Blu-ray Drive

santhosh

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I currently use a PS3-Slim for watching Blu-rays. My PS3 is locked to Region A for movies. Most Blu-rays that we get(rental and purchase) in India are Region C or multi-region. So, I am planning to buy a Blu-ray Rom Drive for my computer. My idea is to be able to watch movies by copying these on to the Hard-disk either using Xtreamer or PS3. Have a few questions that I need help with:

1) Will I encounter any issues while trying to copy like copy protection etc?
2) Is it just a matter of copying and pasting from BluRay disc to local computer or do we need to use a software.
3) I have read that region lock is a hardware feature and hence it can be played after copying. Is this true? If not how do I remove region lock? Some software?
4) Does read speed of the drive matter?

I am planning to buy one of these drives from US. Need your help deciding which one among the two I should buy. Difference is only $10
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106326
or
Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 4X BD-ROM 8X DVD-ROM 32X CD-ROM SATA Internal 4X Blu-ray Reader Model iHOS104-06 - Blu-Ray Drives

a) Which one among the two should I buy?
b) What do you guys think about this product? Will this be sufficinet for my above-mentioned requirement?

ps: I am not interested in writing Blu-rays at this point so am planning to buy only the reader.

Also, those who have not heard about LITEON, don't worry about the brand, it is good. I have a DVD Writer from LITEON that I purchased from a local dealer here and still works fine after ~2 years. Supposedly, LITEON is a manufacturer for other brands. Not sure about this though.
 
....

1) Will I encounter any issues while trying to copy like copy protection etc?

Some of the discs may give you problem when ripping them. In that case you mest try and use several softwares.

2) Is it just a matter of copying and pasting from BluRay disc to local computer or do we need to use a software.

It is not just copying and pasting from the disc, you need to RIP it using a software, various third party softwares are available to do this.

3) I have read that region lock is a hardware feature and hence it can be played after copying. Is this true? If not how do I remove region lock? Some software?

Region Lock is both on HW and Disc, but yes you do get softwares to break region lock when you are playing directly the disc on the ROM (i.e in the raw format, not ripped). However if you rip it the region code is broken.

4) Does read speed of the drive matter?

SPEED DOES MATTER


I am planning to buy one of these drives from US. Need your help deciding which one among the two I should buy. Difference is only $10
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106326
or
Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 4X BD-ROM 8X DVD-ROM 32X CD-ROM SATA Internal 4X Blu-ray Reader Model iHOS104-06 - Blu-Ray Drives

a) Which one among the two should I buy?
b) What do you guys think about this product? Will this be sufficinet for my above-mentioned requirement?

ps: I am not interested in writing Blu-rays at this point so am planning to buy only the reader.

Also, those who have not heard about LITEON, don't worry about the brand, it is good. I have a DVD Writer from LITEON that I purchased from a local dealer here and still works fine after ~2 years. Supposedly, LITEON is a manufacturer for other brands. Not sure about this though.

And I had a bad experience bad experience with LITEON, so no comments on that, on the other hand LG's or Samsungs is a good brand.


cheers.
 
Thanks Aneel. More questions as I am new to this:)
Some of the discs may give you problem when ripping them. In that case you mest try and use several softwares.

It is not just copying and pasting from the disc, you need to RIP it using a software, various third party softwares are available to do this.
So, if I want to back up my Blu-rays, I need a Blu-ray Writer right? Is it possible to get the full quality of a BD with all the features of a BD by ripping?

Region Lock is both on HW and Disc, but yes you do get softwares to break region lock when you are playing directly the disc on the ROM (i.e in the raw format, not ripped). However if you rip it the region code is broken.

SPEED DOES MATTER
Like how? Is it just to do with amount of time required(and ofcourse electricity consumed) during that time? Or is there something like a good read speed and buffering? Is 12x a good speed?
 
......

So, if I want to back up my Blu-rays, I need a Blu-ray Writer right? Is it possible to get the full quality of a BD with all the features of a BD by ripping?

