Blu-Ray Burner for Mac Pro!

http://www.lge.com/us/computer-products/optical-media/LG-internal-dvd-burner-GBW-H20L.jsp

The LG Blu-Rays are fine. I have the ROM version which is internally fitted in the second drive bay and connected to the ODD-SATA port of my 2006 Mac Pro.

OS X recognises it as a Superdrive and will burn DVDs or boot from it.

Windows will play BD media after the AHCI driver is fitted to the SATA ports.

I also agree, stick with the LG GBW-H20L or GGW-H20L. I use one and it works great. It can also be found on NewEgg for ~$150. Just run a SATA cable from the logic board up to the optical bay.

I didn't realize they had gotten so inexpensive! Can this actually burn a Blu-Ray disc, playable in a consumer Blu-Ray player? (FCE>Toast10>Blu-Ray)

Okay... how many BR discs are you going to burn? Remember, a 25 pack of quality BR discs costs ~$80. BR is a waste of money IMHO. Each disc costs a fortune, disc burning hardware costs a fortune, disc reading costs a fortune. BR isn't like a Ferrari sports car compared to a Toyota. More like Honda compared to a Toyota.

Blu-Ray is mainstream and the right medium for 1080p quality video. Neither hard disk nor online or Flash are suitable for 12 GB video files. A pitty that Apple still cannot see the light.

SnowLeopard2008 said:

Okay... how many BR discs are you going to burn? Remember, a 25 pack of quality BR discs costs ~$80. BR is a waste of money IMHO. Each disc costs a fortune, disc burning hardware costs a fortune, disc reading costs a fortune. BR isn't like a Ferrari sports car compared to a Toyota. More like Honda compared to a Toyota.

Click to expand...

I totally agree and this is what's keeping me from buying one myself. The media is just way too expensive for practical use. Unless you are making money from it, it's a waist.

For the cost of 25 disks, you could get a 1tb hd.

Zokim said:

[...]it's a waist.

Click to expand...

Hip. It's a hip...

BB

Zokim said:

I totally agree and this is what's keeping me from buying one myself. The media is just way too expensive for practical use. Unless you are making money from it, it's a waist.

For the cost of 25 disks, you could get a 1tb hd.

Click to expand...

but the same was said back when DVD-R and later DVD-DL came out... Over time the prices will get lower...

I remember paying > $250 for my first DVD burner and $200 for a pack of 50 blanks.

As adoption picks up, and more and more computers come with the drives built in, the prices will drop....

And some of us really NEED the space!

Zokim said:

For the cost of 25 disks, you could get a 1tb hd.

Click to expand...

Except you can't drop, submerge, or place an HDD in extreme conditions.

Yeah, for distribution of long run true HD video nothing is as cost effective as a Blu-Ray.

One minute of high quality movie in H.264 takes 90 MB/min. If you burn a movie like "The dark Kight" which is currently broadcasting on Sky HD in Europe over Sky Cinema HD you need a 13,1 GB data carrier. If you burn a standard 90 min movie with the same quality you still need 8,1 GB. So standard movies can go on a DL-DVD for 1$. Two h + videos take BD-R which cost 3,5$. Still not very expensive.

Careful on the mcetech. Its eide/atapi, not sata.

Ivo10 said:

Hey guys,

I was hoping you could recommend me a Blu-Ray burner for my new Mac Pro.

From what I've found, these are the top 2 choices:

http://www.mcetech.com/blu-ray/

and

http://www.lge.com/us/computer-products/optical-media/LG-external-dvd-burner-BE06LU11.jsp

The second one is external - I prefer internal that I can drop into the Mac Pro. But it does have LightScribe - nice! Maybe there's something out there that is internal AND has LightScribe?


Any recommendations? Who here has installed a blu-ray burner into their Mac Pro?

Click to expand...

Burning Blu-Ray...

senseless said:

I didn't realize they had gotten so inexpensive! Can this actually burn a Blu-Ray disc, playable in a consumer Blu-Ray player? (FCE>Toast10>Blu-Ray)

Click to expand...

Just to actually answer the question asked... I've got a 10.6.1 Hackintosh (Gigabyte) with the LG WH10LS30 (SATA) that burns SL/DL Blu-Ray discs. I bought one DL Blu-Ray for $14 (Fry's) but I did not burn it yet. I'm using Toast 10.0.8, and have created (successfully) blu-ray movies and backup DVD's. Burning takes a VERY long time as my media is crap however, I think the prices are dropping enough as the LG drive is $109 @ (NewEgg)

As far as playing the blu-ray discs on the mac, the drive will not, but I think with the correct software it might work (VLC???)..

I also bought 25 SL Blu-Ray Discs for $24.99 @ Fry's. They had a $19.99 - 25pk, but couldn't find them (go figure).

I would say that prices are just right for us "early adopters" and since we are not talking about GB, but TB serious HD Movie buffs or DSLR consumers need to start thinking about making the Blu-Ray upgrade. Heck, my old DVD Burner needed an upgrade and for $100 bucks replacing it with a faster DVD Burner + Blu-Ray Burner was a no-brainer....

What is the best solution for playing Blu-Ray video discs in Mac OS X? Is there one!? I am in the dark here...

Can you even play Blu-Ray video under Mac OS X?

Can you play it in VLC?

Please help.

Thanks!

WardC said:

What is the best solution for playing Blu-Ray video discs in Mac OS X? Is there one!? I am in the dark here...

Can you even play Blu-Ray video under Mac OS X?

Can you play it in VLC?

Please help.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/841318/

There's not a good solution for playback in OSX.

The options are pretty much:
- use something like MakeMKV to rip the Bluray and play the ripped file
- use MakeMKV to decode the Bluray on the fly and play it in another program like VLC

See the following thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/841318/

spoon2eric said:

Just to actually answer the question asked... I've got a 10.6.1 Hackintosh (Gigabyte) with the LG WH10LS30 (SATA) that burns SL/DL Blu-Ray discs. I bought one DL Blu-Ray for $14 (Fry's) but I did not burn it yet. I'm using Toast 10.0.8, and have created (successfully) blu-ray movies and backup DVD's.

Click to expand...

I have a similar setup (albeit running 10.5.8), with the same drive, and can't seem to burn anything. Have you had any success burning BD-R from Disk Utility, or perhaps even from FCP? I don't have Toast, and would rather not add an extra step, unless that's the only way to make it work.