$25 blu-ray drive for pc. It only reads discs. Doesn't burn anything but for the price you can't complain. Does not come with software to play movies so don't expect it. Good deal for a htpc if you have software to play movies.
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I saw a deal like this a few months ago, and while it's appealing, the cost to buy BR-reading software is prohibitive. I mean, if you can get reading software for $50, it'd be a wash, since you can get very decent BR set-top players for $75 on sale.
Just saying, these can be deceptive deals sometimes.
http://vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name/ Theres always alternatives to paying for expensive software. Gotta love VLC.
** Did a little reading as I was curious now too. Seems the above link is hit or miss if it'll work 100% or not.
Would love to try this, but the directions are terrible.
1. download a file
2. put it in the right folder
3. ?????
4. decrypt blu-rays
If you want a burner, it looks like Newegg has got an Asus one for $39.99 after a $20 MIR. Seems like a pretty good deal.
http://vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name/ Theres always alternatives to paying for expensive software. Gotta love VLC.
** Did a little reading as I was curious now too. Seems the above link is hit or miss if it'll work 100% or not.
I couldn't get the menu work correctly with this plugin, and still have some issue with finding the right video files. I have to manually choose the right track to make it play just the video.
Bluray drives in PCs just don't work well in my experiences.
I bought one a while back (3 years maybe?) to put in my computer, thinking I'd use it as a player in the computer room. Installed the generic PowerDVD it came with, update after update after update, each update would mess stuff up, new discs would play, older ones wouldn't, etc. Bought Arcsoft TMT5 for $60, locked up about 7/10 times trying to use it for the year or so I tried using it.
Gave up and took my standalone bluray player out of the extra family room to put in the living room. Wasn't worth the headaches.
So, PowerDVD is $70 for the cheapest option that plays BluRays.
$70+$25drive= $95. I mean, sure, you can rip the BluRays if you go with a drive like this, but for the price, I'm not sure it's worth it over a set-top player.(links above)
Cool story, bro.I picked one up so I can take the blu-ray burner out of my htpc and put it in my main pc and use this for my htpc since I never burn blu-rays in my htpc and its the only pc I have with a blu-ray drive.
$54.99/$4.99 shipping w/o Shoprunner/Free shipping Shoprunner, BD-ROM "combo" drive, reads Blu-Ray, can burn DVD's: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136253
Comes with PowerDVD v10 I believe for Blu-Ray playback, works on Win7 fine. Probably cheapest option on Newegg that comes with legal playback software.
Like I said before, you can get a Blu-ray burner for about the same price, plus a $20 MIR.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135252
Doesn't come with PowerDVD probably, but still seems like a better deal.
Actually, the listing says it comes with Power2Go, so it should include the software to play BRs.
That's the best deal on this page.
Wish software was included so I can watch Blu-ray movies on my machine.
When I purchased this drive from Newegg, somehow I thought that it would include the necessary software for the drive to actually work. Unfortunately I was wrong and the drive did not ship with any software able to actually play blu ray discs. Free software such as DAPlayer was unreliable on the drive, so if you actually want to play blu rays on this blu ray drive you have to spend an additional $50-$100 for third party software. I contacted Asus and they had me convinced they would resolve the issue but instead sent me a useless cd of software that still did not include a blu ray player. Overall very disappointing experience. Asus customer service is very ineffective and completely unhelpful.
Works as intended, burns without problem
Plays bluray (with capable software, not out of box) and DVD
Very quiet
Does not come with playback software that should be purchased separately
Manufacturer Response:
Dear Anonymous,
I'm sorry that this optical drive did not come with a Blu-ray player. Please try this link from CNET to obtain a free Blu-Ray codec so that youll be able to playback Blu-Ray discs on your computer: http://download.cnet.com/K-Lite-Codec-Pack-Full/3000-13632_4-64246.html?tag=mncol;2
Also, before you download and install or make changes to your system, please backup all your files and documents. For comparison of K-Lite codec, please visit: http://codecguide.com/klcp_ability_comparison.htm
Another alternative codec packs: http://download.cnet.com/Media-Player-Codec-Pack/3000-13632_4-10749065.html?tag=mncol;2
http://download.cnet.com/Media-Player-Codec-Pack-Plus/3000-13632_4-75683928.html?tag=mncol;7
If youd like to respond and discuss this further, please contact me at [email protected] and include ref#1072-5573 in the subject line.
Sincerely,
Celeste
ASUS Customer Loyalty
I went through this last week with a customer who wanted a gaming machine/Blu-Ray player machine with Win7. The link I posted was the lowest price that included actual software for playing Blu-Ray.
As for the item you listed, read some of the comments:
Looks like that's regular price now. Hows lite on QC these days?
I saw a deal like this a few months ago, and while it's appealing, the cost to buy BR-reading software is prohibitive. I mean, if you can get reading software for $50, it'd be a wash, since you can get very decent BR set-top players for $75 on sale.
Just saying, these can be deceptive deals sometimes.
I wound up buying for my dad as a Christmas present. Now he can finally watch Blu-Ray movies with the included PowerDVD 10 (OEM 2-speaker version).
http://vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name/ Theres always alternatives to paying for expensive software. Gotta love VLC.
** Did a little reading as I was curious now too. Seems the above link is hit or miss if it'll work 100% or not.
The instructions are still poorly written. In order to get this to work in Windows 7 do this.
1. Download the file named KEYDB. Create a folder named AACS. Put the KEYDB file in the AACS folder you created. The important part is that this new folder goes into the Roaming folder not just APPDATA like the website suggests.
*I didn't do much looking for an x64 version of VLC for Windows so I used the 2.0.4 version that was on the site. I believe this is a 32 bit program*
2. Using the 7zip package of VLC I extracted this and then put the 32bit version libaacs.dll (448KB in size) in the root directory of VLC.
I popped in Batman Begins and it plays. This was done on Windows 7 Home Premium x64 with SP1. Going to test other Blu-ray disc I have. Wonder if there is a solution for HD-DVD or if this same method works with them. Going to test this out as well.
Sounds like you have some other problem going on. I have been using a htpc with a blu-ray drive as my only blu-ray player and it has been perfect for about a year and a half now. Only problem I have run into is that when I upgraded to windows 8 my powerdvd 11.0 wouldn't launch from media center anymore but it launchs fine from the start menu. I can't fault 2 year old software for not being compatible with a brand new os.
Newegg usually has a sale on powerdvd for cheap around the end of the year when they are clearing out the old version right when cyberlink is abou tot release a new version.