Bluray Panasonic UJ-232A and Panasonic UJ-242A differences?

Hi i have considered getting a bluray drive for my Sony. I have gathered that these Lenovo's bluray drives likely can be used if they are stripped and i use my own bezel.

The UJ232A does not support DVD+R Double Layer and DVD-R Double Layer and i use this media and it is cheaper than the bluray alternative.

I haven't been able to locate the specs of the UJ-242A. Are they exactly the same? If not does the UJ242A support DVD+R Double Layer and DVD-R Double Layer? Does anyone know where there is a spec sheet?

In terms of physical design are the drives actually the same with the location of the eject button and pin hole of the bezel?

Thank you

 

Specs for OEM drives are hard to come by. I did see some nice pics on eBay if that gets you what you need. In my experience working with drives is they don't re-invent the wheel when making them, which would lead me to believe it'll work, but that's a guess on my part. Maybe someone here knows. At some point you may have to make a leap of faith. I don't know how many people here are going have one as the BD-R drives were a $700 upgrade on the T series when they were available. Besides myself, I think I've only seen a couple W700 users with BD drives. Both of those would be too big of the TT. If you're mostly burning at home an external might be worth consideration.

 

Thanks ZaZ for your help, yes the specs of the latter model are hard to come by.
May be someone here owns one hopefully.

The TT takes a 9.5 UJ-232A that comes with its own bezel. To my understanding the Lenovo one would need to be stripped. They are the same basic drive but with looks like to be different housing.

Edited to add:
This is a UJ-242A
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Lenovo-T400s-...C_Drives_Storage_Internal?hash=item1c10e6a9b8

 

So today I spoke to someone from Spare Parts Warehouse today.

http://www.sparepartswarehouse.com/Sony,Vaio,VGN-Z-Series,Laptop,Parts.aspx

According to the sales rep, she said they had no Blu ray drives for the Z series in stock and was unsure as to when or IF they would get more of them. She said Sony provides to parts to them. I then asked her if I was able to get my hands on a Blu ray optical drive for the Z if they could install it. She said they could but would not provide any warranty for the part. The charge for the labor would be $65.00 which I feel is very reasonable. I would have to pay an additional $20.00 for round trip shipping to and from Ohio, which is where they are located. So it seems I could get this done for half of what I'd get it done for by Sony Style, but at the expense of MAYBE voiding the warranty.

It seems the least troublesome installation is to go with the Panasonic UJ-232A since it does not seem to need any bezel trimming or customization like say with the Lenevo Blu ray optical drive, but at the expense of lack of support for DVD+R and DVD-R DL support. I know for some that could be a big issue but I have two other VAIO's so I'm thinking if I have a need to burn a disc, I'll just use one of them. If SPEEDwithJJ or anyone else would like to comment about the upgrading of their Z and if there are limitations or issues to their UJ-232A Blu ray drive, that would be great.

 

I think i'm just going to go for the UJ-232A drive. I've looked a bit more and the prices of bluray discs are not so bad although they are more expensive than the alternative. Single layer dvd's tend to shatter too easily for my liking and are not ideal for storing things like photos and that is why i like double layer dvd's.

I'll have to order my bezel from sparepartswarehouse.

I moved this as i found out that some Dell models also use the UJ-242A drive.

I'm still interested about the specs differences if any.

Thank you

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120542636466&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Just received a response from the ebay seller regarding the Panasonic UJ242A and they said it should be compatabile with the Z820 and it does support DVD+R DL burning. I'm still concerned about the location of the pin hole and the eject button being opposite of the one on Sony optical drive. Does that pin hole location matter ? But the bezel looks the same so it does not seem any additional modification necessary. If this one is truly compatabile then I'm going for it. Any ideas on this one ?

 

I see that the seller that we both linked to sell a UJ-242A and UJ-242. I linked to the UJ242A version. Or are these both the same? I know to that my laptop the Sony TT uses the UJ232A. I also know there was some discussion before about one drive being slot load and one being tray load. However, both of those drives look like tray load drives.

 

Yes Rachel, the seller as well as the product are the same. Your ebay link is the U.K. site and mines is the U.S.A. site. I asked the seller about the pin hole and eject button being on opposite sides of the regular Sony DVD tray door but as I mentioned they said it should work. If I can get a confirmation I'll purchase it and have Spare Parts Warehouse install it.

