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Can a Blue Ray player be used as an optical drive for a computer?

M

[email protected]

Flightless Bird
I'm thinking of buying a laptop that does not have a
built in optical drive. No big deal as I seldom use
them..... but still need one occasionally to load
software onto the laptop hard drive.

Being somewhat frugal, I was wondering if I could use
my Blue Ray player as a "drive" for the laptop if
needing to load software on it(laptop)??
 
A

Adrian C

Flightless Bird
On 19/01/2010 00:10, [email protected] wrote:
> Being somewhat frugal, I was wondering if I could use
> my Blue Ray player as a "drive" for the laptop if
> needing to load software on it(laptop)??

Yes.

You have to remove the cabinet screws, desolder components, reassemble
them in another order so it will work, resolder, add some custom wire
cables, rewrite the firmware and then you are done.

To revert to working as a blueray player, simply do the above in reverse.

On the other hand, Internal CD/DVD drives for laptops are pretty cheap,
maybe $20 or so.

--
Adrian C
 
M

M.I.5¾

Flightless Bird
"Adrian C" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On 19/01/2010 00:10, [email protected] wrote:
>> Being somewhat frugal, I was wondering if I could use
>> my Blue Ray player as a "drive" for the laptop if
>> needing to load software on it(laptop)??
>
> Yes.
>
> You have to remove the cabinet screws, desolder components, reassemble
> them in another order so it will work, resolder, add some custom wire
> cables, rewrite the firmware and then you are done.
>
> To revert to working as a blueray player, simply do the above in reverse.
>
> On the other hand, Internal CD/DVD drives for laptops are pretty cheap,
> maybe $20 or so.
>

You won't get a blu-ray drive for a laptop for under $200.

Some video-blu-ray players have PC based drives inside them so the process
is a little easier than you describe.

My own blu-ray video player has a standard Matsushita PC drive inside. It's
unusually a PATA drive and on investigation it turned out to be a Blu-ray
burner even though the player itself has no burning capability.
 
B

Bob Villa

Flightless Bird
>My own blu-ray video player has a standard Matsushita PC drive inside. It's
unusually a PATA drive and on investigation it turned out to be a Blu-
ray
burner even though the player itself has no burning capability.

If we were sure of the model and its burning capability...that would
be a good savings! My Panasonic Blu-Ray player was $125.

bob_v
 
I

Ian D

Flightless Bird
<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I'm thinking of buying a laptop that does not have a
> built in optical drive. No big deal as I seldom use
> them..... but still need one occasionally to load
> software onto the laptop hard drive.
>
> Being somewhat frugal, I was wondering if I could use
> my Blue Ray player as a "drive" for the laptop if
> needing to load software on it(laptop)??

I think you're asking if you can use your home theatre
Blue Ray drive as an external drive for installing
applications onto a laptop.

Some Blue Ray players have LAN and WiFi connections,
but I don't know if they can be used to read PC data DVDs
or CDs so that applications could be copied via network
to a PC hard drive for installation from the hard drive.

You would have to check the documentation for your
drive. If it's not workable, you can get a good USB2 external
DVD/CD rewriter for under $100. LG makes reasonably priced
external drives.
 
R

Roy

Flightless Bird
On Jan 19, 5:19 pm, "M.I.5 " <[email protected]_SPAM.co.uk> wrote:

>
> You won't get a blu-ray drive for a laptop for under $200.
>
> Some video-blu-ray players have PC based drives inside them so the process
> is a little easier than you describe.
>
> My own blu-ray video player has a standard Matsushita PC drive inside.  It's
> unusually a PATA drive and on investigation it turned out to be a Blu-ray
> burner even though the player itself has no burning capability.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Hmm that is interesting , so if my laptop hardware has the specs to
play/write blu-ray, I can also attached a USB Blu-ray writer just like
the DVD-Ram and play/write high definition videos in it?
What are the available external USB connected compact Blu ray writer?

