will i be able to just plug that in and install it or do i have to change things to osx new to these things ?
No, should work right out of the box...As I said I f you hang on a couple of days I will review it..The included software is Windows only, but it's not required. All you need is a fresh copy of Handbrake ( free) and VLC ( also free:
http://handbrake.fr
VLC:
http://www2.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html
Armed with these two you are good to go!
So all i need to do is install the blu-ray, and install the software quoted above and i am good to go ? Plus can you use the drive to play music, put cd games in ie football manger 2013 ? also do i have to buy that port thing or can i plug staraight into the imac usb ?
There are external blu-ray drives on ebay for £20-£25, they get linked on HUKD all the time. They're just notebook bluray drives in compact caddies, but they look fine & do the job.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=external+blu+ray+drive
assuming you just want to read blurays and not write them.
Amazon UK have it, and if you are in the US it's there too:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...ds=asus+bw-12d1s-u&rh=i:aps,k:asus+bw-12d1s-u
No i am in the uk i just cant find one in the uk for sale
Bear in mind thats a writer, so its expensive for what you want it to do. If you search ebay for 'external bluray drive' there will be lots for very cheap. no need to be spending £100/$100 for a reader.
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use the ebay link i posted above or just search ebay for external bluray drive. loads for £20
http://www.expansys.com/asus-bw-12d...tm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=base&ito=1701
I think i will go for the asus one as if i need to make blu-rays its there for the future. Is that store ok to buy from ?
it will be fine. if you are on topcashback you can get 3.5% back with expansys.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned yet that you'll have to purchase a software player to actually play buy-rays once you have the drive - you've got a few alternatives for this:
I'll recommend this one as a software blu-ray player: http://www.macblurayplayer.com/
It's a great software solution, constantly being updated.. doesn't support blu-ray menu's yet but no doubt it's on it's way, but you can watch the movie itself from the disc. You can't do this with VLC alone currently.
If you just want a reader and not a burner then there are plenty of external models under £50 now, I'm sure this one will do the job:
http://www.saverstore.com/product/20052626/Plextor-External-Slim-Blu-ray-Player--Top-Loading--Optical-Drive
Personally, as long as you've bought the disc, I prefer to rip the file from the disc and onto my hard drive so I can view it from my desktop or play it back on a media player connected to my TV (that's because I don't own a blu-ray player for my TV set, but I do have a Western Digital media box which will play back the ripped file.
You can use Makemkv to do this, it will simply re-wrap the video into an MKV container (no transcoding) so there is zero loss of quality (works the same with DVD's)
For blu-ray you're looking at a 20-30Gb file, for DVD usually around 4-8Gb.
Hope this helps.
Thanks northernmunky
1.Just a quick question is http://www.macblurayplayer.com FREE?
2.Will the Plextor External Slim Blu-ray Player Top Loading Optical Drive definatly work on my new 21.5-inch: 2.7GHz when i get it ?
Thanks Dan
It's not free unfortunately, but they seem to be doing a promotion at the moment, so it works out at £24.71, which ain't bad.
As for the player, yes. I bought a writer myself about 3 years ago now and it worked fine on my Macbook Pro. That model should be no different.
1. ok thanks
2. did you have to install any software when you bought it like a disk or did it install when you plugged it in ?
No software install required, its all plug and play so it will act like any other CD/DVD player reading a folder structure on a disc. In order to play a blu-ray movie title however you'll just need a software solution that can read the movie data (VLC can't do this on it's own due to the way they are encrypted) thus you have to purchase software which is licensed to do so. I don't know of any free way of doing it at the moment other than ripping the disk to your HDD.
Right i will order it now is http://www.saverstore.com/product/2...im-Blu-ray-Player--Top-Loading--Optical-Drive safe to order from ? and can you order from the uk ? and when i am up and running i will buy the software which will let me play blu-rays.
Anyone running bootcamp, this may seem a stupid question, but does windows running on bootcamp recognise an external blu ray drive ok?
I ask because I plan on adding windows to my 2012 iMac next month but I am also buying a Samsung external blu ray drive and will be using it for game discs. I understand that I need to download extra software for mac, but is this the case for windows running on my mac?
Thanks!