Which Blu-Ray burner would you recommend?

[unifex]

I am thinking about adding a Blu-Ray drive to my desktop. It seems a waste of effort to buy just the player, so I am looking into the burners. As far as I can gather from the usual sources, there isn't a large variety to choose from. It seems that the Pioneer drive (apparently there is also a Plextor which people claim to be the same thing) is rated the best, while the LG is cheaper. To my surprise, Sony does not sell such drive anymore.

Anyone has a positive experience with a Blu-Ray burner? Could you recommend a good drive?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Adrian]

I am thinking about adding a Blu-Ray drive to my desktop. It seems a waste of effort to buy just the player, so I am looking into the burners. As far as I can gather from the usual sources, there isn't a large variety to choose from. It seems that the Pioneer drive (apparently there is also a Plextor which people claim to be the same thing) is rated the best, while the LG is cheaper. To my surprise, Sony does not sell such drive anymore.

Anyone has a positive experience with a Blu-Ray burner? Could you recommend a good drive?

Thanks in advance.

Unifex, depending on what you use the burner for will determine the investment you are going to shell out for.
My guess is that you are wanting to create a hi def library but copying blu ray disks that are copyright is illegal. So we need to very careful here.
For the sake of argument it would be more advantageous to purchase a high capacity hard drive and a blu ray optical drive and the accompanying software for around $300 and make iso's and virtual mount for viewing on your chosen system.

 

[merkat106]

I am thinking about adding a Blu-Ray drive to my desktop. It seems a waste of effort to buy just the player, so I am looking into the burners. As far as I can gather from the usual sources, there isn't a large variety to choose from. It seems that the Pioneer drive (apparently there is also a Plextor which people claim to be the same thing) is rated the best, while the LG is cheaper. To my surprise, Sony does not sell such drive anymore.

Anyone has a positive experience with a Blu-Ray burner? Could you recommend a good drive?

Thanks in advance.

Unifex, depending on what you use the burner for will determine the investment you are going to shell out for.
My guess is that you are wanting to create a hi def library but copying blu ray disks that are copyright is illegal. So we need to very careful here.
For the sake of argument it would be more advantageous to purchase a high capacity hard drive and a blu ray optical drive and the accompanying software for around $300 and make iso's and virtual mount for viewing on your chosen system.

I agreed with Adrian, but I'll give you my opinion of brands of blu-ray.
LG is a brand, though my LG drive only reads blu ray- it writes to everything else, I have been happy with its performance. I don't see why the blu-ray burners wouldn't be good...they should be great drives.
I have considered Samsung and Lite-On drives.

 

[grimreaper]

My very first Blu-Ray optical (burner) drive I bought was the LG GGW-H20L.

Owned since last year, and if I remember correct, I purchased it last year (Aug 2009).

I have burned several CD/DVD/DVD DL, and a few BD-R's/BD-RE as they're very expensive at the current moment, even after 1 year

I have never had a single problem, therefore, I give it a flawless 5 star rating.

LG GGW-H20L internal Blu-ray optical drive it reads and burns an impressive number of formats, quiet, and stable.

Source

Hope this information may help you decide which blu-ray burner you may purchase in the future.
Good luck.

 

[unifex]

Thank you Greamreaper! Unfortunately the drive you mentioned has been discontinued. Hopefully the current LG models are of similar quality.

@Adrian

The comparison between the optical storage and hard drives has two issues in it, price per GB and failure probability.

As far as the price goes, external drives now are starting at about 70 Euros - or $100 for 1 TB. This is certainly cheaper than 40 BD-R at 3-4 Euros each.

On the other hand, it is unlikely that all 40 discs will fail at the same time, which would be the equivalent of a hard drive failure.

Basically I thought that if I want to be able to read Blu-Ray media I need an optical drive and the price difference between BD-ROMs and burners is small, so I might as well go for the burner.

 

[Adrian]

Thank you Greamreaper! Unfortunately the drive you mentioned has been discontinued. Hopefully the current LG models are of similar quality.

@Adrian

The comparison between the optical storage and hard drives has two issues in it, price per GB and failure probability.

As far as the price goes, external drives now are starting at about 70 Euros - or $100 for 1 TB. This is certainly cheaper than 40 BD-R at 3-4 Euros each.

On the other hand, it is unlikely that all 40 discs will fail at the same time, which would be the equivalent of a hard drive failure.

Basically I thought that if I want to be able to read Blu-Ray media I need an optical drive and the price difference between BD-ROMs and burners is small, so I might as well go for the burner.

Inifex, I must disagree with you as the cost of a burner vs. a bd reader is appx. $100-$150, also considering the cost of BR media which is $6-8 per disk economically it makes more sense to purchase a reader and burn a bd as an iso to a hard drive.
Just my opinion....

 

[byngo]

Well, I opted many months ago for the Bluray reader, mount iso options etc for my back-ups. This is so i can have a media center archive of my quickly accesible movies. I just get the remote control out, switch to my HD Display scroll through my collection, maybe watch the trailer first, read synopsis or just press play.
You won't need to worry about disks failing if you have the originals anyway!!!!:devil:

The HDD storage option is def the cheapest and I would argue the most reliable too.
I also make comparisons to the "old days" of burning DVDs. Invariably, some months later, several of those disks would fail to read despite the best efforts to always buy a quality brand and especially if you stuck a label on them. Imagine going through that learning curve with BD-R's.
Also, have you considered Bluary file size and 25 gig BD-R disks??? Many Bluray are 30 or even 40 gig plus in file size.
Finally, i don't have to find a space or shelf for all those back-up disks or keep the dust off them, or buy plastic wallets, print sleeves etc.

