Brian Thomas Posted August 22, 2014 Posted August 22, 2014 I hope this is the right place to post this question. I have a few external DVD drives and I cycle through them using ImgBurn. I'd like to add an EXTERNAL Blu-Ray drive to my array of drives and I was wondering if anybody had any particular advice about which model would be worthwhile looking at or NOT looking at. Specifically: - it shouldn't be one of those slim drives where one has to push the optical media back in to get the 'Verify' phase going - it should be able to make DVDs or Blu-Rays - either USB2 or Firewire 800 (not USB3) Thanks in advance for any help. Brian.
LIGHTNING UK! Posted August 23, 2014 Posted August 23, 2014 If you aren't going the 'slim' route, get an enclosure and put your own choice of BD drive in it. I'd go for a Pioneer.
Brian Thomas Posted August 23, 2014 Author Posted August 23, 2014 Many thanks for the reply. Here in Switzerland the Pioneer BDR-209DBK seems to be the most readily available and I have written to one distributor to see if they can help me with the enclosure you mention. Thanks again!
dbminter Posted August 23, 2014 Posted August 23, 2014 Why don't you want USB 3? USB 3 should still work on a USB 2 port, just at a slower speed. My external HDD is USB 3 but I've got it running on a USB 2 port.
Brian Thomas Posted August 23, 2014 Author Posted August 23, 2014 Whoops, it's not that I don't want USB3 - I have, for example, a number of HDDs that I connect using USB3 and sometimes USB2 depending on what plugs are available with everything else going on. It's just that the iMac that I usually have my nine LG DVD burners attached to and on which I have Imgburn running (under Windows 7 which is running under VMWare Fusion) only has USB2 and Firewire 800 so I didn't want to risk any confusion. Anyway, right now I'm thinking about a Pioneer BDR-209EBK (or a BDR-S09XLT - I wonder what's the difference between them?) with a suitable enclosure which could be one of these: http://www.raidsonic.de/en/products/external-cases.php?we_objectID=8165 I'm doing more research but of course if anybody here has any other specific recommendations I'd really love to hear them.
dbminter Posted August 23, 2014 Posted August 23, 2014 I have a Pioneer BDR-209M that I've been using since January without any big issues. My next BD drive will also be a Pioneer if I can find one. I had an LG but I can't recommend it because of my experience with Ritek 8x DVD+RW. The LG I had writes to them a few times but once they're written to once, they will die shortly afterwards, even if you try writing them in another drive afterwards. I don't know if this LG HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_WH14NS40 Firmware 1.03 drive just doesn't like rewritables in general or just DVD+RW or just Riteks.
Brian Thomas Posted August 23, 2014 Author Posted August 23, 2014 Ah, this is all good to know. My LGs have been pretty good with the DVD-Rs that I sell onto my contacts but your experience confirms that it might well be a good idea to look at the Pioneer range now for the occasional Blu-Ray that I'll be asked to supply. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
dbminter Posted August 23, 2014 Posted August 23, 2014 Yeah, my LG was good for everything else except for those Ritek 8x DVD+RW's. Also, if you come across any old Lite-On BD drives, I say stay away. I had one and only one. It stopped writing to BD-RE after 3 months. It didn't write dual layer DVD Video correctly, randomly inserting pauses into the playback that weren't layer breaks. Out of 3 DVD Video DVD+R DL I wrote, only 1 did not have such an issue. It shouldn't be an issue anymore as Lite-On no longer makes BD drives, I don't think. But, if you come across an old one, as I said, I don't recommend it.
Brian Thomas Posted August 23, 2014 Author Posted August 23, 2014 Right, that's all good to know, thanks! I hope to order the new equipment in a couple of days and in due course I'll be back with all sorts of questions about Blu-ray ;-)
dbminter Posted August 23, 2014 Posted August 23, 2014 I've only got about 2 years experience with Blu-Rays. For instance, I know far more about how DVD Video works versus how Blu-Ray's video folder contents work. But, I'll, of course, offer whatever I can. The good news is that any other data contents should be the same as on DVD or CD. Same UDF, etc formats.
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