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Will this Blu-ray drive fit in my 2010 quad core mac pro?

2contagious said:
I read there were some problems with reading noises and sleep in Mac OS X. Is this inevitable?
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I'm interested in the sleeping part. I'd like to know more about this as well. Sounds pretty inconvenient.
 
2contagious said:
I read there were some problems with reading noises and sleep in Mac OS X. Is this inevitable?
Click to expand...
I've heard that there's been issues with Pioneer DVD SATA drives (i.e. ejects, but won't close), but not sure about other makes. No weird settings under Power Management either (checked for sleep on SATA ports, and looked at the rest of the settings).

2contagious said:
There was another thread about this drive:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1005647/
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I didn't see this thread, or recall others specifically on LG drives.

But it seems that there may be intermittent problems with MP's/OS X and optical drives (?drive firmware issues?).
 
Found this little note on OWC's site:

Requires disabling of hard disk sleep in Mac Pro Systems to prevent drive from disappearing during sleep.
To disable hard disk sleep go to the Apple --->System Preferences ---> Energy Saver and uncheck “Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible."
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Apparently there is issues that are caused when the drive gets the sleep command. :(

Granted this was on the page for the Pioneer drive, but I would imagine other drives have similar issues with sleep. Maybe not as bad as a disappearing drive, but still.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Pioneer/BDR205BK/
 
You'll have to remove the front bezel (not difficult) to get it to fit in the Pro.

Strangely, my Asus BR drive can read discs (including Blu-ray ones) in OS X, even though the OS won't acknowledge the drive's existence. It doesn't show up in Disk Utility, but the eject command works. If there's a disc in the drive before OS X boots up, it can read and interact with them normally.
 
ovrlrd said:
Apparently there is issues that are caused when the drive gets the sleep command. :(

Granted this was on the page for the Pioneer drive...
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Unfortunately, it still does it with the Pioneer drives, even if the setting is correct (Sleep = Disabled). A reboot fixes it for awhile (allows you to do what you need), but it would be annoying to have to reboot to read or burn a disk each time.
 
Huh. Well, mine hasn't disappeared or had any problems with eject or close... but I just unchecked "Put hard drives to sleep when possible" to see what happens. I actually haven't heard it in a while, and the system has been up all day.
 
I am really worried about buying a Blu-ray drive now. I don't know which one I should get at all. I don't want to get the Pioneer if it has issues, but I also don't want the LG if it has issues.

Bleh.
 
I was the one that posted in that previous post about the sleeping problems.

The OP didnt reply so there isnt anyway to tell if that drive will work without sleeping problems. The thing you have to consider is your drives, is it worth your drives failing to have an internal BR drive? Turning off sleep mode in my opinion is just ridiculous! if you are the kind of person that leaves your pro on for hours at a time it significantly reduces drive lifetime. The reason i took my lg out was because one of my enterprise drives went after 6-7 months! now this may have been a problem with the drive but also its not healthy for any drive to be on constantly without sleeping for that amount of time. So i think more likely that it was because the drive was stopping the pro from sleeping.

The drive would try to read, even if there is nothing in the drive! every 3-4 minutes. The drive functioned perfectly all features supported, just randomly read all the time! I put it in for a back up project i was doing, backing over 30,000 images to cd/dvd so if the hard disc failed i would have a hard copy, and guess what it did... because of the drive so.. lesson always have a back up. Fortunately i did so didnt loose anything but something to bare in mind. If the problem is really an issue for you worrying then buy an external, then at least you can d/c when your finished with it.
 
tomscott1988 said:
I was the one that posted in that previous post about the sleeping problems.

The OP didnt reply so there isnt anyway to tell if that drive will work without sleeping problems. The thing you have to consider is your drives, is it worth your drives failing to have an internal BR drive? Turning off sleep mode in my opinion is just ridiculous! if you are the kind of person that leaves your pro on for hours at a time it significantly reduces drive lifetime. The reason i took my lg out was because one of my enterprise drives went after 6-7 months! now this may have been a problem with the drive but also its not healthy for any drive to be on constantly without sleeping for that amount of time. So i think more likely that it was because the drive was stopping the pro from sleeping.

The drive would try to read, even if there is nothing in the drive! every 3-4 minutes. The drive functioned perfectly all features supported, just randomly read all the time! I put it in for a back up project i was doing, backing over 30,000 images to cd/dvd so if the hard disc failed i would have a hard copy, and guess what it did... because of the drive so.. lesson always have a back up. Fortunately i did so didnt loose anything but something to bare in mind. If the problem is really an issue for you worrying then buy an external, then at least you can d/c when your finished with it.
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What I am curious about is if your issue is widespread or if it is limited to certain Mac Pros (firmware differences) or certain drive variations (again, firmware).

I am using an early 2009 Mac Pro, I just don't understand why there can't be a drive out there that is (nearly) problem free? I know optical drives tend to fail, but having sleep issues is just unacceptable.
 
I just bought a BH10LS30 today, will keep an eye (well, ear) on it to check for sleeping disorders.

Edit: it doesn't seem to be very frequent, but the drive is indeed doing something every now and then.

