Is using a Bluray drive better than a regular DVD drive?

[imfallen_angel]

I've searched a bit and can't find any answer.

I'm having a bit of trouble with some disks that I'm transferring to a HDD to use with my Media Center, and I'm wondering if a Bluray drive would be better due to the more powerful laser, etc. at being able to read disks that may have scratches that I have trouble removing, or the beginning of disk rot.

[lowellriggsiam]

I haven't noticed a difference in transfer speed, an eide to sata could make a difference. Maybe one should ask what "trouble" you are having and what method you are using.

[redwudz]

I doubt you would see any reading improvement from a BD drive compared to a DVD drive. Unless you plan on ripping BD discs, just a waste of money, IMO.

There seem to be a few DVD drives that do better for reading scratched discs. Others can probably mention their favorites.

And welcome to our forums.

[lordsmurf]

No.

[cal_tony]

I thought so when I first installed my BD reader. It seemed to read DVDs easier and faster. BD is a Liteon. DVD drive is a Plextor 800A. However, for me it would now be more accurate to say that they read differently. Some disks work better on one than the other. I notice the differences when there is an error because of a scratched disk. One will bog down at the scratch the other will just slightly slow down. In those cases I'll use DVD Decrypter in file mode and run just the problem file in both. Could just be differences between brands as neither is the clear winner.

Tonjy

[imfallen_angel]

Thanks guys,

I know that from one drive to another there is a difference as I have an HP and an LG on my machine now and find that some disk will work on on but not the other.

I've had some disks that just didn't work on neither on my drive and ended up getting it to rip on my wife's machine.

I figured that it has to do with the laser/sensor/assembly and such that makes some drives more forgiving than others.

I was thinking that a blueray laser which is more precise/powerful and a different wavelength might be able to read disks easier than the regular lasers of DVD drives.

As far as scratches, I'll go see what's mention, but I'm still "perfecting" the art and might open a few thread and see what people have as tricks goes compared to what I've been trying.

[RLT69]

I was thinking that a blueray laser which is more precise/powerful and a different wavelength might be able to read disks easier than the regular lasers of DVD drives.

Seriously? Is this what people are thinking?

"The name Blu-ray Disc derives from the blue-violet laser used to read the disc. While a standard DVD uses a 650 nanometer red laser, Blu-ray uses a shorter wavelength, a 405 nm blue-violet laser, and allows for almost ten times more data storage than a DVD."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc

[Noahtuck]

I was thinking that a blueray laser which is more precise/powerful and a different wavelength might be able to read disks easier than the regular lasers of DVD drives.

Seriously? Is this what people are thinking?

I was thinking this earlier when he first posted...

I'm wondering if a Bluray drive would be better due to the more powerful laser,

But i thought maybe he was mistyping or i was misunderstanding...
Seeing as one has nothing to do with the other

[Constant Gardener]

I have a Blu-Ray reader/DVD burner combo (Samsung SH-B083L) which claims to have more precise tracking than plain DVD due to the smaller Blu-Ray track. Whether this makes any difference when reading damaged DVDs remains to be discovered. So far, it has read everything I've tried, including some beat-up public-library DVDs, which is encouraging.

It also works very nicely extracting from Blu-Ray with free tools.

[redwudz]

AFAIK, a BD drive uses a conventional red laser for DVD reading and the 'blue' one for BDs. So I doubt the laser has much to do with being able to read a DVD any better. And laser output power doesn't have much to do with reading, just burning and burning speed.

[imfallen_angel]

AFAIK, a BD drive uses a conventional red laser for DVD reading and the 'blue' one for BDs. So I doubt the laser has much to do with being able to read a DVD any better. And laser output power doesn't have much to do with reading, just burning and burning speed.

I wasn't sure as I haven't looked into how blueray drives are built, but I heard that before.

My question related that as the blueray is "newer" technology, a BR drive might have a slight advantage over regular DVD drives. Be it the laser, the reader, just the hardware overall as it does more info processing with the BR, it might overlap onto the DVD capacity.

I'm sorry if my question offended anyone, but doing an online search didn't provide any answers and I figured this would be the place to ask as the only other alternative would be to buy one to test this out...

I figured that in here, some people would have a BR drive and be able to say if they see an improvement with difficult disks.

[orsetto]

You never know with these things. On the one hand, BD being the newer drive might have more mfr attention lavished on it, so its DVD/CD reading/writing might be better than an ordinary DVD drive: not because of the laser, which would be the same red laser, but because the drive itself might be more precise overall since it also handles the more exacting BD media and "blue" laser.

OTOH, as we've seen with many electronics lately, newer isn't always better. Todays DVD drives are often terrible at handling "obsolete" CD, and the BD consortium is not only disinterested in supporting legacy DVD but downright hostile. When BD drives were $500, perhaps they had some extra niceties for DVD, but to meet todays downward price pressure I imagine the first thing they dumped was anything beyond bare-bones DVD capability. I'd suggest browsing various forums for the topics "best DVD reader" and "best DVD burner", this changes every few months from mfr to mfr and model to model. DVD drives are so cheap now you can afford to buy one thats known for great reading ability and another optimized for burning. Or look for a good compromise model: last time I checked people here were recommending Samsung.

[budz]

Best dvd reader for me has been the PIONEER drives such as 111, 112, 115, 116, 212, 215, 216 and BENQ 1620, 1640, 1650 & 1655 and any LITEON drive cause they rip at faster speeds when using hacked firmware. MEDIA CODE SPEED EDIT is a good tool to use for hacked firmware.

For scratched discs I use my old PLEXTOR 708A dvd burner & the LG H62L that I have is sometimes able to rip a disc when all the other dvd burners I have can't. I'll whip out the PLEXTOR 708A using a ide/usb converter when there's a disc that has scratches. IMHO the LG drive is able to read well at times because the read speed is riplocked thus it reads slow. Dunno why they continue to do that. It's okay since there's hacked firmware to use to unlock it.

I have a LG BD-ROM which is ok for now as I haven't had any problems with it so far in ripping. I don't think it's fair to say a BLU-Ray drive is better at ripping discs. I haven't really kept up with the latest dvd burners in a long time since I became a dvd burner whore!

IMHO I don't think it's fair to say BLU-RAY drives read better than a dvd burner. For me I haven't experienced one over the other being better.

I'm ordering the SONY OPTIARC drive along with some other hardware next week.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118030
Supposedly that's the best dvd burner out at the moment which does well with dual layer media.

If you want a good reader get a LITEON or SAMSUNG or even a PIONEER. PIONEER no longer has their read speeds riplocked. Just my 2 cents!

[emsdallas]

Just a couple stupid questions; I've totally ignored BluRay.

Can a BluRay burner/player playback regular DVD's, both DVD5 and DVD9?

Is BluRay going to be a 'keeper' or eventually join products like BetaMax?

TIA

[Constant Gardener]

Can a BluRay burner/player playback regular DVD's, both DVD5 and DVD9?

Is BluRay going to be a 'keeper' or eventually join products like BetaMax?

Yes - my combo drive plays Blu-Ray and reads and writes DVD5, DVD9, and CD.

Jury is still out on the future of Blu-Ray. Toss a coin - would be more meaningful than my opinion...