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LG GGC-H20LI Blu-Ray/HD-DVD drive install?

janstett said:
LG's combo Blu-Ray & HD-DVD player has hit the streets at a price of $299. I'm thinking of adding one to my Mac Pro but first some questions:

(1) DVD player has an HD tab now with Leopard -- has anybody played either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD on Leopard? Not much use in buying the drive if I can't play anything back on it.

(2) The specs say this is a SATA device. I've never seen a SATA CD-ROM before -- any issues plugging this into bay 2 of my Mac Pro? I'm assuming the existing super drive is ATA.
Click to expand...

Just so you're clear on this point, you won't be able to watch commercial Blu-Ray discs on your mac since this requires an HDCP compliant pipeline. In short the GPU, the graphics board, the OS, the display, and the Apple's DVD player all need to be HDCP-enabled, which they're not at the moment.

It's debatable whether or not one would even want such intrusive and resource-intensive DRM built into Leopard and Apple hardware. Just look at Vista, the OS that DRM built.

The only current solution for playback of commercial Blu-Ray discs is to install an XP or Vista partition and run Slysoft's Any-DVD HD which will rip the contents to your hard drive. I'm not sure whether or not the rip will be playable in Apple's DVD player, but Slysoft's package includes PowerDVD which will play it in Windows.
 
Bummer. I thought for a second that the drive was a BR burner. I guess not at $299.
 
My copy of Toast 8 asked if I wanted to enable BD support when I installed it. I just have not gotten around to installing the drive yet. I bought my MP with the expectation of not taking it apart all the time.

Oh well so much for that idea. Now I need to put in the BD drive and soon enough figure out how to wedge a new velociraptor in there too. :D
 
It is unfortunate, but I bought one of these LG BR/HD-DVD drives and they only work properly in Vista. With Vista I was able to play commercial BR / HD-DVD movies with PowerDVD 8 Ultra with no problems.

Here's hoping that Apple will enable BR / HD-DVD capability somehow with MacPro in the future!
 
yeroen said:
The only current solution for playback of commercial Blu-Ray discs is to install an XP or Vista partition and run Slysoft's Any-DVD HD which will rip the contents to your hard drive. I'm not sure whether or not the rip will be playable in Apple's DVD player, but Slysoft's package includes PowerDVD which will play it in Windows.
Click to expand...
If they only made AnyDVD Hd for OsX...
 
Can't see superdrive now!

So, with a little time and effort, I managed to install my new LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray optical drive in my Mac Pro this evening.

I booted up my Mac Pro and immediately opened the drive, and voila, it is recognized. I inserted a BR Disc and it recognized it as a writeable disc.

However, my Mac is not recognizing my Mac Superdrive in Optical Bay 1.

Any suggestions? Has anyone else run into this problem.

I DID NOT change the jumper setting on the Superdrive in Bay 1, figuring it was wise to leave it in the default setting. Could this be a possible solution, and if so, how should I set the jumper?

Thanks in advance everyone.

PAX
 
yeroen said:
Just so you're clear on this point, you won't be able to watch commercial Blu-Ray discs on your mac since this requires an HDCP compliant pipeline. In short the GPU, the graphics board, the OS, the display, and the Apple's DVD player all need to be HDCP-enabled, which they're not at the moment.
Click to expand...

I keep seeing this statement all over the internet about the mac pro. I'm not sure about the 2600, but the 8800 certainly does have the HDCP chip on board, so should in theory be able to output protected content, also its not that hard to find an HDCP compliant display - I have a Samsung 245B that I switch between my Pro and PS3 - works a treat (apart from not having 1:1 pixel mapping). Of course this is not to say that DVD player or the OS itself support HDCP, but they are software so upgradable.

paxjea - I understand the BD drive is connected using SATA. If so, you shouldn't have to change the jumpers. To be safe though (in case there is a conflict) I would ensure the superdrive is connected to the primary part of the PATA cable (on the end, not in the middle) and set it to master. Also, just check that the power or PATA havent been dislodged while you were working on the BD Drive.
 
Are you sure you need an "HDCP" drm enabled display for that stuff? My ps3 plays blue rays on my tv thats 7 years old and only does 480i.
 
paxjea said:
I DID NOT change the jumper setting on the Superdrive in Bay 1, figuring it was wise to leave it in the default setting. Could this be a possible solution, and if so, how should I set the jumper?
Click to expand...

I am hazarding a guess that the Mac Pro's also use IDE Cable Select like the Power Macs did. So if you only had one optical drive, it should be fine.

Sure you didn't dislodge the IDE cable at either end or the power cable when you were routing the SATA cable up to the BR unit?
 
CWallace said:
I am hazarding a guess that the Mac Pro's also use IDE Cable Select like the Power Macs did. So if you only had one optical drive, it should be fine.

Sure you didn't dislodge the IDE cable at either end or the power cable when you were routing the SATA cable up to the BR unit?
Click to expand...

Not to mention an IDE drive's jumper settings wouldn't effect a drive on Sata or vice versa - 2 different controllers.
 
if anyone is trying to get them to work in windows, while using (one of) the two sata ports on the motherboard it is possible, but you need to boot windows through a bootloader (GRUB) and use a customised bootfile, this has added benefit that all sata ports are faster in windows
 
CWallace said:
True, but the Super Drive uses the IDE controller and that is the drive paxjea said was no longer working. :)
Click to expand...

