Blu Ray Burners

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SidewinderX

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Not sure if there's a better place for this thread, so I'm posting here...

Working on a new build and considering including a Blu Ray Burner instead of just a BR drive... anything specific I should be considering? I was honestly just gonna pick the cheapest BR burner for sale, but are there any incompatibility issues or anything I should be keeping an eye out for?

Thanks!
 
Some of the newer burners support a higher capacity disc format called BDXL with capacities up to 128 GB, something to look out for if that interests you. I don't know how many players are compatible with the format though, and the media is ridiculously expensive for now. Personally I just have a BD-ROM drive, not sure if I would make much use of a burner.
 
At the very least they aren't so expensive these days. I only have a normal reader right now (the popular LG model), and when I was looking for a burner, they were almost all in the $200 range.

At this point, I'm not so sure about the format in general...although I guess that depends on what the new Xbox and PS4 bring to the table.

For the cost of a burner and a pack of media, you could essentially just buy a reader and a spare HD to rip and store everything.

If you do buy a drive of any sort, make sure you get one that comes with a license for something like PowerDVD. Free Blu-Ray players tend to be a bit janky or force you to rip them first.
 
I know. I learned my lesson. I had to buy software separately.
 
I'm surprised there aren't more free solutions for playing Blu-Ray movies without having to rip them.
There's a way to make VLC do it, but it's buggy at best. Ditto with MPC.
Since Windows 8 no longer even has a DVD player, you'd think that would be on the radar. PowerDVD is still in the neighborhood of $50 and it's still bundled with tons of garbage almost nobody wants or needs.
 
SidewinderX said:
Do I need the software to burn blu ray disks? Or just to play back blu ray movies?
Click to expand...

Just for movie playback. Free programs like BurnAware can burn the disks for you.

If you want to watch movies, you'll either need to rip the movies (hopefully using a format that'll retain the HD audio) or have a program like PowerDVD that will play the disk.
 
Domingo said:
Just for movie playback. Free programs like BurnAware can burn the disks for you.

If you want to watch movies, you'll either need to rip the movies (hopefully using a format that'll retain the HD audio) or have a program like PowerDVD that will play the disk.
Click to expand...

Hmm --- so maybe I don't need the software. I want the burner so I can store photos on BD instead of DVD. I've got a 55" TV that I'll use when I want to watch movies :)
 
SidewinderX said:
Hmm --- so maybe I don't need the software. I want the burner so I can store photos on BD instead of DVD. I've got a 55" TV that I'll use when I want to watch movies :)
Click to expand...
If it's for storage or backup or archiving, you shouldn't use an optical disc, especially not BDs which are extremely expensive and not very reliable in the long term. Don't even get me started on the discs with organic dye that start losing their data a few months after being burnt.
Back up your local pictures to an external disk or on a free website, depending on what type of connection you have on your TV. I still buy and rip DVDs and BDs, but I haven't written anything on optical discs for at least 3 years.

By the way, I prefer Arcsoft TotalMedia Theater 5 to PowerDVD. That's the only player that can read whole BD folders ripped to the hard drive, unless other players have stepped up their game since. I use AnyDVD HD to rip all my movies without video conversion, so I get the whole disc on the hard drive, and can use the audio and subtitle tracks, the bonus videos, etc. I have too many movies and TV series to bother with the boxes and shelves anymore! ^-^
 
Chimel said:
If it's for storage or backup or archiving, you shouldn't use an optical disc, especially not BDs which are extremely expensive and not very reliable in the long term. Don't even get me started on the discs with organic dye that start losing their data a few months after being burnt.
Back up your local pictures to an external disk or on a free website, depending on what type of connection you have on your TV. I still buy and rip DVDs and BDs, but I haven't written anything on optical discs for at least 3 years.

By the way, I prefer Arcsoft TotalMedia Theater 5 to PowerDVD. That's the only player that can read whole BD folders ripped to the hard drive, unless other players have stepped up their game since. I use AnyDVD HD to rip all my movies without video conversion, so I get the whole disc on the hard drive, and can use the audio and subtitle tracks, the bonus videos, etc. I have too many movies and TV series to bother with the boxes and shelves anymore! ^-^
Click to expand...

I don't think you understand what kind of data we're talking about. I can shoot 8 GB of photos in a couple hours. When I take a trip I usually come back with 12-24 GB of photos. If there's a free backup website that handles that, by all means! I also don't know what you mean by the type of connection I have on my TV, and how that affects my data back up, but I'll assume that's a type lol.
 
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