External Blu Ray Drive?

[soulforged]

I was thinking of buying an external blu ray drive and use it to rip BDs and play them using my Xtreamer Pro. I guess a few of us in this forum are already using this approach instead of buying a BDP. Needed a couple of clarifications -

Is this a good approach? Any cons (like not able to access BD menus etc.)
Which external drive to buy in India? From where and what should be a good price to pay?
What software to use to rip?
Would this violate copyright protection in any way?

 

[venkatcr]

Is this a good approach? Any cons (like not able to access BD menus etc.)

There is no operational difference between an internal and external drive. The only difference will be speed.

Which external drive to buy in India? From where and what should be a good price to pay?

LG, Samsung, Lite-On, Sony are some of the brands available. In India, an external drive seems to go for some 15K (Theitdepot - Sony 6x External Blue-Ray USB Drive (BDX-S500U))

What software to use to rip?

There are multiple ways of doing this. Use something like AnyDVD HD to open the disc, and then simply copy the whole disc to a sub-directory on your HDD. AnyDVD HD, by itself, has a ripping software that comes bundled. There are other software available.

Would this violate copyright protection in any way?

Yup, unless you own the disc and you use the ripped version for yourself.

Cheers

 

[aneelr]

Hi,

I rip BD's on my laptop (Sony VAIO) and I use DVDFab. You have options to make a full copy of the BD, ie .m2ts including HD audio, you can also skip HD audio(file size reduces).

The BD's menu are Java dependent, and I guess most of the media players in the market are not capable of playing BD menus even from ISO's. I've tried this in playon mini, asus oplay, wdtv live, xtreamer,........ but none of them played.

The only option is to choose "play folder" option in you media player. I've found one problem with ripping, even if you choose the main movie only to rip (i.e only one .m2ts file) it creates multiple files on you disc(but actually it should copy only that particular .m2ts file, do not know if there is a work around for this problem.). So in-case of multiple .m2ts files "play folder" option plays them continually without break.



P.S:- Has anybody in this forum been successful in playing BD menus on a media player?? pls share. And any workaround for that multiple files created by DVDFab from a single .m2ts fiels.

thanks.
cheers.

 

[venkatcr]

I have mentioned this before, but Dune plays all Blu-Rays (rips) properly with full menus.

Cheers

 

[soulforged]

Thanks brother Aneel...actually my idea was inspired by you

Where can I buy a good quality, inexpensive external drive from???

 

[CANDUU]

If you got friends in us then ask them to buy it for you,if not try shop ur world.

http://amazonin.tarazz.com/Blu-ray-...ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1304347303&sr=1-1

 

[aneelr]

Digistor and LG are some reliable brands, my friends are using them. And it's best to hand pick it form any local store in to US, this will be the cheapest. Or you can buy from amazon. If you don't mind spending a bit more go in for the slot load type. They are sleek and easy to handle.


Cheers

 

[sud98]

Would it make sense to have a USB 3.0 or a esata connector for a ext. blu ray drive or USB 2.0 good enough?