Fitting of a Panasonic Blu-Ray Drive to an iMac 27"

[Arkious]

Other means? As in a program to run in os x or like installing Windows and playing blu ray through there instead?

Yes, using a form of software in MacOS otherwise i wouldnt bother as booting to windows using the wireless keyboard is annoying as it is

Interesting, what was the name of the software and is that to play in snow leopard or boot camped windows?

you have me intrigued mate, this is something I've been wondering about for a while now so real interested in how you get on

I tried VLC (Terd), MPlayer (Terd), Plex (Wouldnt actually load the program), and finally XBMC (which is fantastic). It is a free download that opens up like a media centre but you simply click the part of the blu-ray you want to play and BANG... off it goes

If i can get the screen off on wed, i will order the blu-ray drive then.

is there any known reason why Apple have decided to take this line with the successor to the DVD.
Surely they realise that any computer system, especially one that purports to be the 'media' system for all-round entertainment that doesn't support Blu-Ray will probably disappear the way of the dinosaurs?

iTunes... They have to 'force' us some how

a) Cause its' Apple. b) Not sure really. But they're clearly pushing and supporting digital download, wouldn't you say? All those content on iTunes and Apple TV etc. Surely that means they just want to be locked in their own eco system.

But its' really confusing since they're associated with media stuff, like FC etc etc. so how do they turn those high definition lovely stuff on to blu ray? Think OS X does support blu-ray burning or with Toast at least. Really confusing! So Apple supports it a little bit just don't want you to play back stuff on Mac.

It's a Steve issue , naa like i said they have to market iTunes. In reality, animated movies from Disney Pixar and Dreamworks etc look best on blu-ray... by a long shot! so they capture the market from both sides. like you said they have to market the digital download side of things.

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I think it has to do with licensing fees they'd have to pay to Sony if they wanted to support Blu-Ray. Apple likes to stick to their own technology.

Or amend other ideas :-D

Apart from this longggggg winded way of using VLC to play Blu-rays:

http://sites.google.com/site/ultimatemacupgrades/articles/0000002y/requirements/step-4

have you found or know of any other ways to play Blu-rays on a mac? you got me hooked on this thread, i'd love to do the same thing! but other than toast 11 to burn on it, have you got a way of taking any further advantage of the drive?

Yes, XBMC

It's not that long. You can remember how to do it after doing it only once and when you need to, it'll take a couple minutes the next time you gotta do it again. Probably the same amount of time as it would take to go through the warning crap and dynamic menus

And yes, I have a Blu-Ray drive on my Mac Pro and have watched BD movies on it so I know

What do you use? VLC?

WOW. What a long winded way to do it. But nice to know it is at least possible. Still no program out there for click (less clicks than the tutorial) and play?

Simple with XBMC, however i am still to try it with an actual disk but i shall let you know how it goes

 

[wonderspark]

Simple with XBMC, however i am still to try it with an actual disk but i shall let you know how it goes

I have been watching commercial Blu-ray movies in OSX from disc via the MakeMKV --> VLC method, and was excited to see how XBMC handled commercial Blu-ray discs.

It doesn't work. It will play BD-R discs that I burned myself, and it will play commercial Blu-ray movies I ripped to my HDD, but commercial BR discs played directly from disc just give an error.

I'm sure you could use it to play a stream via MakeMKV, just like VLC does, but then I'd have to figure out how to get it to my 30" ACD screen, since XBMC plays everything on my smaller 22" screen by default. For now, VLC is the way to go for me.

Hopefully, someone figures out a simpler way to watch these.

 

[Arkious]

I have been watching commercial Blu-ray movies in OSX from disc via the MakeMKV --> VLC method, and was excited to see how XBMC handled commercial Blu-ray discs.

It doesn't work. It will play BD-R discs that I burned myself, and it will play commercial Blu-ray movies I ripped to my HDD, but commercial BR discs played directly from disc just give an error.

I'm sure you could use it to play a stream via MakeMKV, just like VLC does, but then I'd have to figure out how to get it to my 30" ACD screen, since XBMC plays everything on my smaller 22" screen by default. For now, VLC is the way to go for me.

Hopefully, someone figures out a simpler way to watch these.

Thanks for the feedback bud i can start to hunt again then

 

[Vylen]

Yes, I used MakeMKV + VLC. Worked fine.

 

[Sylonien]

Is complicate but I'm very glad to know there is a way at least. Cause first I thought it was impossible then I thought I had to boot into Windows every time I want to watch anything.

I just don't get Apple sometimes. Their Final Cut Studio tech page says:

- Easy Export supports presets for background export to Apple TV, MobileMe, iPhone, iPod, YouTube, DVD, Blu-ray disc

- Apple-designed menus for DVD and animated menus for Blu-ray discs

http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/specs/#finalcutpro

So why on earth don't they give you the drive to burn stuff at least even if they don't want you to watch stuff on the Mac!?

