Its like pulling teeth trying to find these things. I see a lot of new models coming first qtr but we all know if they are saying first qtr that means 2nd qtr.
I want something external so I am not limited to any one PC. Anyone know of any??

Thanks!!

I have not checked if external BD burners are available or not, but you could use an external enclosure with an internal BD burner instead. I know there is a wide range of such enclosure available with interfaces ranging from regular USB to both flavors of FireWire, Ethernet, Serial ATA.

You can try the USB enclosures for IDE drives. If you have a SATA burner, you should be able to add connector at the back of your PC for direct SATA connection (still need external case though).

Here's some : 5.25" enclosures (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=2215&Nav=|c:1204|&Sort=3&Recs=10)

Note : I have not tried it yet.

Here is one external BD Burner that uses a Panasonic drive.

NU HBR258 (http://www.nu-global.com/1_english/3_products/01_ide.php?pID=72)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827154038

Thanks everyone. Those USB enclosures for IDE drives looks great. I had no idea they had such a thing. Pricing for the external burners are booco dollars. These will allow me to by the Sony for under $700 and use it as a stand alone. Thanks!!

Thanks everyone. Those USB enclosures for IDE drives looks great. I had no idea they had such a thing. Pricing for the external burners are booco dollars. These will allow me to by the Sony for under $700 and use it as a stand alone. Thanks!!
USB enclosures for DVD/RW work ok, but they don't run fast enough for the 16X DVD burning (topping out at 8x) and with 4X BD burners available today (LG has one), the USB enclosure might be a stopgap measure.

There is a USB/SATA version for 3.5" enclosures that I use for my stacks of 500GB SATA drives, and they run much faster from the SATA connector. Unfortunately, SATA 5.25" optical drives are rare, so noone makes the enclosures.

Eventually, the enclosures should all be SATA, that way there is no translation layer between USB and IDE.

I'd personally recomend a firewire enclosure(IEEE1394) over USB, or one that has both. IMO firewire works better for this type of thing.

The current burners operate at 2x for BD. Will these be good enough for that. Thanks!!

Actually there are 16x DVD burners on USB 2.0....here is one for example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106036

I still recomend firewire if at all possible.

The current burners operate at 2x for BD. Will these be good enough for that. Thanks!!
2X BD speed USB would be fast enough. The write throughput of these things also depend on the USB on the host PC too. Sometimes, they go through a hub internal within the PC and that can slow it down further. Typically 100Mbps is easily reachable on USB<->IDE bridge, HDD can even run up to around 25Mbyte/s (which is a good 200Mbps), but that depends on your system.

It also depends on which chipset is used. A couple of years ago, the ALi chipset used for these things don't go anywhere near 200Mbps.

The 480Mbps USB theoretical speed is on paper only, various implementations cause the actual throughput to slow down when you actually measure it. I find that I can only reliably burn to 8X on 16X DVD drives using USB, but that's just my system.

---

Btw, I've burnt a lot of BD-RE, mostly filling up the SL disks, and I've found that the burn speed even via IDE is barely 1X on the RE (due to the rewriting nature) even though the target is 2X, I don't think the USB is going to pose a problem until this part of the performance is understood.

This performance is consistent across the BWU-100A and the panasonic using Roxio & Nero. It usually fluctuates between 0.91X and 1.0x

(I have yet to try a BD-R as I am deathly afraid of $10 coasters).

Alan,

I use a AMS VENUS DS-2512B2BK (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817145652) Aluminum 5.25" USB2.0 External Enclosure for my Lian-Li RH-322 Mobile Rack (http://www.directron.com/rh322.html). Had to mod the DS-2512B2BK to accommodate the mobile rack and I slowed the fan down by using a series resistor. The Venus was designed for CD/DVD (Blu-ray?) drives.

I can not tell any difference in transfer speed using High Speed USB 2 (Venus) to internal IDE drive vs. IDE drive to IDE drive. HHD are Western Digital 7200 RPM drives.

