HD Drive

[Not Bman]

I had a thread asking about this before, but for some reason I can't seem to find it, so I am starting it again (if it's not the same, I think it is).

My birthday is coming up and what I am asking for, as a collective gift from my family is a Blu-ray HD drive for my PC. Now the last time I asked about this I believe I got 2 or 3 drives mentioned. None of which was exactly what I wanted.

What I really want is a drive that plays and burns Blu-ray media, and HDDVD is possible (though I don't care). I remember people stating that they don't exactly have that, nothing worth the price, only burners and only players. I am now asking if there are more options, and or what do you recommend (dual player and burner or not). I am hoping for something in the $200 price range, I know most (not sure about dual drives) are around there anyways.

Let me know, thanks.

 

[LordOfLA]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp... Rewriter & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive - OEM

 

[Not Bman]

Perfect, good thing I ain't paying for it hahaa

 

[rotjong]

I definitely have to agree that the LG drives are the way to go. They're solid performers. If you just want a HD-DVD/BluRay reader then you can go with the LG GGC-H20L but for a bit more you can burn BluRay discs with the LG GGW-H20L. You can probably find Lite-On drives for cheaper but you couldn't pay me to own one. I think the LG's are the best choice these days especially with LG having the multi-format drives.

Realize that there will be faster burners being released not far off in the distance and faster blank media to go with them. Of course this will also mean that the existing slower rated blank media should drop in price.

 

[indyjones]

I am personally looking at getting a pioneer drive, but thats mainly due the the eject button on the LG drives not matching up with the eject button on my htpc case...... plus they are cheaper as well though I am currently only looking for blu-ray playback.

 

[Not Bman]

I think the speeds and media I will have with this LG drive will be fine, out of all the parts that I have to get the fastest and update all the time, the drives aren't one of them. I can handle staying at that speed.

Thanks guys!

 

[Not Bman]

Actually just to make sure, is 5x on an old CDWriter the same speed as 5x on the Blu-ray writer?

Also i have been reading reviews of that drive and info, they are dropping the drives price every couple weeks since they dont need HDDVD anymore. Kinda cool, but what would be the step up from that one, without HDDVD?

 

[rotjong]

Actually just to make sure, is 5x on an old CDWriter the same speed as 5x on the Blu-ray writer?

For burning a BluRay disc? No.

1x for a CD is like 150 Kb/s.
1x for a BluRay is I believe 4.5 MB/s.

Also i have been reading reviews of that drive and info, they are dropping the drives price every couple weeks since they dont need HDDVD anymore. Kinda cool, but what would be the step up from that one, without HDDVD?

Offhand, I don't know. All drives I would even consider for now have to playback HD-DVDs, as well. I own a number of HD-DVD discs so for me that is a requirement.

 

[ElementalDragon]

rotjong: what's the problem with Lite-On? all i've ever owned for the past few years has been Lite-On drives. Even now have a Lite-On SATA BluRay reader, and a Lite-On SATA Super-All-Write DVD Burner. never had a problem with either... nor with the other Lite-On drives i've had before.

 

[roirraW "edor" ehT]

Just to expand on what rotjong said, AFAIK 1x speed for any particular media is the speed the media is "normally" or was originally played at on a stand-alone device (CD player, DVD player, et cetera).

I've owned one or two Lite-Ons also and currently own two of the same Sony OptiArcs which are actually NECs which in turn are actually Lite-Ons or at least accept Lite-Ons firmware upgrades through trickery.

The only truely crap burners I've owned are a Samsung and a CenDyne which was actually an AOpen. I'll never buy those brands again.

The only complaint I have about all the rest of them is that after the hundreds and hundreds of DVDs/DVDRWs I burn in a year, plus all the Windows and other software installations I perform in a year using these as external, the drives die too soon. :\

 

[rotjong]

rotjong: what's the problem with Lite-On? all i've ever owned for the past few years has been Lite-On drives. Even now have a Lite-On SATA BluRay reader, and a Lite-On SATA Super-All-Write DVD Burner. never had a problem with either... nor with the other Lite-On drives i've had before.

I've dealt with too many people that had issues in one form or another with the Lite-On drives. The problems ranged from firmware issues to other problems. I realize personal preference is up to each individual but I just cannot recommend Lite-On drives.

I still have a Plextor PX-760A, PX-716A and PX-708A that haven't kicked the bucket as well as using an LG GSA-H55N, LG GSA-H55L, and an LG GGC-H20L. I may grab a Pioneer DVR-215 based upon the reviews and the quality of its DVD burns.

For a HD/BluRay drive I would stick with LG for now. That's my personal preference. I only know of one person having an issue with an LG GGC-H20L or GGW-H20L and it was physically damaged. It scratched the owner's disc. They returned it for a replacement drive and all is well.