 

Per eBay and Paypal policy, if anything doesn't work like you expect and you want a refund, you are required to ship it back at your own expense. Since the seller is from Taiwan, it would cost you a lot to ship it back. To get your refund, you must ship it back with a tracking number which would cost more.

 

Just wondering if anyone has managed to get the drive cover off the one that originally comes with the Z? I mean, doing that may explain alot about the drive that the Z comes with and the pinhole location it employs. I just tried to take the cover off but can't get it to budge. Might snap something if I apply more force (and the service manual doesn't mention anything about the drive cover, I think).

Anyways, the DVD drive on my Z (the one it came with from factory) is a Panasonic UJ862; I looked around for on ebay and came across it

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Sony-Vaio-V...C_Drives_Storage_Internal?hash=item29ff43b8b9

The pinhole is on the LEFT, as the tray cover is. And considering how the UJ232 also has the pin hole on the LEFT, I'm beginning to doubt whether the UJ242 is even compatible.

Unless there is some clever mechanism inside the Lenovo tray cover that 'converts' the right pinhole to the left with gears and what not, I don't see the Lenovo UJ242 drives being usable on the Z...

...Sigh... There goes DVD-DL support... And here's me hoping somebody can prove me wrong.

@Rachel
Do you happen to know the model number for the top LID/CASE of the Z (not the entire frame / bezel)? I'm specifically looking for the Premium Carbon Fibre one with the 'brushed-metal' pattern. I couldn't find it on sparepartswarehouse and the lack of pictures isn't helping...

 

I absolutely agree with you. And also let's not forget the cost of having it professionally installed by Spare Parts Warehouse. That's a $65.00 labor cost as well as another $20.00 for shipping and for it to not work it would cost big money for this incompatability.

As 5ushiMonster said, I am doubting the UJ242A's compatability after looking at the Z disassembly guide and seeing the pin hole location compared to the one on my Z820. According to the picture in the guide, a thin tool like a paper clip inserted into the pin hole of the bezel is what draws out the tray. Then the removal of 3 screws is required. So while the process of drive removal is not complicated, the removal of all the bottom screws, the keyboard, and other componets to get the drive removed is not so easy.

I'm beginning to accept that the UJ232A from Panasonic even without DVD+R and DVD-R DL support is okay. I'd be happy with BD read and write capability. I just wanna make sure this works. I'm still waiting on SPEEDwithJJ to confirm everything since he said he performed this upgrade a month ago and if there's anything he would like to mention about his upgrade performance wise and any modification to the bezel because the ebay photo as well as the UJ-232A User Guide shows a different shaped bezel than the ones on the Z series notebooks.

Edit : Here is the User Guide from Dell's site.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/P200774/en/index.htm

 

The pin hole is the emergency eject button so maybe it does not matter which side it's on.

 

The pinhole, I don't really care about. What I'm worried about is that since the pinhole is in a different location, what's stopping the actual eject button being elsewhere as well? Like, a completely different design more like. But then, we have the eject shortcut key which should work with any drive...

 

I just receive an email from the ebay seller and it appears to be good news. They are providing a guarantee that the UJ-242A will work with the Z.



Hello,



I am pretty sure. I will give you my guarantee if it doesn't work or if you are not satisfied with this drive in any way you can send it back for full refund. Is this good?



Enjoy your day!



Ryan

-----Alkuperäinen viesti-----
Lähettäjä: eBay Member: ehosey2 [mailto:[email protected]]
Lähetetty: Saturday, March 20, 2010 3:05 PM
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Dear bogielives,

Thank you for your earlier reply. But just to be sure, can you guarantee that this part will work fully and without any incompatabilites ? Please note the pin hole location is different with the part you are selling compared to the one on the Sony notebook DVD optical drive on my VGN-Z820. This is extremely important to know because this will determine if I buy the part from you. Thank you again.


- ehosey2 Answer the question



Panasonic Mata lenovo UJ-242 UJ242 UJ-242A blu-ray
Item Id: 120542636466
End time: Apr-11-10 23:52:17 PDT
Buyer:
ehosey2 (10)
100.0% Positive Feedback
Member since Feb-15-05 in United States
Location: XXXXXXX, United States

Listing Status: This message was sent while the listing was active.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120542636466&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#payId



Any thoughts ? It looks like I'm going to order the UJ-242A and have it installed by Spare Parts Warehouse.

