External BD Drive and an iMac - Is it possible?

[Mr. Spiffy-Pants]

I'm considering getting either a MacBook Pro or an iMac within the next 4-6 months. I already have a copy of Windows XP Pro to install via BootCamp and I would like to have a Blu-Ray drive so that I can watch movies on my Mac PC in my bedroom. Since Apple doesn't appear to be willing to include a BD drive in their systems any time soon, I am considering getting this Lite-On drive and buying an external SATA enclosure. Money is an issue for me, unfortunately, and since data backup is not a priority for me I am not currently concerned with getting a BD Burner (I've never even burned a Dual-Layer DVD despite the fact that I have a Sony DL +/- burner). I just want to be able to use my BD player in my bedroom on whichever Mac I purchase.

Has anyone else on the forum attempted to do this? If so, what were your results? Do you have any inexpensive SATA 5.25" enclosures you could recommend? Am I correct in assuming that PowerDVD Ultra works in Windows XP without a bunch of HDCP compatability hassle? Is USB 2.0 or FireWire 400/800 fast enough to handle Blu-Ray playback?

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

[hendra]

What is the spec of your iMac/MBP?
You may want to look at the official spec requirement from Corel or Cyberlink
http://www.intervideo.com/jsp/bdhdTool_Download.jsp
http://www.cyberlink.com/english/sup...equirement.jsp

Please note that you may still be able to play Blu-Ray disc even if your video card is not officially listed. My laptop for example, has GeForce Go 7400 with 64MB dedicated Video RAM (1GB shared with System RAM with Turbo Cache). It is not officially listed but I can play Blu-Ray disc.

You need WinDVD or PowerDVD Ultra to play the disc. I have both WinDVD BD for VAIO and PowerDVD Ultra. From my experience, WinDVD BD for VAIO is a lot less picky about the video card and plays nearly all Blu-Ray I throw at it. PowerDVD is a lot more picky about the video card and has problem playing some movies in my system. Especially the one encoded with MPEG4-AVC.

At this moment, the retail version of WinDVD BD/HD requires either NVIDIA GeForce 8500GT, 8600HT or 8600GTS graphic card. If your video card is different, you are out of luck. However, the new version of WinDVD 9 Plus BD/HD is coming in Feb or March. So if you can wait, buy WinDVD 9 Plus when it is released. If you have to have it now, buy PowerDVD Ultra. There is new software player released by Arcsoft. I am not totally familiar with it but from the trial version, it seems that the player is not quite as mature as WinDVD or PowerDVD.

Good luck

[Muad'Dib]

I too am planning on purchasing a Mac book pro. I too want a bluray drive for watching movies.
My Question is do I need a version of windows to run the correct program to utilize an external bluray drive? And if so can I use the program Fusion to run virtual windows on the OS desk top?
And finally if anyone is familiar with Fusion and windows on Mac’s Leopard operating system, is it worth the risk of running windows on a Mac? (If there is any risk).

[WickyWoo]

No, you must be running genuine Vista (I don't think Blu works under XP, correct me if I'm wrong)

There is no risk of running Windows on a Mac, even if you failed to install anti-virus/spyware, it would only affect the windows installation

[dadkins]

Yes you can play Blu-ray with XP.
This, the original BD enabled notebook, came from the factory in June 2006 with XP MCE.

Yeah, it plays Blu-rays fine!
Even just updated to 1.1 Bonus View via PowerDVD Ultra 3730 patch.

[Mr. Spiffy-Pants]

Originally Posted by dadkins

Yeah, it plays Blu-rays fine!
Even just updated to 1.1 Bonus View via PowerDVD Ultra 3730 patch.

The Lite-On drive or the Blu-Ray notebook you mentioned? Also, does anyone have any experience with external SATA enclosures?

[dadkins]

Blu-ray playback does not require Vista - at least on this machine(laptop).
Built-in UJ-210S drive.

Can't imagine that an external drive would require Vista to playback BDs. Mac or PC.

[w_tanoto]

come on, even HD DVD add-ons from Xbox can be used in a Mac.
BD playback does not requires Vista.
However it requires matching Graphic card (must be HDCP enabled, I'm not sure minimum dedicated memory)
Processor must be at least 2.0GHz dual core

[Mr. Spiffy-Pants]

Ok, based off of that comment I'm thinking that it's impossible because none of the iMacs or MacBook Pros have HDCP. Is this correct? Does anyone currently have PowerDVD Ultra, a non-HDCP video card, and yet still enjoys Blu-Ray playback? I'm getting more and more confused now...