Hey, backing up on a Bluray is going to be very costly, atleast in India. I would suggest to use an EHDD to back up data's (just as you saw those rows of HDD at my place;)). And it will take your whole life time to write BD's.
And in BD rips definitely there will be degradation on PQ/SQ cannot help. And I guess the browsing menu options will also not be accessible (not seen this till date on a BD copy).

But, last time when I was at the times AV exhibition in mumbai, I saw a HD media center from HP, It has got built in 5TB HDD,(can accept upto 20TB external) a bluray player, WIFI, and you can just put your Bluray disc into it's player and there is a software which will rip it(it's a LEAGEL software with lisence) and store the same in the HDD, you can also create thumbnails of the movies, and if connected to the net, it will automatically download movie poster and use it in their respective folders as thumbnail images. And the quality of the rip was 99% matching to that of the original dics. (I tested it personally there.)



Like how? Is it just to do with amount of time required(and ofcourse electricity consumed) during that time? Or is there something like a good read speed and buffering? Is 12x a good speed?

A faster ROM will play without any jerk, cause day by day Java technology is getting complex, which inturn requiers better reading speed.


cheers
 
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Hi,

AFAIK, "X" indicates the ability of the drive to transfer amount of data transmitted per sec. Here it goes, for 1x CD-ROM, 150KB/s and for a 1x DVD, 11.08Mbps (1x) for data and 10.08Mbps (<1x) for audio and video and for a Ix BD-rom, it is 36mb/s.

So, 12 * 36 = the amount of data a 12x BD can transfer.

Always, more the speed, better the performance. Although Blu-ray Corp. says that 2x is minimum speed required to play the blu-ray disc and 8x is good and 12x at 10K RPM speed, it will be better.

As Aneel mentioned in his posts, if you have better speed, it is good while using software applications, etc.

Cheers!
 
Hi,

I second Aneelr's suggestions!

Even Pioneer and Sony have released blu-ray drives, do check out.

Cheers!
Agree with you. But Sony, Pio etc are thrice as expensive. I would like to buy something VFM until prices become more affordable. I think I will take a chance at LITEON given the shocker of a price.

Hey, backing up on a Bluray is going to be very costly, atleast in India. I would suggest to use an EHDD to back up data's (just as you saw those rows of HDD at my place;)). And it will take your whole life time to write BD's.
And in BD rips definitely there will be degradation on PQ/SQ cannot help. And I guess the browsing menu options will also not be accessible (not seen this till date on a BD copy).
.........................
A faster ROM will play without any jerk, cause day by day Java technology is getting complex, which inturn requiers better reading speed.

Thanks Mate. If you still have the model number of that HP PC that you saw in the expo, kindly share it buddy.

Hi,

for audio and video and for a Ix BD-rom, it is 36mb/s.

.......
Always, more the speed, better the performance. Although Blu-ray Corp. says that 2x is minimum speed required to play the blu-ray disc and 8x is good and 12x at 10K RPM speed, it will be better.
Thanks for those specs, that clarified a lot. I don't intend to use this for anything other than copying Blu-rays and then playing it using xtreamer or PS3. So it seems read speed is a good to have but not really necessary in my case.
 
For Bluray playback,min speed reqd is 2X,So 4X is good.
Backing up on ext HDD is possible without BD-RW & currently we are not sure if writeres are reliable.Even with DVD writtind,drives often fails.

Liteon were leaders few yr back & Samy on back seat.LG are now where they were with good reliabilty.Sony are too not so good.
I m also looking for similar drive & may get Liteon or LG.
Liteon has good rev on amazon.
 
You can copy your entire blu ray disk through a BD rom to your HDD and while doing it there are softwares which break their region lock too and lets you play the files on a device like xtreamer. Where do you think all these BD files are loaded on to the download sites. There are softwares like Anydvd with BD playback facility but you have to select the different region code in the system tray to play each region BD. Google for BD ripping softwares and there are lot of them to do all the above you require.
 
Those PC's which Aneelr is mentioning will be setting back a fortune, you could pretty much upgrade your receiver.