 

Well... It's good that you are guaranteed that if it doesn't 'work' you can return it for a full refund (minus the shipping fees, I guess?). Then there is the sparepartswarehouse who charge labour costs and their own shipping fees. With all this, there is some slight chance it won't be capable from a physical point-of-view.

I mean, hardware-wise I know the UJ242 will connect and run without issues; it's just the matter of the drive enclosure fitting in the Z and the pinhole matching the tray cover now.

Anyway, I just got a PM from SPEEDJJJ saying that the pinhole on the UJ232 is definitely on the left, and that the tray cover is removable somehow.

Hopefully, if you do bite the bullet, you are successful and become the first person I'm aware of with DL DVD write capabilities with a BD writer (and Rachel's and my new best friend ^_^). Good luck, and hopefully Rachel can voice her opinion as well regarding this.

 

Yes, from the other thread where you posted and provided the highlight of the drive enclosure on the front of the " old " Z, I can see what you are talking about with the slight curve in the bezel. I'm not too excited about the thought of any trimming to the bezel to make this work. I gotta think about this for a few hours.

 

Yeah - think about it before commiting. If it doesn't turn out well you are looking at about US$100 loss from the shipping and labour costs, though if it is successful, a BD drive with DVD DL write capabilities.

And whoa. I was just asking whether you have that little 'dent' on the edge / side, right above the tray cover on the metal.
For an image of the 'dent'; do you have something like that? Didn't realise it was there until I was reassembling her back (and no, I didn't apply any force while disassembling)...
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_UL4nBaH1KiM/S6W12ycJkAI/AAAAAAAAAVE/ZyiG4_yBz3I/s800/DSC05784.JPG

You are not trimming the keyboard / aluminium palm rest. The only 'trimming' that maybe required is whether you have to remove the UJ242 drive enclosure. You can see that the Z manual shows the UJ232 which has an enclosure over it. But then, the UJ862 (the DVD drive) doesn't.
I think you can unscrew off the enclosure off any drive (UJ242 included) to get it to fit if it doesn't go in with the enclosure, though that may be risking the full-refund warranty thing...

 

Yeah, I think there was some confusion of what we were both talking about. What I was mentioning after looking at the picture of the Z you posted in the other thread and then looking at my actual Z in front of me, I notice the edge of the DVD door bezel has a curve at the front bottom edge of the notebook, whereas the bezel pictured of the UJ-242A looks to be a more straight edged bezel, which would probably require a small amount of trimming, because without any bezel modification the opening and closing action of the dvd door would be affected. That most certainly would void any warranty the seller was offering for the part if any modification was made to the bezel. As for that pin hole ( emergency eject button ) the difference in design probably though is not an issue.

 

That's not good enough. You still have to pay the shipping cost to ship it back which will be A LOT with a tracking number to Taiwan. Moreover, are you absolutely sure that it can burn DVD+/-R DL? Ask him for an official spec.

 

Ahahah~
All good.
The bezel on the Z's stock drives (DVD and BD writers alike) are detachable. How, I'm not too sure (I tried removing mine but scared I might snap them off if I apply too much force). I think it is merely the case of taking off the bezel from the stock drive and snapping it back on the UJ242 (or UJ232 for that matter). I do think the UJ242 you are thinking of has a Lenovo bezel already snapped on. If not, just snap on your Z's bezel and voila.

Though just curious. Like the image I just linked above, do you have that little concave dent above the drive tray? I don't remember my Z having it, and don't remember applying a force near that area in the past. Plus can't find images of the Z that show the dent from a proper angle...

@Hendra.
I think ehosey is aware of a possible loss if he does decide to take the plunge. And the seller did confirm that the UJ242 burns DL DVDs (didn't he???).

