# Blu-Ray burner question



## Russ88765

Is this a good internal blu-ray burner? I am looking for an optical and I figure why not just get one big combo drive. Seems high rated, just wondered what you guys think:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106348


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## Brucew0619

I'am a totally idiot of Blu-ray bunner, but it look great, and the price is OK.


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## Ryan_Fpv

The specs look good, price is good. If I bothered with Blu-ray I'd go for it. 
Is there any particular reason you want a blu-ray player/burner though? PC games most likely won't ever use blu-ray, as it's easier, cheaper, and more accessible to the consumer to just include multiple DVD discs than to use blu-ray, and by the time DVDs become obsolete, the internet will be the primary method of installing games through clients like steam. The same applies for any software installed from disc. Blu-ray is purely for movies, and the only reason to have a blu-ray burner is essentially so you can illegally copy movies.
So, unless you are intending on illegally copying blu-ray movies, I'd suggest just going with a normal bluray player/DVD+CD burner combo and save yourself $80 (Here's a Lite-on Bluray player with DVD/CD combo, which has the same read/write speeds and has litescribe, but lacks a burner), that is if you even want to watch bluray movies on your computer, rather than watching them on your TV, which assuming if you own bluray movies, would be a large high definition screen, most likely better than your monitor (or at least more comfortable to watch, computer chairs get awfully cramped after 2-3 hours). 

If you can't tell, I'm really not that impressed by blu-ray media.


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## Nanobyte

Ryan_Fpv said:


> .......Blu-ray is purely for movies, and the only reason to have a blu-ray burner is essentially so you can illegally copy movies


The intention was that blu-ray would also become the leading data storage medium but it has not performed very reliably to date nor is the longevity certain.  At the price of the unit mentioned I may have started thinking about it.  I have several thousand data dvds that would be nice to condense.  That is on hold for now.

With people making HD home movies, blu-ray should have a bright future.  As for online storage, if you want to put your valuable stuff in someone else's control, on your head be it.  I think the only benefit of the Wikileaks business is that it has shown what was already obvious, that people have no scruples and that it only needs one scumbag to let loose your stuff to The World.

It remains to be seen how blu-ray pans out but it's now cheap enough to dabble in.


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## Ryan_Fpv

Hmm, I didn't consider HD home movies. I concede that that is a good reason to have a blu-ray burner. 
If you have several thousand DVDs to store data, wouldn't it be easier/more cost efficient to just purchase several large storage HDDs? I just had a quick look and the price of an individual blank BD-R disc is (depending on how many you buy in the pack) between $4-$8 each, compared to blank DVD discs which cost about $15 for a 50 pack, which works out 30c per disc. Even when you take into consideration that blu-ray discs hold 5 times as much data, it is still very expensive. Once people start to move into the blu-ray market more, the price will obviously come down, but right now it's still rather costly. I suppose it is cheap enough to dabble in, as you say, but for storing thousands of DVDs worth of data? That would be very costly.


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## Nanobyte

I agree that HDDs are an effective cheap storage (say 200 dvds to a 1TB drive) but it's magnetic storage.  I've never had problems with out-of-service HDDs but optical storage seems more robust if kept cool and dark.

I agree that blu-ray blanks are still expensive and "dabble" would be the operative word.  Some may find transferring to blu-ray worthwhile solely to reduce space.  I keep my dvds in 25-disk cake boxes which is compact. If they were even in the thin jewel cases it would be a huge pile.  I have a good cataloging system so I can find disks easily.

Blu-ray has not taken the World by storm but early days.  Russ88765 can still burn dvds on the posted drive!


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## Russ88765

I'm not looking to do anything illegal here, nor do I condone piracy to copywritten material. Backup storage would be nice, i'm just wanting to have a complete system. I thought since this burns and reads all media, it would be the "ultimate solution" for the optical. It also looks fast(although i'm not an experienced judge) so I could install/run games/programs/etc more efficiently than before. I figured one of you guys would have more experience with it, so i'd ask here first. Is lite-on a good brand? Am I wasting my time with blu-ray? I sometimes have problems using other means of portable storage so it would be nice to have a backup method available.


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## Ryan_Fpv

The DVD read speads of it are the same as the standard DVD read speeds for the normal DVD reader/writer. You won't notice any performance increase from a standard DVD drive. 
I've never owned a Lite-on drive, but from what I hear they're decent. As for wasting your time with blu-ray, it depends what you want to use the blu-ray drive for. As Nanobyte pointed out, it's good if you're using a HD camcorder and want to create blu-ray home movies, or if you want to watch blu-ray movies on your computer. As for a storage media device, I would say no. There are better (and cheaper) options for storage around. A HDD you'd be paying around about 5c-8c per GB, DVDs around about 6c per GB, and blu-ray you'd be paying at least 16c per GB.

