Blu-Ray writers and media

[hawkeye48]

I dare say this has been asked before but i have had no luck finding what i want.

I am looking at buying a Blu-Ray writer. I have visited many sites, manuafacturers, retailers and they all extoll the virtues of the hardware they are selling or make.
I like the look of the LG writer as i have used these for DVD many times before.

What i would like from you guys is personal likes and dislikes on writers.

Also Blu-Ray media, there seems to be a fair amount out there now. Is this media like the early DVD media in that it is picky as to what writer is used by certain media, i remember buying a tub of 50DVD's only to find they did not work with the writer i had (a pioneer). Is it fair to say that Blu-Ray writing is still a bit young.

I have heard there are 100 even 200 gig Blu-ray in the pipeline.

Any comments, or advice will be much appriciated, cheers

Most of my burning will be backups though i do have an HD camcorder.

[taxman]

I've had a LG burner for a couple of years now, and had virtually no issues with different media. The only problem was that after about a year of being rewritten my rewritable disks became unusable.

The bigger issue is if it will play in your player. Some of the earlier cheap players didn't like all my disks. No issues with my Oppo or Sony 350 though.

That being said with the new media players, and large USB drives, I don't find myself burning much these days and if my media player was connected by ethernet rather than wireless I would just use a media centre for everything rather than burning or using flash drives to play things back.

[bbanderic]

I've had a LG burner for a couple of years now, and had virtually no issues with different media. The only problem was that after about a year of being rewritten my rewritable disks became unusable.

The bigger issue is if it will play in your player. Some of the earlier cheap players didn't like all my disks. No issues with my Oppo or Sony 350 though.

That being said with the new media players, and large USB drives, I don't find myself burning much these days and if my media player was connected by ethernet rather than wireless I would just use a media centre for everything rather than burning or using flash drives to play things back.

True, media players are the future but I certainly wouldn't trust my precious data on hard drives alone, I have a copy of all of my stuff on DATA BD-R's as well.

I highly recommend the Pioneer BDR-205:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129051

For media, I'd go with the Verbatim's:

http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=96769

The combo of the Pioneer drive and Verbatim have worked flawlessly for me.

[hawkeye48]

Cheers guys this is just whay i was looking for.

taxman, like bbanderic i dont trust hard drives. Had an external 600gig some years back it was two 300gigs coupled, when it went wrong i lost the lot. The drives had hardware that made it appear as one drive so when i took the drives out, the good one just showed space being used as one big file that only the drive hardware understood.

bbanderic, off to look at your leads right now

[redwudz]

I also use a Pioneer, 203 model, though I don't burn BDs very often. I also use Verbatim BDs. No problems with the writer or the media. There are DL BD discs with 50GB of storage, but too expensive for me. I think that BD media is close to being maxed out for capacity, so at least in it's present form, not likely to see much higher densities.

The hard drive setup you have sounds like RAID 0. Fast, but if one drive dies, you lose everything. Data is striped across both drives, so neither drive has the whole file. Unless you are working with uncompressed HD video, you don't need the headaches of a RAID setup. Just more to go wrong, IMO.

[dannyboy48888]

I have 2 LG burners, one with hd-dvd read support (2 years old) and one with regular BLU-ray support (one year old) both drives burn perfectly fine media, just the HD-DVD model nags sometimes in windows and refuses to read a disc if I have anyDVD enabled. Would still reccomend any current LG drive

[dbanimal]

I have 2 LG burners, one with hd-dvd read support (2 years old) and one with regular BLU-ray support (one year old) both drives burn perfectly fine media, just the HD-DVD model nags sometimes in windows and refuses to read a disc if I have anyDVD enabled. Would still reccomend any current LG drive

What is the model of your Blu Ray writer? I'm currently in the market and have been eyeing up the LG WH10LS30 with Ritek media. Any thoughts?

[[_chef_]]

I have heard there are 100 even 200 gig Blu-ray in the pipeline.

Any comments, or advice will be much appriciated, cheers

Most of my burning will be backups though i do have an HD camcorder.

Now available, BUT only in japan, and only for pros.
Very expensive too, and that will not change because its no mainstream stuff.

[84lion]

Hello, hope someone can provide some help. I recently purchased an LG WH10LS30, which I have hooked up my laptop via a SATA USB adapter. The unit is recognized by the computer. Using IMGBURN, I can write to DVD+R and DVD+R DL no trouble. However, when I try to burn to a blu-ray disc I get the following:

I 11:50:03 Writing LeadIn...
W 11:50:30 Failed to Write Sectors 0 - 31 - Reason: No Additional Sense Information
W 11:50:30 Retrying (1 of 20)...
W 11:50:30 Retry Failed - Reason: Invalid Address For Write
W 11:50:30 Potential Bogus Driver Error Detected!

and then it just keeps trying to rewrite the lead-in to no avail. The media is

I 11:49:42 Destination Media Type: BD-R (Disc ID: PHILIP-R04-00) (Speeds: 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x)

purchased at Micro Center as Windata.