Roy
Roy
 
M

M.I.5¾

Flightless Bird
"Roy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
On Jan 19, 5:19 pm, "M.I.5 " <[email protected]_SPAM.co.uk> wrote:

>
> You won't get a blu-ray drive for a laptop for under $200.
>
> Some video-blu-ray players have PC based drives inside them so the process
> is a little easier than you describe.
>
> My own blu-ray video player has a standard Matsushita PC drive inside.
> It's
> unusually a PATA drive and on investigation it turned out to be a Blu-ray
> burner even though the player itself has no burning capability.- Hide
> quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Hmm that is interesting , so if my laptop hardware has the specs to
play/write blu-ray, I can also attached a USB Blu-ray writer just like
the DVD-Ram and play/write high definition videos in it?
What are the available external USB connected compact Blu ray writer?

----------

Google only turns up 1,300,000 hits such as this one:

http://www.usb-ware.com/usb-firewire-blu-ray-burner.htm

It should be noted that USB2 is not fast enough to run a blu-ray
drive/burner at its full speed. USB3 or Firewire is required for that. But
USB2 is adequate for video.
 
B

Bob Villa

Flightless Bird
>It should be noted that USB2 is not fast enough to run a blu-ray
drive/burner at its full speed. USB3 or Firewire is required for
that. But
USB2 is adequate for video.

Although USB2 is listed as being faster...in practice...Firewire is
only slightly faster than USB2.

bob
 
M

[email protected]

Flightless Bird
"Ian D" <[email protected]> wrote:

>I think you're asking if you can use your home theatre
>Blue Ray drive as an external drive for installing
>applications onto a laptop.

Yes that is what I am asking!

I only want to use it to install software on the
laptop.

I do NOT want to play video or burn anything with
it.... ONLY as a device to install software
 
A

Adrian C

Flightless Bird
On 20/01/2010 14:06, [email protected] wrote:

>
> I only want to use it to install software on the
> laptop.
>
> I do NOT want to play video or burn anything with
> it.... ONLY as a device to install software

The answer is no*. Sorry if I confused you.

External USB cases & CD/DVD drives are fairly cheap, and if that's not
an option buy a $5 scrapyard ancient laptop (or desktop) that has a
working CD drive and either network the CD drive across or copy the CD
files to a USB memory stick.

* dismembering consumer electronics hardware to find PC compatible bits
is a crap shoot. Too many variables beyond form factor.

--
Adrian C
 
M

M.I.5¾

Flightless Bird
"Bob Villa" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> >It should be noted that USB2 is not fast enough to run a blu-ray
> drive/burner at its full speed. USB3 or Firewire is required for
> that. But
> USB2 is adequate for video.
>
> Although USB2 is listed as being faster...in practice...Firewire is
> only slightly faster than USB2.
>

Depends on what you are doing.

In practice Firewire is typically 35-50% faster than USB2 for a variety of
reasons including:

1. More efficient protocol
2. Operates completely autonomously (USB requires considerable processor
support)
3. Firewire is a full duplex system (USB is half duplex).

If the host processor is particularly heavily loaded this can throttle USB
wheras firewire is generally unaffected (in fact firewire doesn't have to
have a host port).
 
B

Bob Villa

Flightless Bird
On Jan 21, 4:14 am, "M.I.5¾" <[email protected]_SPAM.co.uk> wrote:
> "Bob Villa" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> news:[email protected]...
>
> > >It should be noted that USB2 is not fast enough to run a blu-ray
> > drive/burner at its full speed.  USB3 or Firewire is required for
> > that.  But
> > USB2 is adequate for video.
>
> > Although USB2 is listed as being  faster...in practice...Firewire is
> > only slightly faster than USB2.
>
> Depends on what you are doing.
>
> In practice Firewire is typically 35-50% faster than USB2 for a variety of
> reasons including:
>
> 1. More efficient protocol
> 2. Operates completely autonomously (USB requires considerable processor
> support)
> 3. Firewire is a full duplex system (USB is half duplex).
>
> If the host processor is particularly heavily loaded this can throttle USB
> wheras firewire is generally unaffected (in fact firewire doesn't have to
> have a host port).

