Good external blu-ray drive for playing and/or burning?

[Zimmac]

Just purchased new 27" imac and looking to use this a a video editing machine and a video player. Looking for a good external blu-ray player to connect to it. Burning would be a nice feature, but not looking to pay $200 extra for that feature.

Anyone have any experience with external blu-ray drives and imacs and have recommendations?

[rkahl]

I don't think you will be able to use your external blu-ray player using your Mac unless you use bootcamp and an external display. If you get it to work, let me know how! I'm hoping the new release of iLife will support blu-ray since they are removing iDvd.

[Vylen]

I don't think you will be able to use your external blu-ray player using your Mac unless you use bootcamp and an external display. If you get it to work, let me know how! I'm hoping the new release of iLife will support blu-ray since they are removing iDvd.

External display? Where did you get that from?

Anyway, external blu-ray drives work fine on Macs.

The Mac Pro folk seem to like LG drives in their towers. One guy has a Pioneer.

Probably go for LG cause I think they're cheaper - you'll still need to buy an enclosure yourself though.

[3lionsbecks]

Do you have to bootcamp for it to work or is the previous poster incorrect?

[bolen]

Do you have to bootcamp for it to work or is the previous poster incorrect?

Yes, for watching movies. OS X doesn't support the HDCP/DRM-thingy.

Burning/reading data-BR as well as burning home movies should work fine in OS X as long as you have a 3rd party software that does the job.

[rkahl]

External display? Where did you get that from?

Anyway, external blu-ray drives work fine on Macs.

The Mac Pro folk seem to like LG drives in their towers. One guy has a Pioneer.

Probably go for LG cause I think they're cheaper - you'll still need to buy an enclosure yourself though.

I've tried everything to watch blu-ray movies using my external blu-ray player on my iMac. I read that it can't be done, so I ran it on bootcamp. When I tried it in bootcamp it gave me a error message about analog mode and the current display.

Do you have an iMac? How did you get it to work?

[npropes]

I've tried everything to watch blu-ray movies using my external blu-ray player on my iMac. I read that it can't be done, so I ran it on bootcamp. When I tried it in bootcamp it gave me a error message about analog mode and the current display.

Do you have an iMac? How did you get it to work?

There are some rather serious compatibility issues when it comes to BluRay playback software and Windows. Several versions of Cyberlink's PowerDVD HD does not work with Windows 7. Unfortunately these are usually the "free" versions included with the drive.

I haven't had any issues setting up my gf's 2009 iMac for BluRay playback.

[rkahl]

There are some rather serious compatibility issues when it comes to BluRay playback software and Windows. Several versions of Cyberlink's PowerDVD HD does not work with Windows 7. Unfortunately these are usually the "free" versions included with the drive.

I haven't had any issues setting up my gf's 2009 iMac for BluRay playback.


What software did you use to get it working on your gf's iMac? How did you get past the hdcp error? I don't want to spend alot of money just to watch blu-ray on my computer.

[Cave Man]

Blu-ray playback under OS X requires a Blu-ray ROM driver or burner (mine's in a USB2 enclosure), Make MKV and VLC. Once you mount the Blu-ray disk, unlock it with Make MKV and start its streaming server. Then open the stream in VLC or other streaming-aware application. You do not get the Blu-ray disc menus, but you should get the movie with up to 5.1 audio (Dolby Digital or DTS) provided your Mac is connected by optical port (and maybe HDMI) to an appropriate receiver.

[rkahl]

Blu-ray playback under OS X requires a Blu-ray ROM driver or burner (mine's in a USB2 enclosure), Make MKV and VLC. Once you mount the Blu-ray disk, unlock it with Make MKV and start its streaming server. Then open the stream in VLC or other streaming-aware application. You do not get the Blu-ray disc menus, but you should get the movie with up to 5.1 audio (Dolby Digital or DTS) provided your Mac is connected by optical port (and maybe HDMI) to an appropriate receiver.

Thanks, but sounds like too much work! I don't understand why apple won't support blu-ray (almost stubborn like), hopefully the new mystery application will help redeem steve.

[Cave Man]

The first couple of times is a pain, but it's more reliable than using Windows in my experience.

While Jobs has never specified, I suspect it's because the licensing terms of Blu-ray are too intrusive in the operating system.

[The.316]

I use the LG external Blu Ray burner, and while I dont play blu rays on my iMac, it works fine reading and burning.