Recommended external Blu-ray drive?

[Jeikobu]

I recently got some Blu-rays where, long story short, I noticed how the playback speed is actually a little bit sped up, and it’s pretty noticeable in the pitch of the audio and in the general procession of the events in the videos. My only way to watch Blu-rays is on my PlayStation 4, so I only have the ability to speed up the video on it. So if I want to watch these at their proper speed, I would need to use VLC on my computer to slow the speed down a little bit. But I don’t have a Blu-ray player for my Mac. So, I’m looking into the prospect of buying an external Blu-ray drive. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy. I would like to find something as cheap as possible and yet as reliable as possible (though I realize of course you often get what you pay for, so I may need to settle on some kind of middleground). So with all that in mind, does anyone have any recommendations for a cheap yet reliable external Blu-ray drive that works on a Mac? Thanks in advance.

[usually_quiet]

https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Electronics-External-BDR-XD05S-Silver/dp/B00OLZCD5K

This will also work with a Mac. No, it is not cheap. Cheap external Blu-ray drives tend to be less durable.

https://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-External-Playback-BE16NU50/dp/B01IP8IBPE

If VLC doesn't work for you, you could try Leawo Blu-ray Player.

[Jeikobu]

https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Electronics-External-BDR-XD05S-Silver/dp/B00OLZCD5K

This will also work with a Mac. No, it is not cheap. Cheap external Blu-ray drives tend to be less durable.

https://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-External-Playback-BE16NU50/dp/B01IP8IBPE

If VLC doesn't work for you, you could try Leawo Blu-ray Player.

Thanks for the advice. You’re right, those aren’t cheap. When you say “less durable”, do you mean they can get damaged if not handled gently or if they get dropped or something, or do you mean that they tend to wear out fast?

[usually_quiet]

Thanks for the advice. You’re right, those aren’t cheap. When you say “less durable”, do you mean they can get damaged if not handled gently or if they get dropped or something, or do you mean that they tend to wear out fast?

I mean the less expensive slim drives tend to wear out faster than full-height drives. Both types of portable drives are likely to suffer fatal damage if dropped.

[lordsmurf]

I don't see anything expensive with an external BD-R drive for around $100.
External DVD burners were about 2x costs as well.

Nothing good from slim drives. They're flimsy, wear out easily, and rarely work that great even when new.

[Leo2u]

Hi all! Need advice searching for external bluray drive as a gift. But I'm nothing understanding in this topic. Can u help me?
When I searching at Googe, it shows me that popular models are: Pioneer BDR-XS06, LG BP50NB40, Asus BW-16D1X-U and Archgon MD-3102S-U3 ( info from bestadvisor, link)
So can someone tell me which variant is better?
I'm not limited by money, but I don’t want to overpay
If someone knows please tell

[usually_quiet]

Hi all! Need advice searching for external bluray drive as a gift. But I'm nothing understanding in this topic. Can u help me?
When I searching at Googe, it shows me that popular models are: Pioneer BDR-XS06, LG BP50NB40, Asus BW-16D1X-U and Archgon MD-3102S-U3 ( info from bestadvisor, link)
So can someone tell me which variant is better?
I'm not limited by money, but I don’t want to overpay
If someone knows please tell

Those who replied to this thread are of the opinion that full-height drives are a better choice. It should be easy to see that 3 of the 4 drives on your list are slim drives and one is a full-height drive.

Note external USB Blu-ray drives are better for reading discs and that any external USB Blu-ray drive whether full-height or slim could have issues with writing/burning discs when connected to some computers. This problem is related to the differences between how a USB connection works (the connection to the computer) as opposed to how a SATA connection (the internal connection for the Blu-ray drive) works.

[babygdav]

Nowadays, for casual users who aren't ripping 1,000s of discs, thin laptop drives will be as reliable as desktop drives in that you can elect to get years and years of use before they fail.

E.g. My bdr-xd04 from 2012 still does dozens a year without any problem.

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https://deuhd.ru/supported.html
If you later decide to work with 4k uhd bluray discs, you'll need a compatible bluray drive.

Otherwise, anything on sale.

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http://yss.la.coocan.jp/
If you ever burn blurays, the pioneer desktop drives with the made in Japan Panasonic discs have among the lowest error rates of written discs.
If you never write discs, buy whatever's on sale.

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https://www.microcenter.com/product/485067/lg-wh16ns40-16x-internal-blu-ray-rewriter
E.g. $65 lg + 5.25" case

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Desktop sized 5.25" drives rip and burn faster than laptop sized thin drives.