Ok so with me switching out my pc case to support my new gpu I had to give up my internal optical drive. I’d like to get a external blu ray rw but I don’t feel like spending over $100.00 usd for a known brand name. Anyone got recommendations for the off brands?
Have you considered using the old one if it still works and buying a sata to usb adapter?
Should be fairly cheap, just need to find one that has worked for others. Not the prettiest setup but probably more reliable than cheap slim external ones. I’ve had bad experiences with slim external ones
If you trust reddit these days https://www.reddit.com/r/makemkv/comments/1cy11uy/internal_optical_drive_to_usb/
I’m not opposed to it’s just I looked for external enclosure and it’s the same price as the cheap external drives. So I figured if the cheap drives were worth it and save a bit of desk space.
Trust the opinions of the people here over the people there!
Pioneer is still the best, as LG and ASUS have more read errors, and “off brand” ones you get recommended are likely to be terrible in this regard. Pioneer you can also buy some LibreDrive firmware pre-flashed models that allows you to read UHD disks
Or grab this USB case for your current drive, it is the currently recommended best model for blueray use among the ripping community:
From personal experience: make sure that the USB port you connect the Blu-ray writer to can provide sufficient (extra ) amps! Some motherboards identify USB ports with more power that will do that. If not, or if you are using it with a laptop, a decent quality powered USB hub can help. Made some coasters with my USB BR writer before I realized that it not having enough power was the reason.
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One of the reasons slim RW are very hit or miss. The one I have right now only works with 3 layer discs if it’s connected via USB C. The USB A 3.0 adapter doesn’t seem to work at all
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+1 to this, I have one.
Check the model you have, it might be a rare model that sells for quite a hefty chunk of change. There are a number of BD drives that have specific firmwares that are hella sought after.
The one I have, I bought for like $150 new, but I can probably sell it for $1000 on ebay just because it doesnt need to be reflashed.
Thank you all for the input! I’ll look at getting the drive enclosure for my existing unit!
Great info as always!
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can just get an enclosure
I took a disk cloner pulled the dvd drives out of it, put in bluray drives then did sata to USB adapters w/ hub and made my own 3 drive external usb enclosure
ignore as you already took that idea
Was the enclosure i went with
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https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805646399218.html?
Adapter I used for Sata to USB
USB C on the back of the enclosure (just drill out with step bit) (wow have gone up a bit $17 is what i paid)
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If you’re not committed to whatever new case you’ve picked out, there ARE some modern ones that still support external 5.25 bays. I went with fractal define 7.
Yea the case has already come in and has been built in!