Laptop bd-rom drive intermittant read on all media

I have two questions about the BD-Rom drive in my Asus N53SV laptop.

When I first got my N53SV-DH72 laptop, I created the Recovery Discs using DVD media. I then installed a new HDD and a clean Windows 7 Prof install, removing the original HDD and all of it's pre-loaded software in case I sold the laptop later and buyer wanted original drive and software. Since then, I have been ripping songs from CD to iTunes and both the DVD write and CD ripping have worked fine. Blu-ray playback was never tested.

3 years down the road I am finding that the BD-Rom drive is intermittantly reading CDs when playing back in either Windows Media Player or iTunes. Some songs play fine, others hang partway thru playback. Other CDs are not even recognized by iTunes. I can play DVDs OK on Windows Media Player though I haven't played a movie all the way through. Blu-rays will not play at all.

The BD-Rom drive is a Philips Lite-On DS-4E1S. I have ordered a replacement drive by a company called HIGHDING thru Amazon/CBear Computers.

I checked the BD-Rom drive on my G73JH-A3 and it has had limited testing. DVD write worked when I created the DVD Recovery disks. This laptop also had the HDD replaced with a new HDD and a clean Windows 7 Prof install. Most of the drivers were installed. Blu-ray will not playback on this drive either. The BD-Rom drive on the G73JH laptop is a Matshita UJ141AS.

So, my questions:

Is my assumption correct that all or most BD-Rom drives are the same (physically and functionally) regardless of the Manufacturers name on the drive. The pictures of the different drives are all the the same and match my suspect bad drive (footprint, hole patterns, etc).

What is required to playback Blu-ray movies? Will Windows 7 natively play these movies or do I need to install additional software for Blu-ray playback? My Windows Media Player won't do it. Was software on the the original HDD installed and I failed to notice and therefore did not install software for Blu-ray playback on the new HDD?

I would appreciate any answers to my questions. I can't believe I'm the only one to have experienced these issues.

Thanks in advance.

Mark

Well first you need a media player that plays Bluray (is allowed to play bluray). It is not a straight line solution.
Check out these threads:
Blu Ray Player For Windows 7 Media Center
How to Play Blu-Ray Discs in Windows Media Player on Windows 8.1/8/7/XP? | Open Media Community

If you are using a bluray capable program: if you are experimenting using just one bluray disk, try a different one from a different producer. Sometimes the DRM piracy scheme on one disk can gum up the works.

Thanks for your response.

I did a little more research over the week-end. My laptop does have a BD-Rom drive. Actually, both laptops have BD-Rom drives. BD software is required to read the BD discs and I don't have any installed yet. Apparently, there was some BD media software installed on the original HDD. Windows 7 cannot read BD media natively.

I am still curious about the BD drives being the same between manufacturers, though. I suspect most or all BD-Rom drives are made by the same company but re-labelled and sold by different companies (Panasonic, lite-on, HP, etc). They're the same so long as the specs match. Same goes for BD-Rom burners and so on.

The drives are the same mechanically.
The differences come in the interface (Sata connection - or obsolete IDE connection if you were working on an old laptop), the housing configuration (where the angular notch and mounting screw location are), and the decorative bezel (how it integrates with the shell of your laptop).

So any optical drive will work on any laptop, but whether it will connect, fit, and look like it belongs is the reason you need to find a recommended replacement drive.

TVeblan,

I presume by media player you mean software and not hardware?

TVeblen (sorry for the earlier mis-spelling),

Thanks again for the response on my second question (mechanical). It makes sense.

You're welcome. Hope the replacement goes smoothly!