[X-Ninja]

Originally Posted by w_tanoto

come on, even HD DVD add-ons from Xbox can be used in a Mac.
BD playback does not requires Vista.
However it requires matching Graphic card (must be HDCP enabled, I'm not sure minimum dedicated memory)
Processor must be at least 2.0GHz dual core

Originally Posted by Mr. Spiffy-Pants

Ok, based off of that comment I'm thinking that it's impossible because none of the iMacs or MacBook Pros have HDCP. Is this correct? Does anyone currently have PowerDVD Ultra, a non-HDCP video card, and yet still enjoys Blu-Ray playback? I'm getting more and more confused now...

Uh oh... Uh oh!

Those 2 comments have completely scared me now. I was about to buy a macbook pro and just pick up a bluray drive thinking it would just be kind of a plu-and-play thing if you know what i mean.


If anybody can confirm this, please do.

[Mr. Spiffy-Pants]

Heh... Glad it's not just me. From the little I've read online, the only solution I've found IF this is true and Ultra doesn't support non-HDCP is to use AnyDVD HD. That program seems to have trouble with BD+ titles (if I'm following these threads on their forums correctly) and I don't know if it supports "Bonus View". Either way, I'd like to have some PowerDVD Ultra confirmation.

[CptGreedle]

Encore, by Adobe, can burn Blu-ray movies on macs. So if you really want to, you can. Period.

[Mr. Spiffy-Pants]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

Encore, by Adobe, can burn Blu-ray movies on macs. So if you really want to, you can. Period.

I'm not trying to burn - I want to watch them on a Windows XP partition ala my first post. Thank you for your response, though.

[w_tanoto]

Originally Posted by X-Ninja

Uh oh... Uh oh!

Those 2 comments have completely scared me now. I was about to buy a macbook pro and just pick up a bluray drive thinking it would just be kind of a plu-and-play thing if you know what i mean.


If anybody can confirm this, please do.

it does sort of plug-and-play. you can display the files on a BD disc, but you CAN't view the content without HDCP device. I tried this on a non-HDCP PC. it does display the files, and can read BD disc, but it can't play. As somebody suggest above, AnyDVD HD (I wouldn't suggest it though. It's stamped illegal by Indonesian magazine). Personally I never tried it

[Mr. Spiffy-Pants]

Well, I decided to take the plunge and, sure enough, it DOES work! I used a SATA->USB adapter from TigerDirect.com, a Lite-On Blu-Ray drive from Newegg.com, and my girlfriend's MacBook Pro (not the most recent hardware revision, but the one prior with the ATI video card). It worked quite well in Windows XP via BootCamp. For giggles, I tried playing the disc on my AMD64 x2 3800+, 2GB RAM, GeForce 6600 256MB VRAM system and it DID play back on my VGA monitor, but not my non-HDCP DVI monitor using the bundled Cyberlink PowerDVD BD Edition. The video card can't handle flavor of this magnitude, but it did play "The Road Warrior" when I gave it a try (it was constantly showing little macroblocks, however - I'm upgrading my video card this week and I'll let you know how that works out).

As a side note, I am running a dual-monitor setup with the VGA monitor as my secondary screen - All I had to do was drag the video window over to the VGA monitor and I stopped receiving HDCP errors!

[Cosmo999]

Is there any burner that's for the PC and it an external drive instead of a internal drive that I can find.

[Mr. Spiffy-Pants]

Do they exist? Yes. Are they expensive? Y-E-S!

I'd look for an external SATA enclosure and a BD Burner separately online. I came up with a similar solution for my BD-ROM drive and it was significantly cheaper.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

No, you must be running genuine Vista (I don't think Blu works under XP, correct me if I'm wrong)

There is no risk of running Windows on a Mac, even if you failed to install anti-virus/spyware, it would only affect the windows installation

I must correct you - Blu works great under XPSP2!

[prerich]

Originally Posted by Mr. Spiffy-Pants

Ok, based off of that comment I'm thinking that it's impossible because none of the iMacs or MacBook Pros have HDCP. Is this correct? Does anyone currently have PowerDVD Ultra, a non-HDCP video card, and yet still enjoys Blu-Ray playback? I'm getting more and more confused now...

The problem would be finding an associated program that works on a Mac (PowerDVD Ultra) without adding Windows XP for Mac.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by w_tanoto

it does sort of plug-and-play. you can display the files on a BD disc, but you CAN't view the content without HDCP device. I tried this on a non-HDCP PC. it does display the files, and can read BD disc, but it can't play. As somebody suggest above, AnyDVD HD (I wouldn't suggest it though. It's stamped illegal by Indonesian magazine). Personally I never tried it

Yeah, I heard about the Indonesian magazine saying it was illegal - I don't live there and when America says its illegal then I will remove it. As long as our government says its ok - I will continue to recommend it.