Installing a Blu Ray Burner question

[QcGuy]

I want to add a blu ray burner and I just want to use it for burning data backups do I need to install any drivers or software for Windows 7 to use the drive? I understand Windows may need a driver to be installed but I saw in some other forums people talking about a LG drive that needs software to do firmware check all the time and other people saying you have to uninstall all your current burning software then load the drive software then reload your burning software. I just want to go into ImageBurn and select folders I want to backup and burn it and be done.

I've read through the first 8 pages in this forum but nothing really fit for what I was looking for, so any insight would be appreciated.

 

[ToxicB33]

For Windows 7, you don't need any drivers to get Blu-ray burners to work. Win 7 even comes with built-in burning engine that allows you to simply drag and drop.

Only firmware comes into play when it comes to having problems with Windows 7. A popular LG model WH10LS30 is notorious for not working with Win 7. There is no firmware from LG currently that can fix this and they are pretty bad about releasing new firmware. I suggest going with something like the Pioneer BDR-206 burner.

 

[aviat72]

I had a followup question:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135252
There is the OEM ASUS burner on sale at Newegg. I heard comments about this not coming with software. I want to understand that better.

I presume burning BlueRay disks will not be an issue with the integrated W7 drivers and also the Cyberlink Power2G which is included.

So is the complaint about software to play BluRay movies? What is needed to play them?

What would be good media for offsite archival using BD-disks? I was thinking of some double layer disks.

 

[dustNbone]

Dual layer BD-Rs are still pretty expensive. I don't think I've seen em under 10 bucks a piece.

 

[mwroobel]

Dual layer BD-Rs are still pretty expensive. I don't think I've seen em under 10 bucks a piece.

You can get name brand 50GB -Rs for about $7 a piece in quantity, and name brand 25GB -Rs for about $1 a piece in quantity. If you plan on doing a lot of backups, you might think of a few 64GB USB thumbdrives such as http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820191346 which cost within a few dollars of the blu-ray burner and a couple of BD-R dual layer disks. It will also be faster and easier to deal with than discs.

 

[PGHammer]

Dual layer BD-Rs are still pretty expensive. I don't think I've seen em under 10 bucks a piece.

For optical media as backup media, two factors come into play - cost per gigabyte, and capacity per disc. While BD wins in the capacity per disc department, it's price (nowadays, it's media cost, not drive cost) that's the issue. While a DL BR disc holds the same amount as six DVD DL discs, DVD DL costs less per gigabyte simply because the media itself is still far cheaper. (Example: Verbatim 8x DVD+R DL 30-disc spindles are $34.99 at MicroCenter today - and that's the high, not low, end of DVD+R DL. That's still all of $1.25/disc - at worst.)

While I'm looking at a BD burner also, it will be a secondary, not primary, backup device, as DVD+R DL media is still far too cheap to be displaced by BD - for now; whether it will stay that way in the medium or long term is problematical at best (how many expected DVD+RW to supplant not only CD-RW, but even CD-R, for example).

Pioneer has two different lower-end BR burners (like all Pioneer BR burners, they cover the whole gamut of BR blank media, in addition to DVD media) - the spread at MicroCenter between them is $15. Even the high end is *barely* ten times the price of the lowest-end DVD burner they carry.