I've been looking to get the LG one here LG BE06LU10 External Blu-Ray BD-RW: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo - Retailing around 16k, For the moment I think a read only should be better. Given the price of empty BD's at the moment getting an 2 TB external HD should be better.

Use Clown BD it can output in any format you wish for your Xtreamer. For the PS3 you could get it as .m2ts (In Blu-ray structure if possible). You can also retain the HD audio. But don't rip them try and retain the original quality - I've already told you

Also look at your existing PC if it could handle blu-ray drive playback and ripping:indifferent14: . Checklist can be found in Cyberlink or WinDVD websites.
 
Those PC's which Aneelr is mentioning will be setting back a fortune, .........

:eek:hyeah: Nothing comes for free, that particular product was costing around 2L, but the ripped bluray PQ/SQ are definitely better than the ones we get on net. So PQ/SQ wise on a rip they still are better, but i'm sure most of them would be happy with what they have.


cheers
 
For those looking to add a blu ray reader on the cheap; here's a little tip..

if you ever happen to be in delhi; check out a place called cost to cost in nehru place. they are selling LG GBC-20L/Ns for under Rs 2.5k (2.49k to be exact). I picked up 3 the last time I was there.

while the GBC-H20 is a pretty primitive blu-ray drive; you cannot argue with the price!

the best party trick is that it can be cross-flashed to become the GGC-h20N/L -- which means that it can play HD-DVDs (all you need is powerdvd 7.3 or TMT).. and they are available online for US$1 onwards.

This is tried and tested.. I have 2 of them in my 2 hTPCs... and they are now running happily as GGC-h20Ls.

you can also (at your risk) flash a hacked firmware.. for RPC reset (if you still play DVDs) and for riplock (which speeds up your drive for ripping). cross flashing is relatively risk free. Of course BD region resetting is pretty easy on with an HTPC.

cheers

kapil

Ps - I have no relationship with cost to cost except as a customer..
 
It's a GBC. but very very easily crossflashable to become a GGC.. ie HD-DVD support..

tried and tested on all 3 that I purchased.


As for warantee.. it comes with a bill and there is a 1 year LG warantee, but I guess you lose that the moment you cross flash.. As for getting it - you can check the website www.costtocost.in

Dunno if they courier. I bought off the counter. BTw there are 2 cost to cost outlets. only one stocks -- the one in the line above the bajaj capital office.





cheers

Kapil
 
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Are you going to Delhi again?:D
are you willing to sale 1 of them?:licklips:
I reside next to you.:)
 
if I go to delhi again in the near future, with spare time to go to NP; i'll definitely give a heads up on this forum..

selling a used drive(or anything delicately electromechanical) is not something I am comfortable doing..

These things can spoil a perfectly good relationship :eek: . besides I've already crossflashed all 3.

Your best bet would be to ask costtocost, or ask a delhi hifivision member to pick up (you could maybe transfer the funds to him) and courier to you guys..

my sense is, you'd better hurry.. I think this guy (costtocost) picked up in bulk from LG and is liquidating..

this is the cheapest prices I have seen, online or offline.


cheers

Kapil
 
this is the br drive I wrote a post about, and from the same shop.
I can get it when I go to NP next but I may not be able to check it as I do not have a desktop at home or office. Other thing is, in last 1 year, I have gone to NP only twice, and returned empty handed. May go there soon to get a monitor though.

regards

Edit - there is a similar priced drive from hitachi too iirc.

if I go to delhi again in the near future, with spare time to go to NP; i'll definitely give a heads up on this forum..

selling a used drive(or anything delicately electromechanical) is not something I am comfortable doing..

These things can spoil a perfectly good relationship :eek: . besides I've already crossflashed all 3.

Your best bet would be to ask costtocost, or ask a delhi hifivision member to pick up (you could maybe transfer the funds to him) and courier to you guys..

my sense is, you'd better hurry.. I think this guy (costtocost) picked up in bulk from LG and is liquidating..

this is the cheapest prices I have seen, online or offline.


cheers

Kapil
 
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