Blu Ray drive vs Blu Ray writer for PC

[iSeries]

Hi all,

Today my daughter managed to ruin a bd of Ratatouille. I'm now contemplating buying a blu ray drive for my PC to back up our extremely expensive blu ray collection before any more get turned into coasters.

Being a DVD Rebuilder user, I'm very interested in BD Rebuilder, but what I'm agonising over is whether to get a plain blu ray drive and use BD Rebuilder to backup to DVD(BD)-9, or buy a blu ray writer and use said software to back up to BD-25.

If we assume a movie-only back up, how much quality can I expect to lose if backing up to BD-9? If there isn't much in it then I'll save my money and get a blu ray drive rather than writer (and cheaper discs too!).

[Furiousflea]

Hi all,

Today my daughter managed to ruin a bd of Ratatouille. I'm now contemplating buying a blu ray drive for my PC to back up our extremely expensive blu ray collection before any more get turned into coasters.

Being a DVD Rebuilder user, I'm very interested in BD Rebuilder, but what I'm agonising over is whether to get a plain blu ray drive and use BD Rebuilder to backup to DVD(BD)-9, or buy a blu ray writer and use said software to back up to BD-25.

If we assume a movie-only back up, how much quality can I expect to lose if backing up to BD-9? If there isn't much in it then I'll save my money and get a blu ray drive rather than writer (and cheaper discs too!).

Totally depends on what you're watching it on and how long the movies are. BD9 with movie only option and 1 audio track is pretty much transparent for films under 2 hours on screens up to 50 inches.

...as a rough guide, but there are other factors, like the quality of the source (grainyness\print damage etc)...It's a difficult question to answer. If your not OCD then I wouldn't bother with a BD writer at this point, maybe in 9-12months.

[GaPony]

Hi all,

Today my daughter managed to ruin a bd of Ratatouille. I'm now contemplating buying a blu ray drive for my PC to back up our extremely expensive blu ray collection before any more get turned into coasters.

Being a DVD Rebuilder user, I'm very interested in BD Rebuilder, but what I'm agonising over is whether to get a plain blu ray drive and use BD Rebuilder to backup to DVD(BD)-9, or buy a blu ray writer and use said software to back up to BD-25.

If we assume a movie-only back up, how much quality can I expect to lose if backing up to BD-9? If there isn't much in it then I'll save my money and get a blu ray drive rather than writer (and cheaper discs too!).

Given that you can get the LG GGW-H20LK burner for only $199.00, and the cost of BD-R 25gb media is now below $5.00 in many instances, it may prove to be very cost effective to go that route. This drive has worked very well for me. When you consider just a Blu-Ray ROM drive is going to cost at least $100, the cost isn't all that much more for the additional functionality.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136155

While I've had great success with Movie Only copies to BD9, there are some compatibility issues with the different BD players to consider when doing Full Movie copies to BD9.

All the Movie Only copies to BD9 look very, very good and I would be hard pressed to say there was any significant difference from the original. I use a Sony BDP-S550 (or PS3) to playback on a Samsung 52" 120hz HDTV.

I hope this helps...

[iSeries]

Thanks for the replies.

I probably will go the blu ray writer route and back up to BD-25 - simply because I can often see the difference between an original DVD and a compressed version on DVD-5. To get an average 30gig blu ray movie down to BD-9 we're talking some major compression, even more than going from DVD-9 to DVD-5. Or do blu ray discs just compress better than DVD's?

[laserfan]

You will make your own financial decision, but as you are apparently guessing wrt backing-up Blu-ray, you need to know that the x264 codec is wildly better than MPEG2, and BD-RB's DVD5s look quite excellent indeed. Further, if you are making the backups for your daughter, will she know the difference? Spend your money the way you want, but I think BD writers & media are a huge waste of money, at least for backing-up $25 movies.

[shon3i]

you need to know that the x264 codec is wildly better than MPEG2, and BD-RB's DVD5s look quite excellent indeed. Agree, even on 50+'' inch plasma most (80%+) BD-5 backup's (main movie only) look transparent. H264 is realy miracle comparing to others.

[DVFs_DrinkOrDie]

When you consider just a Blu-Ray ROM drive is going to cost at least $100, the cost isn't all that much more for the additional functionality.

Fry's electronics in Wilsonville, OR had a BD-ROM on sale about 2 weeks ago. It was only $69.

[jdobbs]

It all depends on pricing. You will eventually buy a BD Burner... no doubt. Today they're a couple of hundred bucks, in a year they'll probably be $50.

If you know your player can handle BD-9 backups -- then it may be worthwhile waiting, if not, you may want to just bite the bullet and get the burner. BD-R discs are under $5 now, so you can back up 6 discs for the price of one replacement, even at today's price. I'd expect the discs to be under $2 next year.

[iSeries]

jdobbs, that's exactly my thinking. It was the same thing when DVD burners came out, and CD burners before it - drives were expensive and media was expensive. Here in the UK the cost of a BD-writer is approx. twice the cost of a BR-ROM. But thats where the bullet biting is as far I'm concered. The cheapest BD-25 media I've seen is 10 for £28.00, and £2.80 to back up a £20 film doesn't seem that outrageous to me. And like you say, they're only going to get cheaper.

[archaeo]

Hi all,

... whether to get a plain blu ray drive and use BD Rebuilder to backup to DVD(BD)-9, or buy a blu ray writer and use said software to back up to BD-25.



To write to a BD5 (which is a DVD5), don't you need a Bluray writer? I always assumed you needed to have a Bluray burner to burn to any disc that will be read by a Bluray player.

[iSeries]

You can burn a blu ray movie using a DVD writer to a DVD-5 or DVD-9 if it fits on the media.

[archaeo]

It appears I've been missing out on the fun here because of that erroneous assumption! :stupid:

[jdobbs]

It appears I've been missing out on the fun here because of that erroneous assumption! :stupid: All you need is a blu-ray reader (and something like AnyDVD if backing up your commercial discs). The only other stipulation is that when you burn with the DVD writer, you have to use UDF 2.5. ImgBurn takes care of that -- and BD-RB will automatically make sure the settings are correct if you let it burn...

[archaeo]

All you need is a blu-ray reader (and something like AnyDVD if backing up your commercial discs). The only other stipulation is that when you burn with the DVD writer, you have to use UDF 2.5. ImgBurn takes care of that -- and BD-RB will automatically make sure the settings are correct if you let it burn...


Not quite sure how I missed that :o
With this cleared up, I think I'll be comparing prices of some BD players here pretty soon.