 

@ hendra

Yes, I'm very aware of the risk of a financial loss of a total between $100.00 to $150.00 U.S. Dollars if this does not work. The seller's policy normally is no cash refunds, only an exchange for another drive but he has in the email stated if it does not work I will receive a full refund. That is a pretty good incentive to buy it. Like the UJ-232A and its lack of support for DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL burning, I'm okay with that as long as the BD Read and Write capabilities and the normal DVD READ and Write work, which there seems to be agreement on that this does, and if I needed to burn Dual Layer discs, I would use another one of my VAIO's for that. But the seller did say Dual Layer burning was compatabile. For what I have spent of this Z and the RAM upgrade, and for the cost of the Blu-ray optical drive upgrade, the total cost of my Z820 is still within the acceptable overall cost range. I started with the $1665.00 cost of the actual Z which I did buy direct from Sony Style and was cheaper than the $1850.00 Sony Style was asking for.

@ 5ushiMonster

That is great news about the bezel snapping off enabling an easy swap, but...the physical location of the pin hole and more importantly the eject button on the " old " Z that goes across the edge of the bezel.....there is a difference.

I will contact Panasonic directly to inquire about official specs of the UJ-242A and if provided will post them here. Also, I will discuss the overall upgrade plan with Spare Parts Warehouse before I purchase the Blu-ray drive so the process will be simple and without question. As for any concave dents on my Z, I don't see that.

 

Hmm... Sony Service Centres, considering that they service Sony systems, I would have thought they would have performed upgrades provided that they were paid for it. Sony New Zealand does, and they charge about US$60 per upgrade session. That plus a one-year workmanship warranty. We just have to provide our own parts, or through Sony NZ which costs a bit more.

And yeah, I would have to agree it's on the expensive side of things, but remembering how the DVD writer market evolved, which was darn fast, we won't be seeing too many of these BD writers in the near future. I'd say give another year or so and we'll stop seeing these drives being made... Or at the very least, the prices would have dropped a bit.

@Rachel
Would you happen to know the parts site? Or maybe the part number of the premium carbon top lid itself?

And regarding the durable discs; strange. I have a Philips DL DVD and that is actually thinner than a Sony DVD-R. I know Sony sells some DL discs but they are rebranded Ritek (and some other company which I cannot remember anymore) media. Durability-wise, the DL disc, at least from what I have, seem rather weak compared to a normal DVD-R. I know that the archive duration of DVDs is increasing with newer chemical innovations, but durability would only increase with the thickness of a disc (maybe some hardening chemicals too...?). Realistically, thickness increases can only go so far until DVD drives can't accomodate them physically.

@ehosay
Apologies; this got mixed up in the misunderstanding. I was talking about this, which was slightly off topic... You have that curve?


And yes. I would say the pinhole location isn't as important, rather the eject button location. The eject shortcut won't work without being in Windows so having the eject button on the drive working is a must (ie, when installing windows on a clean drive). But as I said earlier, what I'm worried about is that since the pinhole location is not in the same place, what's stopping the eject button being at a different location also, unreachable with the bezel cover?

EDIT
The more I see the ebay photo and compare the Z dvd tray bezel, the more I seem to think it ain't gonna work. The button on the UJ242 drive is a wee bit more towards the left than the Z's bezel. Likewise with the indicator lights.

I just came across this UJ232
http://cgi.ebay.com/PANASONIC-Blu-R...C_Drives_Storage_Internal?hash=item27b0341d08

That has absolutely NO bezel / faceplate, and check the photo - the indicator and button circuitry are showing. That circular black thing towards the right is the push-click-switch for the eject button, I'm sure. It's quite close towards the right side, unlike the UJ242.

 

Ok, i bought a new UJ232A without a faceplate from a UK seller. It cost me £180. It seems like it will give me less issues than the UJ242A drive and it is cheaper as well.

I'm using some of my upcoming birthday money to buy this lol, oh well.

I was advised here that i need to buy a new bezel. However, i don't have a NEC drive. I have a Mata UJ862AS. If i don't need one now i need to figure out how to get the bezel of and possibly take my laptop apart. If it looks a bit much i will send it away to be done. I'll wait to get the drive and see what happens.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5568235&postcount=42

No doubt i will sell my old drive to recoup some of my costs so the upgrade should cost me next to nothing.

Good luck with your upgrades.

 

My Z820 does not have that curve.

Are you going to buy that UJ-232A ? I'm still undecided as to what I'm going to end up doing but it seems unfortunately I'm not gettting the UJ-242A due to the likely incompatability.

 

Yeah - my bad for repeating the question. I wonder how I ended up with the dent in the first place...