2x BD is comparable to 7x DVD btw

I-O Data BRD-UM2/U Blu-ray USB Burner
http://images.pcworld.com/reviews/graphics/126101-2408p056-2b.jpg
http://www.everythingusb.com/i-o_data_brd-um2u.html


AND


LaCie d2 Blu-ray External Burner
http://www.everythingusb.com/images/list/laciebluray.jpg
http://www.everythingusb.com/lacie_d2_blu-ray_drive.html


Enjoy :)

I had this lying around, so I tried it with my BWU-100A BD-RE burner :

Vantec 5.25" USB enclosure (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2414551&CatId=2215)
http://images.tigerdirect.com/SKUimages/medium/V13-1112-main.jpg

It works and burns at same speed as the IDE for BD-RE (about 1X on what is targetted to be 2X). It also looks really good with the BWU-100A. Don't know why I didn't try it earlier.

The best thing about it is that it takes a direct PC style AC power cable and needs no external transformer, which shows good industrial design (I really hate those power bricks).

Edit : I know I didn't buy these things for the blinking LEDs, but the blue LEDs on the right side (top if you place it vertically) is the same shade of blue as the blinking LED on the BWU-100A. The blinking blue LEDs looks like it belongs there.

Just a note that PowerDVD 6.6 update will play BD through this USB configuration for the BWU-100A. And as long as your CPU is a faster core2duo or AMD 64 X2 4200, the playback seems to be smooth, you don't even need the nvidia HDCP cards if you use VGA. I am driving a Dell 2405 via VGA using a radeon X1300 with 512MB memory - a cheap commodity card (no HDCP though).

This makes it easier to move the BD burner/player around, but having this as a brick still clashes with the aethetics. Al least it's all black -- meaning if your HTCP was all black, you can hide it in all that blackness. ;)

Good news. I just ordered the Sony burner today. Now I have to order one of these cases.

By the way who has the cheapest blank media so far. Thanks!!

My personal favorites for media shopping are newegg.com and meritline.com

http://www.pricewatch.com/media/blu-ray.htm

Thanks TauRus & metalsaber

I did a little more searching and came up with this...
http://www.disketteconnection.com/store/shopexd.asp?id=2563

Thanks TauRus & metalsaber

I did a little more searching and came up with this...
http://www.disketteconnection.com/store/shopexd.asp?id=2563
Other than Akihabara in Tokyo, here's one :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?DEPA=0&type=&Description=BD-R&Submit=ENE&N=0&Ntk=all

The verbatim's are 12.99. The lowest price I saw was $9.99, but I can't seem to find it now.

Btw, I currently use BD-RE mainly.

Other than Akihabara in Tokyo, here's one :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?DEPA=0&type=&Description=BD-R&Submit=ENE&N=0&Ntk=all

The verbatim's are 12.99. The lowest price I saw was $9.99, but I can't seem to find it now.

Btw, I currently use BD-RE mainly.

Thanks for the link. I just ordered the verbatims. What is the difference bewteen BD-R and BD-RD?? Thanks!!

Thanks for the link. I just ordered the verbatims. What is the difference bewteen BD-R and BD-RD?? Thanks!!

BD-RE is rewritable

^ BD-RE is erasable and reusable, and given the bugy state of software now, BD-RE can be used for prototyping first until it is perfect and then it can be archived onto BD-R forever. BD-RE is only about $3 more, should be used more until BD-R prive goes down.

BD-R can be written once only.