Then you must be talking about Firewire 800 and not 400.

bob
 
M

M.I.5¾

Flightless Bird
"Bob Villa" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:a04fe547-a3b8-4783-ab58-15fa54c85089@k17g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...
On Jan 21, 4:14 am, "M.I.5¾" <[email protected]_SPAM.co.uk> wrote:
> "Bob Villa" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> news:[email protected]...
>
> > >It should be noted that USB2 is not fast enough to run a blu-ray
> > drive/burner at its full speed. USB3 or Firewire is required for
> > that. But
> > USB2 is adequate for video.
>
> > Although USB2 is listed as being faster...in practice...Firewire is
> > only slightly faster than USB2.
>
> Depends on what you are doing.
>
> In practice Firewire is typically 35-50% faster than USB2 for a variety of
> reasons including:
>
> 1. More efficient protocol
> 2. Operates completely autonomously (USB requires considerable processor
> support)
> 3. Firewire is a full duplex system (USB is half duplex).
>
> If the host processor is particularly heavily loaded this can throttle USB
> wheras firewire is generally unaffected (in fact firewire doesn't have to
> have a host port).

Then you must be talking about Firewire 800 and not 400.

---------

No I'm not. Firewire 800 is around 110 to 125% faster than Firewire 400
(800 uses a much more efficient protocol than 400)
 
M

M.I.5¾

Flightless Bird
"Bob Villa" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:a04fe547-a3b8-4783-ab58-15fa54c85089@k17g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...
On Jan 21, 4:14 am, "M.I.5¾" <[email protected]_SPAM.co.uk> wrote:
> "Bob Villa" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> news:[email protected]...
>
> > >It should be noted that USB2 is not fast enough to run a blu-ray
> > drive/burner at its full speed. USB3 or Firewire is required for
> > that. But
> > USB2 is adequate for video.
>
> > Although USB2 is listed as being faster...in practice...Firewire is
> > only slightly faster than USB2.
>
> Depends on what you are doing.
>
> In practice Firewire is typically 35-50% faster than USB2 for a variety of
> reasons including:
>
> 1. More efficient protocol
> 2. Operates completely autonomously (USB requires considerable processor
> support)
> 3. Firewire is a full duplex system (USB is half duplex).
>
> If the host processor is particularly heavily loaded this can throttle USB
> wheras firewire is generally unaffected (in fact firewire doesn't have to
> have a host port).

Then you must be talking about Firewire 800 and not 400.

-----------

Tne difference between Firewire 400 and USB 480 is such that DV video can be
streamed over the former but not the latter which is why DV camcorders
always stream the video over Firewire and not USB.

The newer DVD or Flash camcorders can use USB because the transfer rate
isn't fixed by the necessity to read the tape at a fixed speed.
 
M

M.I.5¾

Flightless Bird
"M.I.5¾" <[email protected]_SPAM.co.uk> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Bob Villa" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:a04fe547-a3b8-4783-ab58-15fa54c85089@k17g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...
> On Jan 21, 4:14 am, "M.I.5¾" <[email protected]_SPAM.co.uk> wrote:
>> "Bob Villa" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>>
>> news:[email protected]...
>>
>> > >It should be noted that USB2 is not fast enough to run a blu-ray
>> > drive/burner at its full speed. USB3 or Firewire is required for
>> > that. But
>> > USB2 is adequate for video.
>>
>> > Although USB2 is listed as being faster...in practice...Firewire is
>> > only slightly faster than USB2.
>>
>> Depends on what you are doing.
>>
>> In practice Firewire is typically 35-50% faster than USB2 for a variety
>> of
>> reasons including:
>>
>> 1. More efficient protocol
>> 2. Operates completely autonomously (USB requires considerable processor
>> support)
>> 3. Firewire is a full duplex system (USB is half duplex).
>>
>> If the host processor is particularly heavily loaded this can throttle
>> USB
>> wheras firewire is generally unaffected (in fact firewire doesn't have to
>> have a host port).
>
> Then you must be talking about Firewire 800 and not 400.
>
> -----------
>
> Tne difference between Firewire 400 and USB 480 is such that DV video can
> be streamed over the former but not the latter which is why DV camcorders
> always stream the video over Firewire and not USB.
>

It occured to me after I wrote that that DV video is, in fact, streamed over
Firewire *100* with most (if not all) camcorders not Firewire 400.
 
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