new dvd/bluray drive question + media question

[alidan]

ok, my dvd drive of the last 10 years is dieing... i found out because i got some dvds for my birthday and it couldn't read them and there was clicking... so im assuming the laser is losing alignment. i have a small usb dvd player im using as a backup right now, but moving forward i want a blu ray burner...

so my question is simple, what is the best blu ray burner for the cheapest price?
also, is there a place i can get cheap media for it?
now, i have about 200~ dvds left that i can burn, is there any way for me to be able to tell what kind of dvd they are? i see a few bluray burners that can't handle all the dvd formats for burning, or they simply aren't listing all of them?

so tldr
looking for a good cheap bluray burner and blu ray discs + dl dvds, i prefer glossy tops, and a way to check what kind of dvd i currently have as burn media.

 

[The Orig Ralph]

if you've got a 5.25" bay, then no question - http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-Internal-Rewriter-WH14NS40/dp/B007YWMCA8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417022392&sr=8-1&keywords=LG+internal+bluray+burner - there's also a 16X write speed model, but it's kind of moot as no one offers bd-r discs that can be written to faster than 6X

if you've got a slim (laptop) optical drive bay, again LG but this model - http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-Internal-Rewriter-WH14NS40/dp/B007YWMCA8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417022392&sr=8-1&keywords=LG+internal+bluray+burner

I've got both and love em - the audio visual forum i hang out in loves these as well

but a note - if you want to view blu-ray movies you'll have to find some free software or buy PowerDVD, Nero or the like as microsoft doesn't support blu-ray natively - not a big issue as there are a number of software suppliers out there

and both the above are burners, but once you realize how much info you can store on a blu-ray disc, and the space it'll save on your shelf, you'll appreciate

just remember to buy good quality discs, like verbatim

fwiw

 

[alidan]

if you've got a 5.25" bay, then no question - http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-Internal-Rewriter-WH14NS40/dp/B007YWMCA8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417022392&sr=8-1&keywords=LG+internal+bluray+burner - there's also a 16X write speed model, but it's kind of moot as no one offers bd-r discs that can be written to faster than 6X

if you've got a slim (laptop) optical drive bay, again LG but this model - http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-Internal-Rewriter-WH14NS40/dp/B007YWMCA8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417022392&sr=8-1&keywords=LG+internal+bluray+burner

I've got both and love em - the audio visual forum i hang out in loves these as well

but a note - if you want to view blu-ray movies you'll have to find some free software or buy PowerDVD, Nero or the like as microsoft doesn't support blu-ray natively - not a big issue as there are a number of software suppliers out there

and both the above are burners, but once you realize how much info you can store on a blu-ray disc, and the space it'll save on your shelf, you'll appreciate

just remember to buy good quality discs, like verbatim

fwiw

im looking at the 5.25 drive,
you say there is a 16X version, i'm looking at the drive itself, and if i'm reading it right, it doesn't read the disc faster than 8x but writes at 14...
little confuseing there...

also, in the reviews there is mention of a firmware update...
im a bit hesitant on that alone... is the firmware update required or will it work find without...
also, for quite a while after blurays drives were out, the ps3 was the best player available, having this in my pc, will it be faster at loading the discs that the ps3... its my only real benchmark i can use to know how good it is.

 

[The Orig Ralph]

i still haven't updated mine (tks for the reminder) but it works fine without - i do a lot of video dubbing / ripping as a hobby. But updating the firmware isn't like performing heart surgery - i suspect whether or not it'll be required is if you find issues with your current OS. I forgot one other advantage to that model, if "M Discs" take off (ie get accepted by the market), this unit will burn them. But that's important if you do a lot of burning and want the discs to survive more than a few years. But at current pricing of approx $4 per disc, it's going to take awhile for pricing to come down.