 

[Adrian]

Well, I opted many months ago for the Bluray reader, mount iso options etc for my back-ups. This is so i can have a media center archive of my quickly accesible movies. I just get the remote control out, switch to my HD Display scroll through my collection, maybe watch the trailer first, read synopsis or just press play.
You won't need to worry about disks failing if you have the originals anyway!!!!:devil:

The HDD storage option is def the cheapest and I would argue the most reliable too.
I also make comparisons to the "old days" of ripping & burning DVDs. Invariably, some months later, several of those disks would fail to read despite the best efforts to always buy a quality brand and especially if you stuck a label on them. Imagine going through that learning curve with BD-R's.
Also, have you considered ripped Bluary file size and 25 gig BD-R disks??? Many Bluray are 30 or even 40 gig plus in file size unless you strip them down to Main Movie only.
Finally, i don't have to find a space or shelf for all those back-up disks or keep the dust off them, or buy plastic wallets, print sleeves etc.

Well said!

 

[unifex]

Well guys, this is a slippery road here, we're not here to discuss ripping anything.

Adrian, I am located in Germany right now, so my source is Amazon.de. I am not sure if we're allowed to cite commercial prices here, so if I'm out of line, then I'd ask the mods to let me know. Nevertheless, just as an example, a Samsung Blu-Ray reader is currently selling for 84 Euros. A LG burner is 132 Euros. That is 36% difference (relative to the burner). That I would be willing to pay for the extra functionality. As far as the storage goes, then surely hard drives are cheaper, that's what I said: a BD-R costs slightly above 3 Euros, so 1 TB is about 140-150, while the drives start at 70.

As far as media failure, my experience is that DVD+R are pretty stable. I've had maybe several bad one over the years, so about 2%. However, now that I have lots of them, they just clutter. Hard drives are good as well, but I had two failures out of 8, that's 25%. That's why up until now most of my backups were on DVD+R. It's the clutter that forces me to think otherwise.

However, reading the comments in this and other threads, as well as looking at Amazon, I just don't see the BD-R as a viable replacement for DVD+R. There are just way too few burners on the market and the media is too expensive. Perhaps indeed the external drives are the way to go.

 

[byngo]

Who said anything about external drives. (And apologies for adding the word "ripping" in the context of burning anything, of course you have a whole load of HD camcorder stuff you need to burn to Bluray)

Externals might be an option, but not very quick with USB transfer rate and Bluray (high Definition video) file sizes.
If your motherboard has an E-sata port and you buy a corresponding external drive or drive caddy that would be as fast as an internal hard drive.

Cheapest, staright forward option is to just add a 1TB SATA hdd into your desktop case. When its full, delete some files or add another one. (assuming its a modern mobo with 4 or more sata headers available and enough Power supply connectors of the Sata type).

 

[Adrian]

Adrian, I am located in Germany right now, so my source is Amazon.de. I am not sure if we're allowed to cite commercial prices here, so if I'm out of line, then I'd the external drives are the way to go.

I spent many years in Berchtesgaden in southern Germany.
Prost!

 

[unifex]

I spent many years in Berchtesgaden in southern Germany.
Prost!

Cool! I'm in Southern Germany as well

 

[redbarron14]

I wouldnt recommend LG GGW H20L drive, that is if your using windows Home Premium 64 bit.

DVDs and CDs are fine. Blu Ray playback results in BSOD, not sure if its a Cyberlink / PowerDVD 7 issue or the actual drive. Thinking of using a trialware program to test if its software that causes this issue.
It was faultless under windows Vista 64bit, and for that O/S the drive comes highly recommended, but the drive has been superseeded with the LG BH10LS30, and possibly not the above issues. Would also suggest check if the drive works, and is certified for windows 7. Cheers.

 

[Ponmayilal]

I entirely agree with byngo.

Having recently acquired a Liteon iHBS 112 BD writer (see it here) - my long cherished dream buy - I now feel its just a waste.

A BD Reader coupled with esata/USB 3/Firewire external HDD (read Seagate GoFlex Ultraportable external HDD with interchangeable adapter/cable) is the way to go.

I keep the BD ISOs on the harddrive and mount them to my Arcsoft TMT3 player using mikinho's Mount Image.

One can do all this and just an external BD Reader optical drive is more than sufficient. I already have a Sony-Optiarc USB external BD reader/DVD writer and another Plextor PX-B120U - see it here - is on its way. My desktops and media center PCs have esata ports. My desktop is also USB3 capable now with a PCIe USB3 card plugged in.

IMO, one should only go in for these upgrades instead of a BD burner for their PC.

 

[redbarron14]

Well for anyone interested Arcsoft totalmedia 3 plays Blu ray, without issues on the LG GGW H20L.
Unfortunately cant get Cyberlinks software supplied with burner to work without BSOD, and it looks like they're no plans at this stage to update much for that drive.

The arcsoft software, trial, dosent have sound at the beginning of play however. During the movie it is flawless, might have something to do with it being a trial version perhaps.