Don't get caught up in the hype of "It's new and better". If you think you will use a blu-ray burner, go for it. It looks like a quality blu-ray burner combo you have picked out (I'm no expert though, so anyone; feel free to correct me), for a decent price. If you think you'll be watching blu-ray movies, but not using the burner, you can save yourself $80 and go for a blu-ray reader combo. If you have a blu-ray player hooked up to your TV and don't even need it for your computer, save yourself a further $20-$30 and go the standard DVD burner drive.
I was looking into purchasing a blu-ray burner for my computer not too long ago but realised that I wouldn't actually use it, and would just be paying a lot of money for the 'it's new and awesome' factor. 

Nanobyte: I've never had a problem with scratching the surface of my HDD 
No storage solution is perfect, it's just about choosing which is best for your needs.


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## Russ88765

Well I mean, wouldn't the blu-ray burner give me the choice to write onto either cd, dvd, or blu-ray discs? Then I could pick which size disc to get according to my needs at the time? Like also for emergency if one of them fails I could use another? Wouldn't mind seeing the enhanced imagery of blu-ray either, I hear it's very nice.


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## Ryan_Fpv

Yes, you can still use it to burn CDs, DVDs, and of course Blu-ray. Unless you are going to be using it to burn blu-ray though, you're spending $80-$100 on nothing.


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## Nanobyte

I've said enough already but you will want blu-ray play capability anyway.  Buying the burner as well, you have to decide if the difference in price is affordable and worth it.  Whatever you spend on the player you won't be spending on other stuff!  Personally, I would get the burner just to play around with it.


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## Russ88765

This is my second choice in case I run out of money:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106335


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## Nanobyte

Russ88765 said:


> This is my second choice in case I run out of money....


You won't run out of money at that price.  No blu-ray player though.


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## Russ88765

Is it possible to get something that reads blu-ray, but can read and write dvd and cd formats?


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## Nanobyte

Russ88765 said:


> Is it possible to get something that reads blu-ray, but can read and write dvd and cd formats?


Yes, I have no experience with them but others may.  About half-way in price between your selected DVD burner and a Blu-Ray burner.

Example (chosen at random):
HP BD240I Blu Ray Combo Drive - Reads 8x BD, BD-ROM, BD-R/RE, 4x BD DL, Writes 16x DVD+/-R, 8x DVD+/-R DL, 8x DVDRW, 12x DVDRAM


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## Russ88765

Is that a good one to get? I got 10 days before ordering deadline.


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## Nanobyte

I picked it at random so can't say.  Anyone else?


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## Mishkin

Ryan_Fpv said:


> As for a storage media device, I would say no. There are better (and cheaper) options for storage around. A HDD you'd be paying around about 5c-8c per GB, DVDs around about 6c per GB, and blu-ray you'd be paying at least 16c per GB.



I could be very mistaken, but I see that blank blu-ray discs go for around $1 or less each on newegg.  Each one has 25GB capacity right?  That would come out to around 4 cents per GB, or less depending on what brand and how many you buy at a time.  Four discs per 100GB, 40 per 1TB.

Now, $40 or less per 1TB in optical storage doesn't sound bad to me.  IMO, if you're looking for a cheap backup solution to your hard drive(s) data, blu-ray optical media seems like a good way to go.

Sure, you could almost buy a 1TB hdd for $40 nowadays, but personally I would feel more confident having optical media as my backup rather than an additional magnetic hdd, especially one in the same system as the first.  Just a thought.


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## Nanobyte

Re Mishkin, I'm also an advocate of optical storage and have commented to that effect in another thread.  In this thread, post #4 I referred to reliability of data.  I did some research before that post.  Blu-ray is not a fully-proven *data* storage media so any data needs to be verified on disk before deleting original.  Video is less of a concern because a few incorrect bits will not prevent usage.

Russ88765's 10 days must be about up!  Decision time.


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## Russ88765

I'm gonna go with the liteon dvd burner cuz I need something cheaper for now, but i'll maybe add a bluray at some point in the future. Money is kind of tight for now.


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## Mishkin

Thanks for your comments on blu-ray optical storage Nano.  I'll be setting up a PVR system here in a week or two, and my only real worry has been a decent and still cheap solution for all that video down the road.  I'd rather not use an online storage service for terabytes of data and have little desire to essentially purchase twice the hdds, where half are used for nothing but backups, mostly due to the cost.  You mentioned blu-ray as an unproven means of backing up data as of yet, but video would likely have a better chance of being alright, which would be good for me.  I'll have to do some more research on this topic myself before I buy a BD-burner in the future, but I think it could be my solution.


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## Nanobyte

Mishkin said:


> .....You mentioned blu-ray as an unproven means of backing up data as of yet, but video would likely have a better chance of being alright, which would be good for me....


Unproven does not mean it's useless but to use with caution for data. Video stored on blu-ray is fine.

As with all storage formats, you have to keep up with the times and be prepared to move all important data to the next media in vogue.  Alternatively make sure you still have the hardware that can access old media.


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## Benny Boy

Plus having the cd/dvd saves on the blue ray drive. And they're cheap.


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