Is it Worth Investing in a Blu-Ray External USB Drive?

bikemanI7 · Sep 7, 2024

Is it Worth Investing in a Blu-Ray External USB Drive for Christmas or Birthday in the future?

Would be First time i ever used a Blu-Ray Capable drive if i do get one

Right now just have a DVD Writer External, that is used sometimes, but not too often

**Do have Nero Burning Rom Platinum Suite i can reinstall that is Lifetime status, to work with said Blu-Ray Drive and burn the data with, and perhaps get some of old VHS Converted Files Finally on a Disc, though TVs do not have Blu-Ray Players, only DVD Player

antspants · Sep 7, 2024

In Australia, you can get a Bluray player for your TV for AU$80
That’s like 50 cents American.

In the US, you can get a pack of 50 Bluray blank media for between USD20 to $50

That’s a lot of data or media.

No idea what external burners cost, probably cheap enough

antspants · Sep 7, 2024

I wonder if you can connect an external burner to your TV via USB or HDMI and use it as a player? I’ve never looked.

bikemanI7 · Sep 7, 2024

Yeah thinking one i seen on Amazon currently was going for $109 in US here, of course by Christmas or my birthday in February Price could change

Ohh i never looked if could connect it like that to the TV, i'd have to see maybe on that in the future

Just sitting here and was thinking what do i really need to still get

don't need anymore external hard drives thats for sure

considering i have the following lol
WD Elements Desktop 500GB
WD My Passport 2TB Blue
WD My Passport 2TB Red (why i bought 2 the same i have no idea lol)
WD My Book 8TB (Primary backup drive)
Seagate 8TB in External Enclosure (Won in Twitter CES Contest in 2019 lol)
Seagate 1TB Portable USB Drive
In Another Enclosure WD Black 1TB lol
and used occasionally in hard drive Dock--WD Black 4TB LOL (mainly stores the music, video files, and such)

Ghot · Sep 7, 2024

bikemanI7 said:
Just sitting here and was thinking what do i really need to still get

A case with a couple 5.25" bays.

Like this maybe...

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dacrone · Sep 7, 2024

You should just buy a couple WD 20tb red Pro nas drives and replace all of those. One for all that data and one as a duplicate backup. Can run them 24/7 too

bikemanI7 · Sep 7, 2024

Maybe in the future lol, been a while since i had a case with 5.25 bays lol. last time had one was in 2020 before upgrading to my former system, and now this AMD based system

Yeah i've considered getting a Nas.

i'd just have to find a spot to store it, and way to get Ethernet wire to it, and such--unless i make room under Laptop desk, and maybe store the Nas down there if did get one, and maybe 2.5 Gig Network Switch so Desktop could still be wired, and Ethernet wire the Nas as well.

antspants · Sep 7, 2024

So thats approx:

$110.00 for burner
$25 for media
= $135.00

How much do they love you?

(Can you throw a tantrum?)
Another $50 for a Bluray player

Lets round that off to $190.

This Bluray burner sweeps your floor and does your dishes

Amazon.com

But I would honestly buy a known brand.

As for a PC Burner that acts as a player in a TV, apparently… NO
But your TV should have a USB? Play movies via a USB.

bikemanI7 · Sep 7, 2024

Yeah gonna get a known brand for sure, LG maybe, Verbatim, not any off the wall brand lol.

Then work on saving for Future Nas device and WD Red Pro drives

antspants · Sep 7, 2024

bikemanI7 said:
Then work on saving for Future Nas device and WD Red Pro drives

Just walk around the house until your birthday saying “nobody loves me”
Until someone asks why, cry a lot and get it all at once.

This is what I do when I wan’t something. Doesn’t work for me though, my wife just says “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SHUTUP”

bobkn · Sep 7, 2024

Only you can decide if you wish to pay extra for a BluRay player.

Single layer disks are 25GB. BDXL goes up to 128GB, although I've never bought disks larger than 100GB. (Still too small for backing up hard disks.)

Some drive support M Disc, a format with extreme longevity claims. (But will anyone have a drive that can read M Discs in a century? Or will our robot overlords care?)