I'll most likely get a UJ232 for sure. I just need to save up enough to get it.
Though in my case I think I'll get it through Sony New Zealand, not through ebay. I think it's better to have at least a years worth of warranty (none of the UJ232 I've seen on ebay have it) for something I'm about to commit US$400 for... But then, this is dependant on how much Sony will charge me for importing the drive.

 

@ Rachel

In the Z i5/i7 Owners Thread you asked about the Blu-ray drive and found out about the model number of the drive. I'm currently looking at a Panasonic UJ-242A which is for sale on ebay. The seller guarantees it will work with my Z820. I sent him another question about the bezel situation since the bezel on the UJ-242A is slightly different than the one on my Z820 and am awaiting a response. If the seller can provide me with a bezel shaped exactly like the one on the Z, I will buy both parts from him. As it stands now, the Z's pin hole and eject buttons do not line up with the UJ-242A with the Z's bezel and therefore couldn't reuse it and I don't want to have any trimming done to the UJ-242A's bezel and hope it fits correctly to the body of my Z. And the design of the UJ-242A's bezel as it is designed will prevent the optical drive door from closing properly.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Panasonic-Mata-...C_Drives_Storage_Internal?hash=item1c10e6a9b2

 

The new Sony Z uses the UJ242A BD drive. The Z only has a pinhole and a dedicated eject button but this is not on the bezel. Probably sellers will soon start selling these drives OEM.
May be that bezel and drive would work as an upgrade for the old Z's.
Or may be now is the time to sell your old model and just buy the latest one.
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/newgallery.aspx?id=40989&img=10
Sony charge just over $1,000 for the UJ232A so DIY really is the best option for most people i think.

 

@ Rachel

But, there should be no reason that the UJ-242A I linked to wouldn't work as long as there is a bezel that fits the " old " Z, right ? Operationally the UJ-242A with its pin hole and dedicated eject button will obviously work with the drive it comes with and so it's a matter of a bezel fitting the dimensions of the " old " Z, and fitting without having to try and trim some of the plastic and hope it fits.

@ Rachel

Also, you said that you purchased the UJ-232A already, correct ? Did you happen to figure out the bezel ( face plate as you called it ) situation yet ?

 

I did buy one yesterday and naturally i don't have it yet. May be by mid-week it will be here.
I think i will be able to swap the bezel. It is a Mata drive after all and i do think that those with a NEC drive had to purchase the bezel i have. Getting the bezel of also doesn't seem hard to do.

The drive i bought came without a faceplate.

Let us know how it goes with your upgrade.

 

If the seller is able to provide a bezel that fits my Z820, then I will definitely be getting the UJ-242A and will have Spare Parts Warehouse install it. I'm just waiting for the ebay seller from Taiwan to respond back again. He did say he guarantees it will work but I failed to ask him the first time about the bezel situation. If indeed all this is able to happen, I'll update and provide some pictures as well.

 

And the answer I got from the ebay seller is :

Hello,

What you will have to do then is take your rounded bezel and place it onto mine drive

Enjoy your day!

Ryan

I explained to him the physical location of the eject button and the pin hole emergency eject are different, so how would the functions of those 2 things in the UJ-242A line up with the bezel on the Z820's. I'm so ready to give up on this, between this what seems to either be a lack of understanding or the other sellers of the UJ-232A not really having a sure answer. Now I'm even becoming unsure of all this.

 

I'm pretty sure that the bezel itself will snap on fine onto the UJ242. But then we have the issue of the eject button. One would have to try taking the bezel off the existing Z's drive and check out if it will be possible (which I doubt).

I'm sure the drive will fit into the Z (provided the enclosure is the correct size). Just the bezel won't snap on (even if it does, you won't be able to use the eject button), resulting in a 'ugly', yet working upgrade,

As SpeedwithJJ said earlier today, the bezel on the existing Z is 'recyclable' so I guess one size fits all kinda thing (that is, the bezel will work with the UJ862 (DVD drives) and the UJ232). Sony, no doubt will give you a crap answer, and Panasonic might as well.

So basically, you would be buying the UJ242 completely blind with the risk of a loss. I personally would recommend with the UJ232, but I only aim to fit the parts that the best spec-ed Zs around the world come with, nothing better nor worse.