Interestingly enough, I managed to create a BD-RE data disc using Burn, which is seems to be playing just fine in my PS3. Should this be possible? I was under the impression Toast or other commercial software was needed to write to BD media.
 
meptik said:
I just bought a BH10LS30 today, will keep an eye (well, ear) on it to check for sleeping disorders.

Edit: it doesn't seem to be very frequent, but the drive is indeed doing something every now and then.

Interestingly enough, I managed to create a BD-RE data disc using Burn, which is seems to be playing just fine in my PS3. Should this be possible? I was under the impression Toast or other commercial software was needed to write to BD media.
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Thanks for the update! I guess I will hold off on buying a drive for now until newer ones come out or something changes. :(

Let us know if you have any other oddities.

As for the burning software, I am pretty sure the techniques for burning discs are pretty standardized ever since DVD burners came out. I think you can even use Finder to burn BD-Rs. Now in terms of burning discs with certain types of filesystems, you definitely need to use software that will support that. I have no clue about this stuff since I don't have a burner, but the FS you choose might have something to do with compatibility.
 
ovrlrd said:
Thanks for the update! I guess I will hold off on buying a drive for now until newer ones come out or something changes. :(

Let us know if you have any other oddities.

As for the burning software, I am pretty sure the techniques for burning discs are pretty standardized ever since DVD burners came out. I think you can even use Finder to burn BD-Rs. Now in terms of burning discs with certain types of filesystems, you definitely need to use software that will support that. I have no clue about this stuff since I don't have a burner, but the FS you choose might have something to do with compatibility.
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Just to clarify i am using a 2008 mac pro so IDE, and the dvd ram drive was lg with an IDE connection. But from the other post it would seem the lg blu ray drives with a SATA connection does the same. Just must be a mac problem, it is possible to update the firmwares on the drives but have no idea how to or where to get the drivers. LG doesnt offer any firmware updates on its site for burners.
 
Yeah i have the issue with the lg drive. Mine seems to access it every few mins in normal use but in front row it does it every 10 seconds or so and it does stop the mac from sleeping. Very annoying :/ the lg drive comes with a disc that contains firmware update software but i havent got a windows partition yet to test it. My drive has firmware revision 1.0 so hopefully something later has been released. Lgs site is useless though...
 
I have an LG Blu-ray drive in my '08 Mac Pro. It does prevent the machine from sleeping - it goes to sleep then the drive accesses and wakes it up.

There is a fix however which is incredibly simple - leave a disc in the drive.

No idea why, but this enables the Mac to sleep as normal. I've had my drive a couple of weeks now and I often leave it on at night to finish off big downloads. Every time it has finished the DL and slept as it should do.
 
ovrlrd said:
Thanks for the update! I guess I will hold off on buying a drive for now until newer ones come out or something changes. :(

Let us know if you have any other oddities.

As for the burning software, I am pretty sure the techniques for burning discs are pretty standardized ever since DVD burners came out. I think you can even use Finder to burn BD-Rs. Now in terms of burning discs with certain types of filesystems, you definitely need to use software that will support that. I have no clue about this stuff since I don't have a burner, but the FS you choose might have something to do with compatibility.
Click to expand...

Can't you just throw it into an external enclosure and use it that way? Then you can just chuck it in a drawer when you're not using it. Or were you set on having it internal?
 
reel2reel said:
Can't you just throw it into an external enclosure and use it that way? Then you can just chuck it in a drawer when you're not using it. Or were you set on having it internal?
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I really prefer internal, I don't like to have to plug anything in when I want to use it, and it is also faster (though I am not 100% sure if it really is). Still I am set on internal.
 
ovrlrd said:
I really prefer internal, I don't like to have to plug anything in when I want to use it, and it is also faster (though I am not 100% sure if it really is). Still I am set on internal.
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USB 2.0 or FW800 have sufficient throughput for optical drives (optical media are much slower than HDD's; ~ half the speed at best). And getting it on a different interface could fix the problem as well. Granted, you've an external enclosure and cables to deal with (data + power), but it should be possible to place it somewhere that it's not so much in the way.

Deal with the "clutter" or deal with the current sleep problem; pick which one is the easier to handle as I see it, as I'm not sure when/if there will be a fix for 3rd party optical drives offered up by Apple. :(
 
mac pro 2008 & pioneer blu-ray problem

hi,
i'm having issues with sleep as well. i've turned off the "put hard drives to sleep" in system prefs, but i'm still having issues.

this happens when i mount the blu-ray in fusion, and once i close that down, the drive won't mount. only a restart will fix this.

g13
 
Red G5 said:
I have an LG Blu-ray drive in my '08 Mac Pro. It does prevent the machine from sleeping - it goes to sleep then the drive accesses and wakes it up.

There is a fix however which is incredibly simple - leave a disc in the drive.

No idea why, but this enables the Mac to sleep as normal. I've had my drive a couple of weeks now and I often leave it on at night to finish off big downloads. Every time it has finished the DL and slept as it should do.
Click to expand...

if this works i'll kiss you
 
Can anyone confirm that the LG drive OWC is offering manages to work properly? I'm not after Blu playback at all, just looking for a read/write drive that doesn't have sleep issues.. and allows burning from Finder.
 
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