I have no idea whether an external drive could play commercial BluRay movie disks to a TV via a USB connection. BluRay disks commonly use HDCP for copy protection. That's supported by HDMI and DisplayPort, but I doubt that USB supports it. UHD (sometimes called 4k) requires HDCP 2.2 and up. Most computer drives that support BDXL won't play UHD movies on a PC without some hacking.

antspants · Sep 7, 2024

bobkn said:
I have no idea whether an external drive could play commercial BluRay movie disks to a TV via a USB connection

Apparently not.

bikemanI7 · Sep 7, 2024

Well i'll get it either a little at a time if i have to lol. In any case paying a little extra for a Blu-Ray Writer currently seems like good idea to me at this point.

Considering over the years i spent tons of MS Bing Reward Gift cards for Microsoft Movies & TV Shows & Movies lol

Most of CHiPs Episodes
Twister
Backdraft 1 and 2
Homeward bound 1 and 2
Speed
Speed 2
Unstoppable
Gone in Sixty Seconds
Final Destination 1 and 2 lol

I'm kinda like at this point what happens to all of those if Microsoft Movies & TV little app goes away lol, sure most of them except the Series shows are Movies Anywhere compatible

No idea what the total amount i spent in MS Bing Reward gift cards over the years--probably way too much lmao, been using it since came out possibly around Windows 8 time frame, as i remember purchasing songs on MS Store while i was using Groove Music lol back then. Plus i had a Windows Phone at the time, and got 30 Albums Free lol

antspants · Sep 7, 2024

bikemanI7 said:
Well i'll get it either a little at a time if i have to lol. In any case paying a little extra for a Blu-Ray Writer currently seems like good idea to me at this point.

Absolutely

hdmi · Sep 8, 2024

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Steve C · Sep 8, 2024

What are you going to use the BluRay writer for? If only data storage then and external disk drive might be more useful.

Helmut · Sep 8, 2024

In a word no, optical discs are slowly being phased out.

"Right now just have a DVD Writer External, that is used sometimes, but not too often"
" perhaps get some of old VHS Converted Files Finally on a Disc,"

That is by todays standards very low resolution video. Even using a DVD is a bit over the top. You do not need Bluray.

You have a ton of extra storage drives just use them. Long term you will need to either use other storage media or burn newer discs if still available.

I do have an external USB-A/C Bluray burner which is basically to go through all my old discs CD/DVD/Bluray. I doubt if I will ever actually burn any more discs as they they are being phased out.

jimbo45 · Sep 8, 2024

Helmut said:
In a word no, optical discs are slowly being phased out.

"Right now just have a DVD Writer External, that is used sometimes, but not too often"
" perhaps get some of old VHS Converted Files Finally on a Disc,"

That is by todays standards very low resolution video. Even using a DVD is a bit over the top. You do not need Bluray.

You have a ton of extra storage drives just use them. Long term you will need to either use other storage media or burn newer discs if still available.

I do have an external USB-A/C Bluray burner which is basically to go through all my old discs CD/DVD/Bluray. I doubt if I will ever actually burn any more discs as they they are being phased out.

The only need these days is if you have any physical discs (music cd's) /DVD's etc. Sometimes for certain types of music -- especially Classical Music it's only possible to get "uncompressed" music in the form of a physical CD. Then an external device is good for ripping it. Same with DVD's / blu rays -- you might have a whole slew of physical DVD's you want to keep and have long since tossed the physical DVD player. Ripping to Iso's etc where you can use any decent media player to play on remote devices at will.

I don't like "Music subscriptions" etc etc -- I prefer to have proper ownership and control over my own multi-media -- especially when some of these services have "weird playlists" in a propretary format. For CD's I use DbPoweramp to rip to flac, for DVD's plus blu ray's - the old AnyDVD program still "De-DRM's and de-regionalises" DVD's and Blu Ray's.

For many though getting an external DVD writer is probably pointless now -- but they can be had these days just for peanuts so I can't see anything wrong with buying one and just storing it away until needed. I've often found CD's of old long out of issue music at "Car boot" / flea market type sales and even some old DVD's with movies long since unobtainable any more -- so I've kept mine -- and I've still got about 2,000 music CD's to rip from my old collection.

Cheers
jimbo

bobkn · Sep 8, 2024

I didn't add: personally, I'll keep an external BluRay burner for the foreseeable future. Even though I'll rarely use it.

I keep hoping that a new, affordable, write-once archival medium with a capacity of terabytes will be developed.

I fear that such a medium will appear after practical holographic storage. (Which is to say, never.)