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Blu-ray or DVD?

wizzywig27

wizzywig27

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 27, 2012
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I suppose it really depends on what you want to do. I've a Sony external blu-ray rewriter (unfortunately no longer made othwise I'd recommend that one). I use with my iMac for ripping my blu-rays so I can put the films on my iPad. I also use it to actually backup files to for offsite storage too. I'm not sure if macs actually now support writing to blu-ray as I use Toast Titanium for writing blu-rays. If you want to do that then you may need to factor that into the cost.

I wouldn't worry too much about USB3 as the limiting factor is likely to be the speed of the drive (I've a USB2 and FireWire 800 external DVD rewriter and the FireWire interface is barely faster).

Final tip would be if you want to go down blu-ray writer route it is cheaper to buy the disks from Japan. I recently bought five 50GB dual layer discs for just over £12 and they arrived in the UK about a week later.
 
I don't think I will be writing too many Blu ray discs, so thinking I may go for a DVD instead, I will only be ripping music and installing games etc

may get a time capsule to back up files but also considering external USB instead as much cheaper.
 
I have looked at that one, I am going to hold off until I have to buy a drive until I decide.

(The thing which slightly puts me off is that they call it a Blue Ray drive, just something about it being spelt wrong. Silly I know)
 
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flynz4 said:
For an optical drive... it just doesn't matter. The optical media is the choke point... not the interface.
Click to expand...

I have a notion that the 900 mA available to USB3 (vs. 500 mA for USB2) somehow allows faster reading... but I honestly don't know what I'm talking about.
 
DisMyMac said:
I have a notion that the 900 mA available to USB3 (vs. 500 mA for USB2) somehow allows faster reading... but I honestly don't know what I'm talking about.
Click to expand...

That is obvious. The power supplied by USB does not reflect the read speed of the drive.
 
flynz4 said:
For an optical drive... it just doesn't matter. The optical media is the choke point... not the interface.
Click to expand...

False.

x14 speed for blu-ray requires 504Mbit/s.
Last I checked, USB2's theoretical maximum speed was 480Mbit/s. Real world USB2 is good for 275Mbit/s, or 8x blu-ray.

So, yes, USB2 IS in fact a limit on blu-ray read speed.

This fact is further proven in the USB2 full-size drives are limited to 6x speeds while USB3 models can do 12x.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827249040
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106373
 
BitterCreek said:
False.

x14 speed for blu-ray requires 504Mbit/s.
Last I checked, USB2's theoretical maximum speed was 480Mbit/s. Real world USB2 is good for 275Mbit/s, or 8x blu-ray.

So, yes, USB2 IS in fact a limit on blu-ray read speed.

This fact is further proven in the USB2 full-size drives are limited to 6x speeds while USB3 models can do 12x.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827249040
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106373
Click to expand...

My reply was tainted by the OP's statement that he was not getting Blu-ray. I concede that I should have been more specific than simply stating "optical media".

/Jim
 
flynz4 said:
My reply was tainted by the OP's statement that he was not getting Blu-ray.
Click to expand...

I was discussing blu-ray because that is the type of drive he linked to.
He said he won't be watching movies, but he may be authoring movies or writing data to BD. In either case there is significant write time difference between 6x and 12x for zero price difference.
 
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