The burning speeds really tell you the laser is up to serious work, as the faster your burn speed, the hotter the laser has to get. While there aren't any BD-R discs that can be burnt faster than 6X (maybe there are some that will go 8X), the fact that the laser can handle 14 or 16X means at 4 or 6X it's barely working up a sweat. The guys in the audio visual forum say they change their burners out every 3 years whether they need to or not, but they're burning a lot of discs, and i mean a lot of discs - quite a few of them have dvd/bd-r collections that are 10-12,000 disks or more.

 

[alidan]

i still haven't updated mine (tks for the reminder) but it works fine without - i do a lot of video dubbing / ripping as a hobby. But updating the firmware isn't like performing heart surgery - i suspect whether or not it'll be required is if you find issues with your current OS. I forgot one other advantage to that model, if "M Discs" take off (ie get accepted by the market), this unit will burn them. But that's important if you do a lot of burning and want the discs to survive more than a few years. But at current pricing of approx $4 per disc, it's going to take awhile for pricing to come down.

The burning speeds really tell you the laser is up to serious work, as the faster your burn speed, the hotter the laser has to get. While there aren't any BD-R discs that can be burnt faster than 6X (maybe there are some that will go 8X), the fact that the laser can handle 14 or 16X means at 4 or 6X it's barely working up a sweat. The guys in the audio visual forum say they change their burners out every 3 years whether they need to or not, but they're burning a lot of discs, and i mean a lot of discs - quite a few of them have dvd/bd-r collections that are 10-12,000 disks or more.

i really only burn discs for existing media when either the discs break or there is a format change and it makes sense for me to burn a new one.

i have a few shows that take up 12 discs for 3 seasons that i rip and re encode down to 1 disc a season with minimal quality loss, i also don't really burn at more than 4x because of... at least back when the drive was new longevity issues that may show themselves if i burn faster, dont know how true that is but its how i handled it sense i got it.

m-disc, that will take off in some form or another as archival media is always needed, though like you said it will probably be several years

as for firmware... i have had crap fail on me in every way imaginable, i don't have money to get a replacement if a firmware update bricks the drive.

with that said, you know a good place to get cheap media?
im looking for dual layer dvds and blurays, preferable with a glossy top to match what i have... i would consider light scribe... but its hard to justify the price increase as with dvds last i bought a pack it was a 100-200% price increase per disc... it would have some uses when i burn a bunch of crap to a single disc, but other than that i can always sharpie the thing.

 

[The Orig Ralph]

quote: ".....i have a few shows that take up 12 discs for 3 seasons that i rip and re encode down to 1 disc a season with minimal quality loss, i also don't really burn at more than 4x because of... at least back when the drive was new longevity issues that may show themselves if i burn faster, dont know how true that is but its how i handled it sense i got it. "

That's what i was talking about - the laser being capable of burning far faster than you intend to burn means, in the parlance of a car, that you're driving it, never exceeding 35mph - ie for longevity.

go over to the avsforums.com - there seems to be only a few disk makers that are making quality discs that last, verbatim (with the AZO coating) and TY (out of japan. I just bought a spindle of the TY DVD-R DL (printable) discs and they weren't cheap - $66 shipped (from japan). Don't know why (i've also got a panasonic stand alone DVD recorder in the entertainment center), it prefers -R vs +R for recording purposes. DVDFab just released software to put dvd format files on blu-ray - which means i can take 10 sixty minute episodes recorded 2 episodes per dvd-r SL (recorded at SP) and put them on ONE BD-R - at 88 cents per BD discs, that's cheaper than 5 DVD-R discs.