I don't understand the driver error message given that the unit burns DVD media just fine. Wouldn't the driver error affect DVD burning as well as blu-ray burning?

Thanks!

[[_chef_]]

Scrap that adaptor!!

[84lion]

Scrap that adaptor!!

I'd love to but I can't. I only have a laptop.

What I don't understand is why the adaptor would be the problem. The burner is getting power just like it would in a computer or an external enclosure. The SATA to USB interface is same as if the unit were installed in an external enclosure.

And if the adaptor is the problem, why is the unit happily burning DVD and DVD DL media?

[95teetee]

[QUOTE=bbanderic;2001824]

I highly recommend the Pioneer BDR-205:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129051

For media, I'd go with the Verbatim's:

http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=96769

The combo of the Pioneer drive and Verbatim have worked flawlessly for me.

my exact same combination, also have had no problems whatsoever (including with bd-r movie compatability)

[ricoman]

[QUOTE=95teetee;2029373]

I highly recommend the Pioneer BDR-205:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129051

For media, I'd go with the Verbatim's:

http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=96769

The combo of the Pioneer drive and Verbatim have worked flawlessly for me.

my exact same combination, also have had no problems whatsoever (including with bd-r movie compatability)

Ditto that. Great burner and every BD media I have tried with it, including Ritek, has worked fine. Having said that, only buy BD media that is made in Japan if possible, or at least a brand name like Verb, Sony, Panasonic etc. NO LTH DISCS!! These are notorious for not playing on different bluray players. I would not recommend Ritek, I have them because I bought some cheap, no name discs to try them out and of course they turned out to be Ritek.

[NICEBUD]

84lion
This is just a thought it could be a bad batch of disc`s or it might be that adapter your using.
Trying shove that amount data down usb/sata connection at high bd burning speeds MIGHT be to much
for that type of connection.(the usb data flow isn't wide/fast enough but the sata is MAYBE)

Try to lower the burning speed it MIGHT help.
Make sure you have the most up to date firmware for that burner.
Make sure your OS is up to date.
Make sure that the source hard drive is defraged if your using windows (sometimes bad fragmented drives can effect the burning process).
Also disconnect from the network/web.Then turn off any antivirus and any other programs you have running.Before you do any bd burning.
I know it can be done,because on one of our laptops, had a esata connection which gives full
hard drive speed data flow to external Esata caddy with a oem LG bd burner inside.
I've tried burning bd with a few usb caddy's but the results where very mixed,mostly
bad (burning errors mainly).I've never tried pre-made external bd burner always to greedy on price.

[Sephiroth666]

Strange. That Pioneer BDR-205 is deactivated at NewEgg. No new models listed either. I remember reading somewhere before that the Plextor ones are rebranded Pioneer, but the damn things are double the price of an LG. Hardly worth it.

[PuzZLeR]

Been buying LG burners the last 10-15 years as my PCs would need them, CD, DvD and I now have the BD burner from them.

I've had problems with several drives/burners, OEMs, DVR drives, externals, etc, but NEVER with an LG burner of any kind. Yes, I abuse drives alot (since they're only stupid machines) but LG still stands up to me time after time.

I recommend it. Don't let the low price fool you - it's quality. (The lower price likely may be due to a lower index in South Korea.)

All discs burned work on every BD player I tested them with both, Verbatim and TDK. Will look into Panasonic discs soon.

If you're using them for only backup, then you shouldn't really care about what BD player accepts what. Brand name of the disc to me is also immaterial if backing to more than one source.

[TBoneit]

Hello, hope someone can provide some help. I recently purchased an LG WH10LS30, which I have hooked up my laptop via a SATA USB adapter. The unit is recognized by the computer. Using IMGBURN, I can write to DVD+R and DVD+R DL no trouble. However, when I try to burn to a blu-ray disc I get the following:

I 11:50:03 Writing LeadIn...
W 11:50:30 Failed to Write Sectors 0 - 31 - Reason: No Additional Sense Information
W 11:50:30 Retrying (1 of 20)...
W 11:50:30 Retry Failed - Reason: Invalid Address For Write
W 11:50:30 Potential Bogus Driver Error Detected!

and then it just keeps trying to rewrite the lead-in to no avail. The media is

I 11:49:42 Destination Media Type: BD-R (Disc ID: PHILIP-R04-00) (Speeds: 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x)

purchased at Micro Center as Windata.

I don't understand the driver error message given that the unit burns DVD media just fine. Wouldn't the driver error affect DVD burning as well as blu-ray burning?

Thanks!

