of a Blu-ray is many times greater than a DVD or CD.

But....Getting back to the OPs original question, I find the Sony BD ROM drives work fairly well and they were the cheapest, so I have one. I bought a faster reading LG BD ROM drive and it still reads at the same speed as the Sony, only it cost more. I have a Pioneer BD burner now, but I haven't checked how well it reads a BD disc. I'm still going to use the Sony or LG drive for that.

[ocgw]

Well if I just go by that paragraph there, they can spin a HD at 15K, so why not a BD reader?

There is a little danger the faster you spin a DVD, when you get to 18x and 20x if there is a significant scratch on a DVD "centrifical force" can shatter the disc, I have had this happen to me on one occasion, it sounded like something exploded in my drive

ocgw

peace

[stiltman]

This was on MythBusters....They could never get a disc to shatter using a standard DVD/CD drive. It took a VERY high speed grinder cranked all the way up to explode a disc.

Edit:
That was undamaged disc under 30,000rpm
Who knows what will happen with a damaged dsic

[Nelson37]

I only know of one case of a disk exploding in the drive. It was a CD that was not obviously damaged. I did not see it happen, but I know very well the tech who did and he was not BS'ing. Said no real unusual noises until it made a loud bang. It was a 52x drive.

It may have had a hairline crack, or an invisible defect, or simply been one in a million.

[ocgw]

I only know of one case of a disk exploding in the drive. It was a CD that was not obviously damaged. I did not see it happen, but I know very well the tech who did and he was not BS'ing. Said no real unusual noises until it made a loud bang. It was a 52x drive.

It may have had a hairline crack, or an invisible defect, or simply been one in a million.

My disc that exploded was my BF2 SF CD disc 1

ocgw

peace

[lacywest]

Here is 1 for $75USD

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106294

ocgw

peace

Great ... it says ... deactivated

[zoobie]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106225

[DNomados]

Yeah at wal-mart is for $150