I watch Amazon for pricing (prices on all go up/down like the stock market - but just bought 200 DVD-R Verbatim (AZO) SL discs, 50 count spindles for 18 cents a disk. BD-R SL (again, Verbatim but Mitsubishi Chem Corp mfgr'd) for 88 cents a disc. Do a google on the subject or search on avs forum - even brand names like Sony, Phillips, Maxwell etc are shipping crap and are using an organic dye that gets destroyed by UV light, and i don't mean from being left in sunlight - just ambient room light - some fail to play a few months after being burnt. There are some threads on avs on this very subject, ie discs failing to play after 2-12 months. Be careful of the no name brands like Optical Quantum - one poster on AVS forums posted he's had great success with their BD-R blu-ray SL discs, so i tried them. He'd indicated he bought the 4X discs, which are Phillips mfgr. I bought the 6X, which are OQ mfgr - out of the first 6, none verified after burning and only one would play in my sony BD player. The verbatims, i've burnt in excess of 300 BD-R discs and have yet to have one fail to verify. And i burn at 4X to be conservative. The Optical Quantums i actually dropped the burn speed down to 2X on the last two and they still didn't verify.

fwiw

but remember what i said if you do go the LG blu ray burner route - windows does not support Blu-Ray natively, not sure why but they don't, so windows media etc will not recognize a blu-ray movie or even a blank disc in the burner. There are some free software downloads but given the number of malwares i've gotten with "freeware" , i'd suggest a "pay for" software like PowerDVD.
DVDFab offers a free media player that will recognize BD movies etc, my only complaint with it is it tries to take over all media playing operations - you'll find yourself going back to reset the default player to WMV or VLC on anything you've ever watched or try to watch.
But their ripping and converting programs seem to work pretty decently, and like i said they just came out with software to convert dvd to bluray ( http://www.dvdfab.cn/dvd-to-blu-ray-converter.htm ) - and they've got a 30 day trial basis.

here's a link to the TY disks on amazon - they ship out of japan but surprisingly, the last order was here in 11 days - and they'd dropped down to $53 spindle of 50, shipped http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0037NYFJY/ref=dp_olp_all_mbc?ie=UTF8&colid=37Z288L7ZPQJG&condition=all&coliid=I2HD6T34VNR80D

 

[alidan]

ok, last time you mentioned windows not supporting blu ray natively i thought it was just video, i have ways around that, but the way you make it sound here is that it wont even see or do anything with the disc... is it just the wording that confused me or am i looking for alternatives just for using the discs as file storage too?

when i burn i usually don't (as in the last 750 dvds) burn them to be playable in stand alone players, just off the pc, as anywhere in my house i have a player, its hooked up to something that sees the files, not just plays a video to dvd standards.

 

[The Orig Ralph]

honestly, my memory isn't what it used to be but don't think it will even recognize blu-ray disc - remember blu-ray lasers are a different wavelength and bd discs are different format - i could be wrong, and windows might write data to BD discs. Main reason i can't answer is the minute i installed the first one i installed software (DVDFab) to burn Blu-ray movies and never tried to burn any data discs before i'd installed DVDFab.

but it will not play bd movies, whether made for tv entertainment centers or just for use on your computer - windows media player won't recognize bd discs or be able to play them - next bd disc you get from netflix, pop it in the computer and you'll see what i'm talking about. But there's software all over the net, whether commercial (as in paid for) or free ware - it's not that windows can't recognize / play blu-ray, it just doesn't natively, for whatever reason microsoft doesn't provide the drivers nor has developed them. I've never understood the reasoning behind that but there are a far more important things i can't wrap my brain around

 

[alidan]

i think we may be thinking of 2 different things, what im talking about is burning just straight files, something i wasnt aware windows was even capable of doing without software to back it up, and seeing them on the disc.

what you are saying is playing back files burnt specifically to the blu ray itself for video playback in some form on a player. i know that files burnt specifically for blu ray players won't work natively because if i remember right, blu ray is a sony proprietary solution and microsoft backed hd-dvd, and sony requires a fairly large amount per player and software.

that said, i should already have some software capable of blu ray already, but currently no means to test it and no will to download a blu ray iso to see if it does.

at least if i am undestanding what you are saying right...

im talking about putting files to a disc with no special way to play them, just straight zip, rar, png, jpeg, mov, mp4, mkv files.

i think what you are talking about is going through a conversion process than burning them for playing on other devices.

if you are understanding what im saying right... well, its a driver find away on christmas and probably a little bit of money, i think my version of nero is compatible, just not with the brxl format.