I have the same drive and it doesn't like those Philips discs. It does work fine with the Verbatim non LTH discs. Newegg sells the same Philips discs as a different brand so beware. Many reports of Ritek BD-R discs losing data over time.. So I tried the cheap discs, no good. Bought the Verbatims when they were on sale with a limit of Five 10 packs after working my way through the original 10 Pack of Verbatims I bought with the drive. So far no problems at all. As far as I know there are no firmware updates for that LG drive. However installing one of the programs off of the software disc it checks for and downloads any updates automatic for you.

[[_chef_]]

Strange. That Pioneer BDR-205 is deactivated at NewEgg. No new models listed either. I remember reading somewhere before that the Plextor ones are rebranded Pioneer, but the damn things are double the price of an LG. Hardly worth it.

The 206 is out soon, with BDXL write support.........

[[_chef_]]

Probably no official download available as of yet.

http://www.lgsolutions.com/products/digital-storage/optical-disc-drives/blu-ray-drives...-and-downloads

[PuzZLeR]

Nice that they're out soon, but I'd rather wait.

Likely the first XL burner models will be slow, problematic, have compatibility problems and definitely be overpriced in the initial market skimming.

There is also currently no media available till March and it will be ~$90/disc and blu-ray players do not play them currently, and won't for a while if it's for BD video you wish them for, and the BD specs could even change as well in this transition.

If you want them for storage, well, an external 2TB today will be 15X-20X cheaper/GB than these things that are not even ready for prime time.

By the time LG announces theirs, I'd say in a few short months, the market will be much better for purchasing one under "normal conditions". Today, it's the domain of the professionals (testing, pilot projects,etc), enthusiasts, the overzealous and the Christmas crunch.

It's not the money, or that I don't want one. It's just impractical for conventional stuff today.

[[_chef_]]

The BDXL media is already available and around €40 per piece.........

[Seeker47]

Been buying LG burners the last 10-15 years as my PCs would need them, CD, DvD and I now have the BD burner from them.

I've had problems with several drives/burners, OEMs, DVR drives, externals, etc, but NEVER with an LG burner of any kind. Yes, I abuse drives alot (since they're only stupid machines) but LG still stands up to me time after time.

I recommend it. Don't let the low price fool you - it's quality. (The lower price likely may be due to a lower index in South Korea.)

All discs burned work on every BD player I tested them with both, Verbatim and TDK. Will look into Panasonic discs soon.

If you're using them for only backup, then you shouldn't really care about what BD player accepts what. Brand name of the disc to me is also immaterial if backing to more than one source.

I had thought of buying this

http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/ads/2010/05/14/47955/Samsung-SH-B083L-Internal-8x-BD-Combo-Drive

last May, but they were immediately out-of-stock, and did not re-stock by the time my 1-month rain check expired . . . or any time I went there since. Just a big empty section on the shelf. (And this at probably the best, newest, most upscale Fry's I've ever been to.) No disaster, as I'm still a good ways from being ready to build the PC that this would be going into, and it turns out that there were too high a percentage of negative reviews from owners.

The Pioneer BDR-205 was discontinued, as mentioned above.

So, I'm still looking for a good unit at a decent price. Asus, Plextor, Lite-On and Pioneer are probably no longer made by any of those companies, but by some other commodity-type mfr. (Pioneer is barely around anymore, right ?) I'd be curious to hear what LordSmurf has to say on this subject, as he tends to be critical. He wasn't a real fan of Lite-On products, if I recall correctly, or maybe LG either.

[budz]

Pioneer still manufactures their own Bluray drives.....Plextor, Asus use OEM rebadged drives....

[Seeker47]

Pioneer still manufactures their own Bluray drives.....Plextor, Asus use OEM rebadged drives....

I'd heard they (Pioneer) had retreated to just car audio gear.

O.K., then . . . are their Blu-ray burners any good ?

[budz]

Pioneer blu ray burners are the best at the moment.....just check out myce.com which is formerly CDFreaks.com.

[Sephiroth666]

Those LG burners are like $80 right now. Kind of temping, but I might go the $130 for a Pioneer. I haven't decided yet.

[MJA]

Those LG burners are like $80 right now. Kind of temping, but I might go the $130 for a Pioneer. I haven't decided yet.

The LG from newegg comes with 3D glasses and software for $79

[Sephiroth666]

Those LG burners are like $80 right now. Kind of temping, but I might go the $130 for a Pioneer. I haven't decided yet.

The LG from newegg comes with 3D glasses and software for $79

I could care less about 3D. I just want a good burner. My first order of business is to import that Judge Dredd BD from Germany and make myself a backup with no goddamn region lock.

[[_chef_]]

Why that?
Is it a special version only available here?

Creepy flick industry................

[Sephiroth666]

Why that?
Is it a special version only available here?

Creepy flick industry................

It's currently the only BD release in the world, and the SD-DVD was that horrible matted shit. I must have anamorphic.