Blu Ray Burner/Player

I can't speak personally for the one you picked but most blu ray drives should work, just need the dedicated software to make it work as Apple won't play natively but I'm sure you already knew that.

I know pioneer has some that are successful - the actual drives

that looks really bulky. Ive seen some slim external blue ray players on amazon that have a much better design.

The one thing that i noticed with the one you chose from best buy was it was usb 3.0. Most of the blue ray drives ive seen have been usb 2.0 so that is one positive of that particular model.

I am holding out / saving for a slim blue ray drive myself.

I actually picked up that exact one earlier today. Haven't had a chance to really test it out yet.

It is a little more bulky than some of the other drives... So I'm hesitant to keep it. But I do like the silver/white finish as opposed to the black finish which many of the other drives have.

I'll let you know how it performs after I've ripped and burned some discs from it.

strauss884 said:

Anybody hook a blu ray drive up to their new Imac?

Waiting to get my mac but looking for recommendations

I came across this one and someone said they have it working with Mac Mini. It looks very "Apple" and it would fit in nice on the desk, but looks don't matter a huge deal to me. Just want good price and performance.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/LG+-+16...1&st=lg blu ray burner&cp=1&lp=5#BVRRWidgetID

Thanks

Click to expand...

I have this and can highly recommend it. Its available in black also but the white goes well with the iMac....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Ret...UIS4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1357883796&sr=8-3

zarf2007 said:

I have this and can highly recommend it. Its available in black also but the white goes well with the iMac....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Ret...UIS4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1357883796&sr=8-3

Click to expand...

I've also got this one. Works fine. I use it with one USB port only and you don't have a separate power connector.
Only thing I'm not so happy with is the closing of the disc tray. It often takes 2 or 3 tries until it snaps in. Anyone else with this issue here or am I just too stupid? Could be a manufacturing error as well.

I got this one:
http://www.sun.gr/index.php?SCREEN=products_detail&ProductID=27804
Woks great!
I already burn: CD and DVD
Read: CD, DVD and BR

"I came across this one and someone said they have it working with Mac Mini. It looks very "Apple" and it would fit in nice on the desk, but looks don't matter a huge deal to me. Just want good price and performance."

I agree with your philosophy towards looks vis-a-vis function. There are 'way too many folks here who believe "style uber alles…"

That's not the cheapest BR burner out there, but it looks pretty solid. You might also note that it's capable of burning "M-Discs", the new DVD technology that [supposedly] promises a disc life of 100 years or more...

3D and some other stuff

Will any external blu-ray drive read 3D discs assuming that your computer has the requisite hardware and software for processing and outputting 3D blu-ray to a TV or projector?

Some external blu-ray drives are advertised as playing 3D discs while some are not but it seems to me that the ones advertised as playing 3D discs just come with windows software for playing 3D discs.

Since MAC users aren't able to use the bundled windows software anyway shouldn't you be able to buy any external blu-ray player and play 3D discs after downloading blu-ray player software for MAC that can do 3D?
Is there any actual hardware difference between external blu-ray drives that are advertised as 3D capable and ones that aren't?

On a thread about the player that was mentioned multiple people reported not being able to use it with the included usb3 cord and were only able to get it to work right after switching to a usb2 cord they already had.
No one reported success using a different usb3 cord. Has anyone gotten it to work with the included usb3 cord or another usb3 cord?

Here is that other thread
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...1504518&page=3

And finally...THat player can read/write double layer blu-ray but I can't seem to find info on whether or not that player read/writes triple and quadruple layer BD-RE and triple layer BD-RE. Anyone know?

DRF said:

I've also got this one. Works fine. I use it with one USB port only and you don't have a separate power connector.
Only thing I'm not so happy with is the closing of the disc tray. It often takes 2 or 3 tries until it snaps in. Anyone else with this issue here or am I just too stupid? Could be a manufacturing error as well.

Click to expand...

I've got this drive too

I got this one several years ago. Works fine with my 2011 iMac, for ripping Blu-Rays with MakeMKV.

Needs two USB ports, but is small and sturdy, and has worked for all Blu-rays so far.