 

[David_L6]

I have three Lite-On CD/DVD burners - two SATA, one IDE. Never had a problem with any of them. I'd consider buying another Lite-On if I were in the market for another optical drive.

 

[Not Bman]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp... Rewriter & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive - OEM

I have been reading some stuff,

will that drive support 1.1 and 2.0 firmware (not sure if its firmware or updates or what not)? I want to make sure I get something that is future proof, maybe not in speeds but in the ability to burn and read everything.

 

[ElementalDragon]

seems to be a common question.... but one that doesn't really need to be asked. i'm assuming you're talking about the BluRay standards, 1.1 and 2.0? Doesn't matter if the drive supports it. as far as i know, only the application that you use to play said discs needs to support the new standard. The only time you should have to worry about whether the device supports one or both standards is if you're looking for a standalone home-theater BluRay player.... because then you're relying on the hardware itself being capable of playing the content. Even then.... it seems like most, if not all standalone players can easily support it with a firmware update.

 

[LordOfLA]

PC Bluray playback software (PowerDVD, WinDVD, TotalMedia) all support all current features required by blu-ray. All future features can be patched in as with any other PC application.

 

[Not Bman]

Why have I been told, and read that there is only one software package that supports blu-ray/hddvd playback, that being PowerDVD? Also I ran the Blu-ray Advisor and it gives all the advanced options, saying that I am able to run them, but it's possible that you can't, meaning its not the software that supports those features its the hardware.

Does that make sense?

 

[rotjong]

Why have I been told, and read that there is only one software package that supports blu-ray/hddvd playback, that being PowerDVD? Also I ran the Blu-ray Advisor and it gives all the advanced options, saying that I am able to run them, but it's possible that you can't, meaning its not the software that supports those features its the hardware.

Does that make sense?

I use PowerDVD7 and PowerDVD8. I can't stand WinDVD or Arcsoft TMT so I won't even test them again. WinDVD was completely unstable and the PQ wasn't near what PowerDVD offers and Arcsoft TMT froze up numerous times when I played SD DVDs along with having UI issues. That's my opinion but there are others that agree.

It is important to note that PowerDVD7 Ultra plays HD-DVDs but you cannot play HD-DVDs with PowerDVD8 Ultra. I assume this has to do with licensing. They licensed v7 to work with HD-DVDs and with the death of HD-DVD and not wanting to pay more money they left it out of v8.

You can have both v7 and v8 installed at the same time on the same system. Cyberlink has advertised and promoted this. There is also a way to use some files from v7 and placing them in the v8 directory along with another file from a v8 beta release that allows you to play HD-DVDs using v8. That is not official and generally breaks everytime you update v8 to the latest release.

Some ask why to update to v8 if v7 handles both formats and v8 doesn't. PowerDVD7 Ultra doesn't have the PQ that v8 does and v8 has better audio support among other things. Updating to v8 really is worth it, IMO.

Oddly, Cyberlink has pulled all v7 Ultra updates from their website for download. They might still exist on the server but they offer no links in the download section. They kept update links for v2 through v8 but no v7 Ultra updates.

None of the software players are perfect but if I had to select one of them that is less troublesome than the others then I'd have to say that PowerDVD wins.

Bonus View & BD Live I'm not sure what the requirements are. The hardware decoding obviously refer to your videocard, and of course you need a network connection for BD Live. For info on the Advanced tab refer here: http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/support/answerbox_productfaq.jsp?FID=5973

I also have to point out that the BD Advisor appears to have a bug/limitation. I have 8192 MB of memory in my system. BD Advisor is attempting to tell me that I only have 4096 MB installed. I'm running Vista x64 so there is no memory limitation causing this.

 

[LordOfLA]

I use WinDVD 9 for alll my playback. Though TMT was the only one to play HD-DVD full screen with the nVidia 8800GT. PDVD8 doesn't do HD-DVD so I couldn't say. TMT only supports my ATI card in vista 32. Right now I'm on XP SP3 so that limits me to WinDVD to play my bu-ray and HDDVD disks.

 

[LordOfLA]

Why have I been told, and read that there is only one software package that supports blu-ray/hddvd playback, that being PowerDVD? Also I ran the Blu-ray Advisor and it gives all the advanced options, saying that I am able to run them, but it's possible that you can't, meaning its not the software that supports those features its the hardware.

Does that make sense?

You keep talking to people that know jack **** about stuff You should know the one true source for never incorrect information is OSNN

One thing you will need for PC playback is AnyDVD if like me your TV doesn't report HDCP ability to the PC.

 

[rotjong]

One thing you will need for PC playback is AnyDVD if like me your TV doesn't report HDCP ability to the PC.

AnyDVD is a gift from the gods. My system is fully compliant but it still makes watching movies a lot nicer.