Im having trouble burning a disc. Im starting with a 1080i ts file. The burn program that comes with the Sony does not see this. I am running it through VideoRedo to clean it up. After running it through VR it sees it just fine. After dumping the file in the Sony software I am choosing the default chapter choice and then on to the burn process. I have the blank verbatim in the drive. I hit burn and I get an error "this disc is not supported"
What am I doing wrong??
Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

Alan,

Here's what I did.
1. updated the PowerDVD 6.6 (BD) on the cyberlink site.
2. upgraded to PowerProducer 4.
3. Installed the patch from Jan '07.
4. Use videoredo to split the mpg file into smaller chunks. (Could not get chapter points to work reliably, only title breaks work).
5. I use only BD-RE's from Sony and Fuji so far. I lost two philips BD-R blanks because of software bugs in roxio's burning apps.
6. The BDAV disk burnt this way plays on the PS3, samsung and Panasonic.

Thanks Neo. I will do all the updates next and see if that helps.

Thanks!

Alan,

There's also this site for people to update the sw that came with the burner : http://sony.storagesupport.com/BDupgrade/

The PowerDVD 6.6 BD patch is in there somewhere (follow the links to the cyberlink download it eventually asks for the cd key - just provide the one that came with the burner).

If you register the cyberlink sw, you should get email telling you the location of an upgrade to PowerProducer 4.0 for existing users (it costs $40), there's also patches for existing software that may or may not work. I used this location for the patches (but newest download could already have the patch).

http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/download/patches_3_ENU.html

--- btw, I still can't run LXG on the PC, but haven't spent too much time investigating that, between the office, watching movies and reading AVSFORUM and making my own BD-RE home movies, there's not enough hours of leisure time to spend on tracking down why a movie doesn't play on my PC.

I just got the Sony Burner and upgraded to Power DVD Ultra which has all the fixes incorporated. Sure its another $99 but everything works like a charm now. The power dvd that comes with the drive is crippled and not worth much except for headaches.

Suzook,

When I put in LXG, sometimes I get the FBI screen, other times it just freezes with a black screen. All other movies I tried work fine. I suspect it is the Java thing.

Thanks for the info. I'm going to wait a while longer to see if other titles have problems on the PC besides LXG.

Neo

Thanks for the links. I searched on my own and could not find anything. This link will help.
I am able to burn a movie to BD data file with success and the movie plays back fine on the BWU-100A but it does not play on my Panasonic. When burning it via BDAV all is well right up to the point Im ready to burn and I get the "Disc type not supported" error.
I may take the easy way out and take Suzook advice and buy the ultra package.

Neo

Thanks for the links. I searched on my own and could not find anything. This link will help.
I am able to burn a movie to BD data file with success and the movie plays back fine on the BWU-100A but it does not play on my Panasonic. When burning it via BDAV all is well right up to the point Im ready to burn and I get the "Disc type not supported" error.
I may take the easy way out and take Suzook advice and buy the ultra package.

Panasonic user manual (page 5) lists "BD-R/BD-RE v1/v2" discs as "cannot be played" :mad: This can't be right!

Suzook

Looking at Power DVD Ultra that appears to be just a player, is that correct. I do not think that will help my BD burning problems. I found the patch and software updates. Im going to install those and give this another try.

Thanks guys.

Neo

Thanks for the links. I searched on my own and could not find anything. This link will help.
I am able to burn a movie to BD data file with success and the movie plays back fine on the BWU-100A but it does not play on my Panasonic. When burning it via BDAV all is well right up to the point Im ready to burn and I get the "Disc type not supported" error.
I may take the easy way out and take Suzook advice and buy the ultra package.

I noticed that the panasonic player had problems with 25fps content - it shows black screen only, but worked with all 1920x1080P24, 1920x1080i60, 1440x1080i60, 1280x720P60 disks I threw at it. It was important that the mpeg2 files are cleaned up first though --- I am using videoredo in batch modes to split the files. I did not do any fw upgrade on the panasonic. It was shipped just before xmas.

I'd also use BD-RE exclusively until the softwares are verified to work. BD-RE can be erased and reused if the sw screws up, BD-Rs become coasters. :(

My content is all 1080i. I did the upgrade to mt Panny which was bought as soon as they started shipping. I am using videoredo as well. I will try batch mode.
I have made my first $15 coaster. On Monday I am ordering some BD-REs :)

I performed all the updates and patches and it worked :)


Im burning my first disc :)

Thanks everyone!