Again, I would recommend you think about it~.

 

@ 5ushiMonster

The " ugly " portion of the upgrade I guess wouldn't necessarily bother me so much, as in if the eject button on the side ( bezel ) didn't work. I'd be a little concerned about if the eject button on the keyboard stopped working for some reason and the pin hole emergency button was my only way to then open the Blu-ray drive.

Looking at pictures of the UJ-232A, it seems the placement of the eject button and pin hole " line up " closer to the " old " Z's bezel design but nothing definitive so far I guess. Maybe SPEEDwithJJ can clarify the things I'm wondering about regarding fit and functionality. For now the UJ-242A is out of the question and the focus is on the UJ-232A. Thank you everyone for your patience on this matter.

 

You might want to PM ZoinkS2K back at the Sony forum and ask him regarding the new Z. He's got the none BD-Drive Z11 at the moment for the SSD tests that he's been doing recently, and he's already ordered the VPCZ11FHX/XQ (which has bluray); he plans on returning his new non-BD Z soon.

He's taken the entire machine apart and put it together again. And he seems to be the most knowledgable person who actually has the new Z so... I guess you can ask him about te bezel situation and the type of DVD drive his current model has. And considering that the new Z comes with the UJ242A, and knowing him he's gonna have his ordered new Z in pieces when he gets it, he should be the person to ask. And he also has the older gen Z so he should be able to answer comparison questions as well.

But yeah - the UJ242A at the moment is getting more and more iffy to us all (and Rachel herself bought the UJ232). I'll wait and see how Rachel's upgrade goes for now...

 

@ 5ushiMonster

Thank you for your input. Haha yes, ZoinkS2k definitely knows the Z's very thoroughly. I have been reading intently about the thorough testing of the SSD performance. Perhaps I'll PM him and see what he says. I know he's very busy so we'll see. I do trust what SPEEDwithJJ says as well since he's already performed this upgrade but I think it's just a matter of clarification on a few things.

I did receive a response from Eunice eeeshopz and has stated I need to buy the Panasonic branded UJ-232A and not the Lenevo branded version but he still didn't clarify the bezel questions I had related to the pin hole emergency eject button location on the drive compared to where it's on the Z820's bezel since it's a last resort function to eject the disc if the keyboard eject button stopped working for some reason.

 

For my UJ232A Blu-ray drive, I basically reuse the drive bezel from my original DVD drive. The drive bezel fits perfectly on my UJ232A Blu-ray drive. The 3 clips on the drive bezel fits perfectly on the UJ232A Blu-ray drive & the eject hole aligns perfectly after the drive bezel has been installed.

Hope these info help you all.

By the way, after reading what you guys have discussed about the placement of the emergency pin-hole & eject button (pin-hole on right of eject button) on the UJ242A Blu-ray drives, I wonder if this placement applies to Lenovo branded UJ232A Blu-ray drives. Therefore, it is important to note that my Blu-ray drive that I've successfully installed is the Panasonic (Matsh1ta) branded UJ232A Blu-ray drive (pin-hole on left of eject button). Good luck.

 

I got the Mata.... Panasonic branded UJ-232A Blu-ray drive and am having it professionally installed.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=468666&page=5

 

I wasn't sure which thread to continue this in since there's two cross threads pertaining to the older Z and the parts for it so here it will go. I have received back my Z820 with the new Blu-ray optical drive upgrade. I had a brand new Panasonic Matsh*ta BD-MLT UJ232A optical drive installed. Paul from Faze Computers performed the install and did a great job.

http://www.fazecomputers.net/servlet/the-94/UJ232A,-UJ232,-dell.-IBM,/Detail

My Z was sent back in perfect condition and all the screws of the Z back where they belong, and no scratches anywhere. It was tested using a demo copy of Power DVD 8 for Blu-ray which I promptly removed and installed Sony's generously " issued " copy of InterVideo WinDVD BD for VAIO, with the latest software update. The original bezel that came with my Z was used again for this upgrade.

I can honestly say that even though the screen is a 1600 x 900 resolution, Blu-ray discs usually have a noticeably cleaner and more detailed transfer over a standard DVD. Yes, you can tell even on a 13 inch screen. I've been buying or renting Blu-ray movies and concerts since November of 2007 so it only made sense for me to get this upgrade. I don't buy or rent standard DVD's anymore. The complete purchase including the part and installation was from Faze Computers and complete cost was $490.00, and includes a 12 month warranty.

