Inexpensive Blu-ray upgrade for G50VT-X5

I just purchased the Hitachi LG CT10N 12.7 MM SATA Blu-ray drive from CNEDirect on eBay. @ $89 + free shipping it is the least expensive SATA BR drive I've found.

I also purchased the OEM version of Arcsoft's Total Media Extreme which include the BR player Digital Theater from Digistor. @ $20 it is the least expensive comercial product I could find.

Moving the bezel from the existing drive to the new BD-ROM Combo (DVD+-RW) was simple. The software install was outdated and had to be immediately upgraded before it would work. Most likely WinDVD and PowerDVD would be more feature rich but I didn't want to pay the money. Now I am able to connect to HDTVs at the Hyatt Place hotels I travel to and watch my BR movies without all the hassle of ripping them to disk.

Now I just need to do something about this slow 2.13 CPU!

Cheers,

 

Nice, I always wanted blue-ray in my G50Vt, but never bothered to get the upgrade. Maybe I'll upgrade my G51 this time. The CPU you have is just fine in my opinion, cause something better would probably cost you $180+.

 

The Blu-ray drive is great. As to the CPU, the 2.13 is fine most of the time but there are occasional moments where video or games pause or slow down briefly before speeding up. Perhaps it's really the nvidia 9800 drives. I'm using the stock Windows 7 drivers.

Cheers,

 

How easy was it to pull the old drive out after removing the two screws?

I'm still having trouble taking my dvd drive out of a g72gx it seems lose but it just wont come.

 

I had to take both screws all the way out. At first they stayed in and were still partially in and no matter how much I shook they wouldn't drop. I eventually held it upside down and tapped the drive and they both popped out and bounced all over the table before skittering across the floor where the cats promptly batted them into the surface mounted heat vents never to be seen again.

Once that happened it pulled straight out. Taking the bezel off just required the careful removal of vertical clip on one side and in the center and the sliding the horizontal clip over before pulling it free.

Took me all of 10 minutes to swap the drives and reboot. Windows 7 recognized the new drive even though I resumed from hibernation and it has work well ever since.

Cheers,

 

i have same drive one on order too, ill let you guys know how it works with my g51-a1

 

I just replaced the 2.13 with a P9500 2.53 and it makes a significant difference with Bluray movies and my games like Company of Heroes. No more occasional pauses! IMO 2.53 should be the minimum CPU for a games laptop.

I really do love this built-in Bluray capability. That should be std too.

Cheers,

 

How did your upgrade go? What software did you buy?

Cheers,

 

I put a Sony BR drive in my -X5 and used the Arcsoft software for a while, but it kept spiking up to full load on one core of the CPU and then the movie playback would stutter. Only way to fix it was to restart the Arcsoft app. I switched to PowerDVD 9 and it's much better on CPU usage. Cheaper than a faster CPU too

 

Hmmm, I haven't seen any issue with archsoft. The 2.13 was slowing down some of my games. My new 2.53 P9500 is much much better!

Cheers,

 

Is the blu ray drive external?

 

I'm pretty sure they are referring to internal ones. Though you can purchase external ones as well.

 

No, internal, however, I installed the drive in an external housing and tested the software before I went through the hassle of swapping the drives faceplates. Works fine either way.

External is how I use Bluray on my MacPro (under Windows7) since there are no cheap 9.5mm internal drives.

Cheers,

 

How difficult was it to remove the front bezel? What all did that entail?

Thanks!

 

The bezel is held in place by three clips. With the drive held upside down I used a very small flathead screwdriver to release the one on the left. I then gently wiggle the center clip free. The last clip is horizontal and sometimes just slides free once the other two are released. If not I use the tiny screwdriver to encourage it's release.

Takes all of 30 seconds. Just don't force it and you won't break the clips. All the SATA drives I've worked on have the exact same clips so they are essentially interchangeable.

Cheers,

 

Here's a good "how-to" on the bluray drive replacement on an Asus laptop...just FYI:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS4EqY2zXXY

I did it on my G72 and it works like a charm.

 

Thanks fellas! This information is very useful.