 

[Arkious]

sorry i am slacking a bit, as i went to order the drive it was removed from ebay xD. As soon as its available i will order it!

 

[I AM THE MAN]

Good Luck! Reply back on how everything turns out.

 

[moneyman118]

What happened?? Can you not find the drive??

 

[nathanjbrown]

I know I'm bringing this topic back from the dead, but I'm very curious to know how it went.

I installed a UJ-225 in an old 20" iMac and I had problems with the drive "pulling" in the disc once the iMac was put back together. The aluminum of the iMac was simply too thick and resulted in the drive being too far inside the iMac. My only method of inserting a disk was with the tip of a ballpoint pen (which enabled me to push the disc in far enough for the drive to grab it).

How did your install go?

Nathan

 

[Arkious]

sorry on the late reply, been a while since i logged in.

i ran into money difficulties and never managed to buy one, but im still looking at doing it shortly.

is there no way you can modify it to pull the disk earlier?

how do the blu-rays work

 

[nathanjbrown]

Funny thing...I just received my new Panasonic UJ235 in the mail last week! I haven't had a moment to open up my 27" iMac, but I'll try to do so in the next week. I'll report back. I'm REALLY hoping that it "grabs" the disc better than the UJ225. It's also a different iMac, so perhaps that will make the difference.

 

[Arkious]

Funny thing...I just received my new Panasonic UJ235 in the mail last week! I haven't had a moment to open up my 27" iMac, but I'll try to do so in the next week. I'll report back. I'm REALLY hoping that it "grabs" the disc better than the UJ225. It's also a different iMac, so perhaps that will make the difference.

oooooooo id be very interested to know how it goes

im busy modifying the facure of a DVD Tray Loader to fit the iMac G3, the modification is so it looks exactly original. When i found that it could be upgraded to DVD, i also found it was upgradeable to Blu-Ray... i was like OMG that would be more pointless than me upgrading it to a DVD!

 

[nathanjbrown]

Hello All,

I know this is an old post, but I thought I'd provide an update regarding the UJ235 slot load Blu-ray drive I planned on installing in my 2011 27" iMac.

Well...I've been using it as an external and haven't even opened up the iMac yet! Boring report, I know. I've been waiting for someone to release a stable, high-capacity SSD that I can install while digging around inside the iMac so that I'm not opening it up more frequently than required.

Intel seems to have finally stabilized the firmware on their 600GB 320 series of SSD, so I may pull the trigger soon and get this project moving (moments before it's all obsolete, I'm sure). Samsung has a nice, highly-regarded 512GB SSD and, of course, OWC has their 480GB. It's just a matter of how big is big enough (I'll be removing the stock 1TB HDD so I need as much SSD storage as possible).

I promise to report back when I finally get this done...

Nathan

 

[HookedonHD]

Hello All,

I know this is an old post, but I thought I'd provide an update regarding the UJ235 slot load Blu-ray drive I planned on installing in my 2011 27" iMac.

Well...I've been using it as an external and haven't even opened up the iMac yet! Boring report, I know. I've been waiting for someone to release a stable, high-capacity SSD that I can install while digging around inside the iMac so that I'm not opening it up more frequently than required.

Intel seems to have finally stabilized the firmware on their 600GB 320 series of SSD, so I may pull the trigger soon and get this project moving (moments before it's all obsolete, I'm sure). Samsung has a nice, highly-regarded 512GB SSD and, of course, OWC has their 480GB. It's just a matter of how big is big enough (I'll be removing the stock 1TB HDD so I need as much SSD storage as possible).

I promise to report back when I finally get this done...

Nathan

So any news on the installation? I have a mid-2011 iMac 27" and I have already upgraded the hd to a 2tb and installed a 120gb ssd. Last week I picked up a intel i7-2600k CPU which I'm going to install in it. I have purchased the extended warranty with my apple however I'm pretty computer savvy hence why I do all the work myself. Also there is a good blu-ray app for the mac that I use and dragging a whole folder or an ISO of a movie to the program just starts playing it.

 

[nathanjbrown]

So any news on the installation? I have a mid-2011 iMac 27" and I have already upgraded the hd to a 2tb and installed a 120gb ssd. Last week I picked up a intel i7-2600k CPU which I'm going to install in it. I have purchased the extended warranty with my apple however I'm pretty computer savvy hence why I do all the work myself. Also there is a good blu-ray app for the mac that I use and dragging a whole folder or an ISO of a movie to the program just starts playing it.

Good news (tho I'm running a 2010 iMac). Check it out!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1427930/

Nathan