For those who have used CyberLink BD Solution, does this really allow you to author bd discs from HDV footage? Do these work on most standalone players? If so, this leapfrogs hd-dvd (or so it seems). How about the fancy stuff, like motion menus?

I'm still waiting for my Pioneer burner to arrive, and based on the suggestions here, I have ordered plenty of bd-re discs.

Ollie I am now just getting started myself, I am far from an expert. I do not have HDV source so hopefully someone will be able to answer this. Once you do the updates its easy to burn a file. Way easier then what they are going through for HD DVD but they do not have the playback issues we are having between the different players. The disc I just burned will not play on my Panny but plays back perfect on the Sony burner. I did the software update on my Panny and that could be the cause. I also burned the entire movie as one large file which could be the cause. Monday I will buy a few BD RE discs so I can burn a few versions with chapters or split files etc. Once I get a routine that works I should be set to go. It really is straight forward.

What burning software are you guys using?

I downloaded a demo of Nero 7 Ultra(Ultimate?) and I noticed it had options to burn HD-DVDs and BD.

Anyone try this out?

I have Nero 7 but was not aware it offered BD support.

Many here recommend PowerProducer 4.0 by Cyberlink. Warning 3.0 does not work.
http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/cyberstore/order_3_ENU.html

If Nero does indeed work and you do not need the extras PP offers, chapters, playlists etc then Nero may be another option to be added to the list of BD burning software.

Wow,

Good luck Alan. You are a much braver man than me.

I have a LOT of .ts movies that I would love to burn to some blank BD discs and then design some cover art for. :)

But, at $700 a player and $13 disc, it's just too pricey for me right now.

Let us know if you have success and if everything plays back right (5.1, etc).

I guess I will have to wait a couple of years to export all of my .ts movies to BDs. :(

First the bad news. In my haste and limited testing, until last week, the software apps didn't even work and with all the mess around, I did not realize that only BDMV disks created using another sw app plays on the Panasonic player. Panasonic player actually doesn't recognize the BDAV disks. Only samsung and PS3 does. I just dropped by the office to test a few home movie disk I created in the lab with the panasonic and the panasonic did not recognize the disks. ONLY Samsung and PS3 will play these BDAV disks.

The BDMV authoring tool is something my team wrote for internal use for our own HD AVC streams (MPEG2 also works), so in the rush to test streams over the last week, I moved the disks from PC to player (mostly samsung and PS3 - which I also have at home) and neglected to retest on the panasonic.

The panasonic was the only one that reliably played the AVC BDMV disks on on BD-RE. PS3 only plays BDMV if they are on DVD/R and not on BD-RE. You have to write your own sw if you want to burn BDMV onto a DVD/RW, but they will play on PS3 and Panasonic only. BDMV is not recognized on Samsung (and no AVCHD either).

On PS3 and Samsung, HDV works. The files came from HDR-HC3 and was captured via 1394 using Ulead earlier into .mpg files. I burnt them on the sony BD-RE disks using Cyberlink's Power Producer 4 with the January '07 patch. It is very easy. Insert the video clips, make sure they are 24500MB or less, insert BD-RE and press burn. 1-2 hours later, the BD-RE pops out and you can insert into the samsung or PS3 and play them.

You have to install the cyberlink sw that comes with the sony BWU-100A (or other burners). I paid over USD550+shipping for mine, but that's a few months ago. I think they were on ebay for 499 BIN from a NJ store, and shipping in US is lower - canada shipping also involves custom fees. In the end, it would have been cheaper for me to get them localy. There is a local store that sells the BWU-100A for around CDN660 (USD570 tax included). AFter that, BUY the upgrade to powerdirector 4.0 and make sure it has the January patch.

