Selecting a Blue-Ray drive..

[Humanzee]

Is there anything to look out for? Should I just find the best deal I can? What about ancillary software etc. I don't need a writer just something to play back DVD and Blue-Ray disks.

Thanks in advance.

[stanger89]

Software's really totally separate. My Lite-On works fine. About the only thing to consider is if you want the limited OEM PowerDVD from a retail kit, or save a bit and buy the retail PDVD separately.

[Jesse]

Hi,

What he said.

I would say do not pay extra for PDVD oem. I got the oem copy with my LG HDDVD/BD combo drive and it is far from perfect. I have since installed the trial of Arc-Soft Total Media Theater and it has been very good so far. I have only tried a few movies so far but it has been great with both HDDVD and BD.

You can even get a 30% coupon pretty easily. I downloaded and registered their free thumbnail viewer http://www.arcsoft.com/products/rawviewer/

and they gave me a 30% off coupon for the first trial product activated.

HTH

Jesse

[Humanzee]

It looks like unless you buy the ultra version of powerDVD you won't be able to play BlueRay disks. Kinda pointless to package it with a blueray drive then. Regardless, drive vs. drive, things should be about equal as in function? Sites like newegg have pretty good customer feedback, the Lite-on seems to be well regarded and is the cheapest among the options there.

Oops. looks like the cyberlink website says PowerDVD Ultra is only for windows XP.

[stanger89]

The one that comes with the drive is the "Blu-ray Edition", it plays BDs, and from what I can tell, it plays them fine, but it's limited in the audio formats it supports.

[Jesse]

Hi,

The oem version of PDVD Ultra that came with my LG drive works with vista.

HTH

Jesse

[DOS64K]

What about BD 2.0? Any real reason to hold out for 2.0 version players?

[stanger89]

There's no such thing as a profile ROM drive, they're all just stupid readers. It's the software that determines what profile BD can be handled.