I was half agreeing with you on that one. Ya, the old drive should be fine - its on cable select and a new ide drive on the same controller would be fine. But the second drive is sata - meaning the jumper settings on the either drive is irrelevant as it's two different controllers. So the only the thing would be he knocked a cable loose - like you suggested. :D
 
zmttoxics said:
Are you sure you need an "HDCP" drm enabled display for that stuff? My ps3 plays blue rays on my tv thats 7 years old and only does 480i.
Click to expand...

HDCP only counts for HD content being delivered at HD quality. Your PS3 is currently downscaling to SD for playback on your TV. If you had an HD TV without HDCP then the PS3 would either downscale to 480/575 or not show anything at all

The only reason I suggest checking the jumper setting is that I never really trusted CS - bit of a control freak!
 
I have the LG installed in my mac pro. I used a sata to eide converter. I got it from .span.com, they tested the the firmware in the adapter becase not all adapter spport disc burning. Using the spare sata ports will not work,(use google) it will only anoy you. Encyrpted HD or Blue Ray discs are not supported in OSX. You can play back HDVIDEO_TS unencyrpted folder that you created DVD SP. I use dvd Encore to auther Blu -Ray Discs ( unencyrpted )
Toast also supports Blu - Ray data and video burning ( unencyrpted ). Thats about it, unless you go the ChaVista route. :cool:
 
waldo99 said:
Using the spare sata ports will not work,(use google) it will only anoy you.
Click to expand...

you are wrong, they do work, i have 2 DVD writers installed in my mac pro on the spare SATA ports, they work perfectly for burning in both os X and Windows, i also tried the above mentioned LG Blu Ray player which also worked, but removed it again as i have no need for blue ray movies.

only annoying thing is fiddling to get the cables connected
 
He meant that the Mac Pro's internal SATA ports won't work properly with the LG GGW-H20L for Blu-ray burning in Toast. Which was actually true until very recently.

See page 3 of this thread at the Roxio forum:

http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=36830&st=0

From what I've gathered, Roxio is sending out beta versions of Toast 9 (to current Toast 9 owners obviously) that allows the burning of Blu-ray discs in Toast using the LG GGW-H20L Blu-ray drive in a Mac Pro connected to the optical drive SATA ports (the ones hidden behind the fan).

In the above thread, you will also see mentioned two different firmware versions for the LG GGW-H20L. I'm not certain if the beta version of Toast 9 being sent to individuals works with BOTH LG firmware versions, or just one. However, read the message by Mike Boreham in this Apple Discussion thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7209692

Mike seems to indicate that you will want the older YLO2 version of the firmware installed for proper Finder Blu-ray burning.

Also, you will see that Mike received a mysterious "check your E-mail" message from Roxio on May 5. Then, in the Apple Discussion thread above, Mike mentioned a beta version of Toast that fixes the Blu-ray burning in Toast. That was on May 15. I think it's pretty safe to assume Mike received a Beta version of Toast from Roxio.

Mark
 
Tray size too big for optical slot

I was able to install the LG GGW-H20L blu-ray into the 2nd optical slot in my Mac Pro, but the front of the drive tray is larger than the slot hole on the Mac. I'm thinking I have something wrong since no one has mentioned this issue here. Is there a way to take off the front part of the tray so it is thinner? It really is just the very front lip that is an issue.

steve
 
How about putting a blu-ray into an external enclosure, would that work without adapter, sata, ide, etc issues?

This wouldn't be for hdcp movies obviously.
 
Can somebody tell me how to modify the GRUB bootload so I can use this drive in XP on my early 08?
 
ambidext said:
I was able to install the LG GGW-H20L blu-ray into the 2nd optical slot in my Mac Pro, but the front of the drive tray is larger than the slot hole on the Mac. I'm thinking I have something wrong since no one has mentioned this issue here. Is there a way to take off the front part of the tray so it is thinner? It really is just the very front lip that is an issue.

steve
Click to expand...

Did you take out the face plate off the front of the tray? G5's and Mac Pro Optical drives are installed with the face plate off, so the tray ejects through the front case drive slots.
 
kingkezz said:
Can somebody tell me how to modify the GRUB bootload so I can use this drive in XP on my early 08?
Click to expand...

this thread has all the info:
http://forum.onmac.net/showthread.php?t=2739

i did the following:

i installed unbuntu and windows xp, on two partitions of a hard drive, the unbuntu one can be small, i don't actually use unbuntu, it just makes it easier to change and setup grub, i have a 250gb HD, and used 70gb for unbuntu

changed the driver in xp to the intel ahci one:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Default.aspx?lang=eng
get the correct one, as far as i know the old mac pro is 5000x board the new mac pro 5400

then i booted in ubunted and loaded the stage1 grub file as posted in the thread i linked, just make sure to always boot windows through grub from then on, i am not 100% sure the stage1 is still correct for the new macPro, but i think it is, it only changes behaviour after booting through grub so it wont hurt to try this out
 
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