Disks are burnt as a BDAV. Note you can also create photoslideshows, just like Ulead VS10+ on HDDVD, they are just an mpeg title with background music of your choosing. There is no transition effects either (at least I didn't try the PowerDirector options at this point so I wouldn't know for sure).

PowerDirector is extremely buggy at this point and the first time I used it to split the streams, the created disk was corrupted at the split point. I reverted back to VideoRedoPlus to do the stream splitting --- the batch mode splitting works like a charm and you can even edit the batch cmd file ans individual split description file manually to adjust the time of the splits if you so incline. Depending on how much time you want to spend to find actual split points, you can have a masterpiece disk with very exact splits, or if you want to, dividing that 5hr monster into individual 10minute segments can be done with editing the BPRJ files that describe the split points.

Here's the type of MPEG2 streams that work on the samsung and PS3:

1920x1080P25 originally from 6 TS files over 25GB - VBR of around 17Mbps.
1280x720P60 (actually 24 with 3:2) VBR of around 10 and 14
1920x1080i60 CBR of around 19
1920x1080P24 VBR of around 17
1440x1080i60 from HDR-HC3. CBR of 25
1440x1080i60 rate reduced to VBR 15 from CBR 25 originally on HDV.

---
The BDAV spec actually notes that 15Mbps was the limit, but right now, the disks play.

---

Summer of last year, I had hours of footage with a HDR-HC3 --- a family vacation through various exotic places in Asia. I initially moved the files into 8 DVD+R DLs as HDDVD using Ulead VS10+ and Nero Ultra 6 ( it took a while to figure out how to do it).

I have just finished authoring the first disk that's roughly 1/3 of those on a single BD-RE. With more judicious editing, I think I can fit it on 2 BD-RE and still have a lot of stunning scenery footage.

Note that on a HD-A2, most of my disks that played on the HD-A1 was not even recognized. And some of my own test streams actually played on HD-A2 but with fields flipped, meaning the whole screen was shaking all the time, so that was depressing when the HD-A1 was playing them solidly.

By this time I was busy chasing down the BD-RE on burners so I didn't bother to spend any more time on ulead VS10+ and HDDVD. Instead I spent weeks of frustration with roxio and cyberlink software. That is until the powerProducer patch was released just over a week ago. DVDIt! HDPro, Roxio EasyMediaCreator and Cyberlink PowerProducer had all sorts of hangs and aborted disks with pretty much anything above 4GB.

At this point, the total Cyberlink software is still VERY buggy, but as long as you don't try anything fancy and just lay the files down - burning them is much easier than what I had to go through to get the movies onto HD-A1. Good thing about BD-RE is that you can erase them for reuse if anything goes wrong.

---

Edit : One disk I played with for a long time with endless refinements and resplitting came out so well that I reburnt it onto a philips BD-R and it completed flawlessly. It plays on the PS3 and samsung. MY first working BD-R. That should only be tried after you are completely happy with the BD-RE though.

Neo1965

Great post. Thanks for taking the time sharing your experience and for all your help. I also own the Sammy but I let a friend borrow it. Time to get it back :)
We can only hope all BD players will be able to play BDAV & BDMV with future up dates and that software patches will continue to work out some of the bugs in the authoring programs making the process user friendly for all.

Thank you.

I have Nero 7 but was not aware it offered BD support.

Many here recommend PowerProducer 4.0 by Cyberlink. Warning 3.0 does not work.
http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/cyberstore/order_3_ENU.html

If Nero does indeed work and you do not need the extras PP offers, chapters, playlists etc then Nero may be another option to be added to the list of BD burning software.

Alan,

From the quick start PDF on page 11 of the manual:


First select the disc type (a type supported by your device) to be burned (CD / DVD / Blu-ray / HD DVD), then select the type of project before adding the required data, and then you are ready to start burning - quickly and reliably, in proven Nero quality.


It doesn't specifically make mention of burning movies, but it doesn't state that it is limited to only data as it states, "select the type of project". Would be interesting to see as it only costs $80.