dv6500 Blu-ray upgrade

I have a Pavilion dv6500t Customized-to-order laptop, and I was thinking it might be cool to replace the DVD/CDRW drive with a Blu-ray. I'm not entirely sure I want to do this, as I'm not sure how long I will keep using this laptop, but I thought I would ask a few questions.

First, is it possible to switch out the current optical drive, and if so, is it easy like switching out a hard drive or RAM?

What are compatible models, if that matters, and how much do they cost?

Do drives come with necessary software? Or better yet, will HP DVDPlay run Blu-rays?

Would the Blu-ray drive be backwards compatible with CD or DVD media?

 

Judging by the less than enthusiastic reviews of the quality of the screen on the DV6, I would pass. Some people early on got the Blu-Ray drive for free, but shelling out $150 for the upgrade is not worth it IMHO.

 

A Sony Optiarc BD drives actually cost $80-90. This model was quite popular when i last looked. There might be better ones now so have a look around first. Also heres a thread for reference

Yes, its not hard to switch it out. The drive is actually only held by 1 screw on the bottom and the whole thing slides out. You will need to swap the plastic bezel of the drive so it fits flush on your notebook.

OEM drives will usually come with bundle movie and burning software. The drive itself should be plug and play no drivers needed.

As for HP Quickplay, i dont think it has the codecs for bluray playback. Maybe the latest version will

Yes of course.

 

Thank you for all the info. That was very helpful.