DV9500 Bluray upgrade options?

What are my options for upgrading DV9500's to have internal Bluray?

Any burners available?

Are the DVD units in the DV9500 IDE/ATAPI or SATA?

Is this drive an option:

Sony NEC Optiarc Black 2X Blu-ray Combo Drive E-IDE/ATAPI Model BC-5500A

Thanks in advance,

Joe

 

Pavilions use the 12.8mm slimline drive. Im pretty sure its SATA but double check if it is SATA or IDE/PATA

 

Seems to be IDE/PATA.

I see a lot of blue ray UJ120's available for under $100 slimline 12.8mm drives.

It should work, right?

Thanks in advance,

J

 

Yes probably since HP puts UJ120's on their other notebooks.

Maybe someone else in here with experience want to comment on how the panasonic drives are..

 

FWIW, I ended up getting 3 Sony BC-5500A's (HPPN: 462356–001). The DVD/DL 4x write speed sold me. Only $95 each. I decided against a BR burner, since I have externals, and I just can't see burning BR at 1x on a laptop,

J

 

Just an update to say the bluray drives are installed and working very well!

The upgrade requires the removal of one screw from the bottom, and takes about a minute. No activation issues either.

Best $95 mod ever!

Joe

 

Great stuff, might consider this mod soon.

 

I have the following notebook below and can I upgrade to a Blu-ray drive and if so which one will work: HP Pavilion DV9653CL(GS748UA) NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T7500(2.20GHz) 17.0" Wide XGA+ 2GB Memory 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS

 

whitakerf,
Your laptop is part of the DV9500T family, so the Sony drive listed above should work fine.

 

I am very very pleased with the Sony units. Of all the drives I have installed in the DV9500's (compared with 5 different DVD units I have previously installed), they write faster, more reliably, and with more of the media we have in stock).

I do not write CD's very often. I do know that one of the cd write speeds was lower on the Sony, but again, it writes everything else either as fast, or faster (D/L DVD write speed really counts).

I have them installed on three DVD9500's and they seem to be really good drives!

J

 

Hi Joe
I see you are running 500Gbx 2 @ 5400rpm on a DV9500.

I have a Pavillion DV9540 1.5Ghz 3Gb RAM running Vista Home Premium
with 2x 2.5" Sata Drives (120Gb @5400 + 320Gb @7200)

Do you know if my system would run as well 2x 500Gb @ 7200 ?
I just saw them around for about $100 each
I am running Vista Hom Premium with 3Gb RAM

Thanks in advance

 

7200? What brand/model?

Any 95xx should run fine.

If it is a 7200, it might run better I think mine runs a little hotter with the 500's, but it might just be the BIOS keeps the fan on more.

Joe

 

I replied to this question in your other thread. Where are you finding the 7200rpm drives? I haven't seen the 500G drives at 7200rpm.

 

Joe,
Where did you get your Blu-Ray drives I found the sony ones you mentioned on ebay, and bought one. However, the plastic on the front of the drawer is shaped wrong, and catches on the side of the laptop, preventing it from opening.

Thanks for your help.

Walt

 

You have to swap the bezels with the stock drive.

 

Hi JoeCHecht,
I have the same laptop than you and follow your advice of upgrading.
I am really happy with the optiarc 5500, thank you.
But I have the no audio problem over HDMI.
Did you change some settings on PowerDVD 8 Ultra? May I ask you what?
Did you upgrade any driver besides setting the software correctly?
Thank you, Rodrigo.

 

Works here.

I think I am running the latest update for PowerDVD Ultra (2705?).

Default playback for the laptop is digitial output.

PowerDVD is configured for SDF output.

Joe

 

Go to your Sound settings > Playback Devices

You should see something in the lines of SPDIF, Digital out or HDMI, right click it and Set it as the default device. Right click it again and click Test. Sound should now come out of your TV.

You will need to restart the media player program your using for it to take in effect.