Macbook Pro with Blu ray drive!

[waywardsage]

So, after copius trial and error, I was able to get blu ray working on my 17" Penryn Macbook Pro. I tried running it internally, but no dice, so i was forced to get a USB enclosure and run it via USB. And it runs great! I'm using Power DVD 9 Ultra via Windows XP. I tried playing a variety of Blu ray's and it works swimmingly.

And hey, on the bright side, I can take this blu ray drive to other comptuters!

Check out my poorly lit iPhone pics!

 

[DKatri]

cool, i would love something like this. the only thing is, is MBP screen HD?

 

[NeGRit0]

That's Awesome! You think your setup would work with a 2.4 Penryn Blackbook? Do you have to run it in windows though, and just out of curiosity, why XP and not 7??

 

[michael.lauden]

cool, i would love something like this. the only thing is, is MBP screen HD?

who cares, the screen is 17", unless you have a magnifying glass

you aren't going to notice much of a difference between blu ray and downloaded 1080p content. if you 'think' you do, then congrats

 

[waywardsage]

That's Awesome! You think your setup would work with a 2.4 Penryn Blackbook? Do you have to run it in windows though, and just out of curiosity, why XP and not 7??

Mine is a 2.6 Penryn Macbook Pro. Yours should work fine. Any windows XP, Vista and 7 should work fine. Power DVD Ultra 9 is the key. Pretty much the best blu ray playback software. They only have a Windows edition.

 

[waywardsage]

cool, i would love something like this. the only thing is, is MBP screen HD?

My Macbook Pro has the high def. screen option 1920X1200.

 

[vampyr]

hmm.. I was excited, until I read the post.

So you have an external blu-ray drive, that works only in Windows XP using a $100+ dollar movie viewing software?

Hmm... not sure why it's worth all that when you could buy a Windows XP laptop that has blu-ray built in.

 

[waywardsage]

hmm.. I was excited, until I read the post.

So you have an external blu-ray drive, that works only in Windows XP using a $100+ dollar movie viewing software?

Hmm... not sure why it's worth all that when you could buy a Windows XP laptop that has blu-ray built in.

I'd originally bought it as an internal drive. But it wouldn't connect fast enough internally. So i was forced to go external. But, the added benefit, is i can switch computers with it.

But, unfortunately, Power DVD Ultra 9 is pretty much the only option for blu ray playback via windows. But in its defense, it works great. If you download the trial version, you can upgrade to the full for $70.

If you had a windows laptop with blu ray, you'd still have to buy PowerDVD. At least, the external drive allows you to roll with just one laptop.

 

[DKatri]

who cares, the screen is 17", unless you have a magnifying glass

you aren't going to notice much of a difference between blu ray and downloaded 1080p content. if you 'think' you do, then congrats

what i meant was would the it even make any difference as opposed to a normal DVD because if the screen wont handle the higher def would it look any different.

My Macbook Pro has the high def. screen option 1920X1200.

Niice..

 

[Mr Dobey]

I'd originally bought it as an internal drive. But it wouldn't connect fast enough internally. So i was forced to go external. But, the added benefit, is i can switch computers with it.

But, unfortunately, Power DVD Ultra 9 is pretty much the only option for blu ray playback via windows. But in its defense, it works great. If you download the trial version, you can upgrade to the full for $70.

If you had a windows laptop with blu ray, you'd still have to buy PowerDVD. At least, the external drive allows you to roll with just one laptop.

"it wouldn't connect fast enough internally"

I'm curious to know if the optical drive bay connection on your 17" MacBook Pro is SATA or PATA? on my 15" 2.33 GHz MacBook Pro the connection is PATA, that's why my MCE drive runs slightly slower than the same drive in the standard bay. If it is indeed PATA would guess this is the reason for it being "too slow" but if that is the case how did you connect it to your SATA port?

 

[waywardsage]

"it wouldn't connect fast enough internally"

I'm curious to know if the optical drive bay connection on your 17" MacBook Pro is SATA or PATA? on my 15" 2.33 GHz MacBook Pro the connection is PATA, that's why my MCE drive runs slightly slower than the same drive in the standard bay. If it is indeed PATA would guess this is the reason for it being "too slow" but if that is the case how did you connect it to your SATA port?

It is indeed PATA. For some reason it won't run in Ultra DMA mode no matter what i've tried. And, i think that it would have to in order to sustain the throughput to display HD video without stuttering. I tried several times but it started to stutter playback after only a few seconds. Which is weird, because i put it in an external USB enclosure and it works great via USB.