BD Slimline (laptop style) burners? -- Recommendations?

Which BD Burner have you had good success with? I'm looking to switch the one I have currently with a different unit but I need to get a feel for which models I should target so I know what I'm looking for.

The drive I have now is a Mata UJ-240ES drive. While the drive itself is good I just discovered that it will not allow me to play a non-region disc even with AnyDVD. This is due to the strict enforcement in the firmware regarding DVDs and that it won't allow the system to see the scrambled sector if the region doesn't match (all other drives are ok) so I'm looking to replace it with a non Mata drive. Ideas?

Thanks for any insight you can provide me.

P.S. My plan B is to put the old slot load drive in an enclosure however I want a single drive to do this. I just need the bare drive though. I'll just re-use the enclosure that I already have. With that in mind it should be SATA interface and tray loading if possible. I'll probably sell the one I have for a reasonable price once I get the appropriate replacement.

P.S.S. A bulkier desktop style drive will not work as this unit will go places with me.

EDIT: I'm also open to other BD Burner external options in a slim form factor but eSATA is preferred if possible (that's how I have it setup now). I'm still prefer a bare drive though so I know exactly what I'm getting and I can re-use an existing enclosure.

EDIT: Looking at the LG-HL BT10N drive. Seems like a good drive and I have had good experiences with the brand line in the past. I've got a few days on it so if someone has this drive then let me know how it went otherwise I might just jump on it.

 

Whatever you do just make sure that it comes with blu-ray player software, otherwise you'll have to fork out $50-$100 more for the software.

 

The best burners used to be NEC. Then they got all weird with their firmware. Right now we have a Pioneer but they don't make the slim-line. I have tried the Panasonic Blu-ray drive I installed in my friend's R3. Works great. Burned both data blu-rays perfectly. That was a Panasonic UJ-235-A. They make a tray-loading one if you prefer a tray load over a slot load. I also know Sony makes a slim line blu-ray burner, Sony Optiarc BD-5850H I believe. But I've had no dealings with those so I have no idea how well they perform. But like Wingnut said, it will cost you a good deal for the drive itself. Then if it doesn't come with the software...whoo boy. Nero can run upwards of $100 USD. I was lucky enough to catch it on sale from Amazon for $60 USD.

 

Yea. I got that fine. I use AnyDVD HD so I can just use Media Player Classic with K-Lite Codec Pack to play the BluRay discs. I've done that in the past and it works well.

The Panasonic/Mata drives is what I'm trying to get away from. They are too strict on the DVD stuff and prevent AnyDVD HD from doing it's job with out of region discs. The Sony 5850H is a slot load bluray burner and since I will be using the drive externally I would probably be more likely targeting the 5750H which is a tray load drive. Unfortunately the drive is a tad expensive. My primary option is the BT10H which is a LG+HL drive and I've had good experiences with their DVD drives in the past but never used one of their BD burners...

 

HLDS? NO! NO! NO NO NO NONO!

Stay away from Hitachi-LG Data Storage. That's the stock drives that come with our Alienwares. Those damn things go bad so easy and quick-like. I've gone thru 3 slot-load BD/DVD-RW slot load combo drives already. Users here are constantly having issues with them. That and TSST (Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology) drives are no good. I've had the TSST drive in my old XPS M1710. That thing was replaced at least three times and each time only worked for about two months before it completely died. I'm surprised to hear the Panasonic drives aren't working for you, but I can say for certain. Stay away from the HLDS and TSST brands.

 

They do work for me fine if it wasn't for how strict they handle DVDs. They follow the spec too dang closely.

The spec says that if the DVD region doesn't match the drive region then they shouldn't pass on scrambled sectors to the OS. While other companies don't enforce that part Mata/Panasonic drives do. So programs like AnyDVD can't work on those drives for DVD discs when they are out of region. Since I plan to sell my current Mata drive later on when I get the drive I'll get the Sony drive to replace it. Like I said I personally didn't have any issues with Hitachi-LG drives but I also know they tend to be bottom of the barrel so I'll just avoid them. I'll get the Sony 5750H to replace it then.

Relevant information regarding why no Panasonic for me: http://club.myce.com/f88/mata-uj-812-a-101267/#post637240

 

Have you tried DVDFab? That's the program I use to rip my DVDs and Blu-rays to my hard drive. Worked pretty well so far. No issues with the raw data when I go to transcode. Not sure about the DVD region mismatch though. All my movies and discs are region one which is the same as my Pioneer drive.

 

Yea... This isn't for ripping. Just for playback. I have some Japan region discs I play occasionally and they are not Region 1. The drive has to be emulated Region 2 for them to play so DVDFab won't be of any help.

 

Ahh, got it. Yeah, that's why I always rip my discs to my hard drive so I don't have to worry about things like region code and CPPS protection.

 

Well considering a Sony 5750H drive costs about $100 or so I'll wait it out just a little bit. I got an enclosure coming for my old DVD slot drive that was in my system before I put a hard drive in its place. I can use that for my Region 2 discs if needed until later but the idea scenario is just to carry 1 drive with me.

 

What are you using for the enclosure/interface. I got this eSATAp adapter that gets it's power from the USB side of the port and still gives SATA speeds on the drive all in one cable/plug. The only drawback is you can't use a hard shell enclosure with the drive cause the adapter sticks out the back of the drive kind of far.

 

This one: eSATAp External Enclosure for optical drives (12.7mm SATA) [slimSATA-eSATAp-C15] - $24.95 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

 

Exactly what I'm using and it works perfectly. The only thing I recommend you doing it to disable the USB power share setting in your BIOS. If that's enabled, then the system won't boot from the optical drive while plugged into the eSATAp port.

 

Yup. I'm aware of that. For the most part USB Powershare is disabled on my system usually anyways. Thanks for the tip though.

 

De nada. Good luck.