I've tested the Blu-ray drive with close to a dozen Blu-rays and everything is working great. This upgrade, if Sony actually agreed to do it, would cost around a thousand dollars if someone decided to do this after the purchase of their VAIO. Sony told me because this wasn't a Z890, they couldn't do it due to " non-capatibility." And anyone who might think about this upgrade, keep in mind that this is the same Blu-ray drive in the older Z's and have the same features and " limitations. " I say that because with this upgrade you lose the capability of burning DVD DL discs. Single layer disc burning is okay but with this upgrade you gain the capability of burning Blu-ray discs, and to me is a plus as the future HD videos I'll be recording will find their way to Blu-ray media.

I also want to thank SPEEDwithJJ, 5ushiMonster, and Rachel for their guidance and advice during the process of this upgrade. I now have a fast performing Win 7 Pro, Blu-ray equipped Sony VAIO Z820 and with 8GB of RAM so I'm good to go and have lost the desire of buying the new Z for a couple years.

 

I'm glad you're pleased ehosey. I'm pleased to. I still don't own a single Bluray drive yet though lol.
Hopefully 5ushiMonster will be equally pleased when they do this upgrade down the line.
I know Sony recommend 4GB for bluray. I have 4GB, i think that is enough or what do you think?

 

ike the TZ do the TT and Z series use a USB connection ribbon to optical drive to cut off power when not in use

 

I have 2GB and Blu-ray plays flawlessly with my FW190, Mobility Radeon HD 3470, C2D 2.8GHz, PowerDVD Ultra 7, WinDVD BD for VAIO 8. Task Manager never indicates the RAM even close of being fully used. Just make sure you have the latest update for your software player and video driver.

 

Thanks hendra, so 4GB is plenty for me then.

meansizzler, the TT has got software that will turn the dvd off. It works pretty well. Whether it is somehow usb based i don't know. It may well be.

 

That seller on ebay is still persisting that both of these bezels the UJ232A and UJ242A are interchangable. Looking at Zoinks5 pictures i think that this may possibly be the case.

I sent them this-

I got a reply telling me these are the same.
I tend to believe them that they do know their job. I bought a standard bezel of them and they told me what work and what wouldn't and the new bezel fitted my old drive perfectly so i've got a little more confidence in them. It looks like you might lose the dedicated eject button though.

Anyway, they are a bit too expensive for me and last time i checked offer no warranty also.

 

Hmm...
Like I said earlier, the more I compare the two drives, the more I think they are physically different in regards to the hardware areas (eject and pinhole). At least, they seem pretty different in that regard looking at the pictures of the Uj242 and comparig to my Z's bezel. Of course, this is merely speculation on my part since I do not own either BD drives. ~sigh~~~

And wouldn't losing the hardware eject button (the one on the bezel face) be a big no-no? The eject shortcut on the keyboard is useless without an OS (a Windows OS running eventservice at that), and if you had to install Windows on a completely clean HDD / SSD and couldn't get the drive to open... I big fuss clicking off the Z's drive bezel face to access the drive's dedicated eject button.

Faze Computers, where ehosey2 got his drive and had it fitted, is selling the UJ232 fo US$299.

http://www.fazecomputers.net/servlet/the-94/UJ-dsh-232A,-UJ-dsh-232,-dell.-IBM,/Detail

I might consider that seeing that it has a 3 month warranty (more than enough for me to take it through its paces) and it's new. eBay sellers are a bit more expensive...

I have found a parts importer here in New Zealand, who supply Sony Service New Zealand with the parts they need. Have asked them if they stock UJ232A since Sony NZ did sell BD versions of the Z a few times already, but typical of New Zealand customer service... no reply...

 

here are some pics

If you want to install a Lenovo or Sony BluRay, it'll fit and work, just have the bezel problem.

Check some pics with the Lenovo Ultrabay adapter. The DVD/BluRay drives should work the same.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=469244

 

Wow, many thanks to Zoinks for that.

...Never realised till now that the new Z lacks hardware eject button on the optics drive.

And hence my conclusion now stands as fact - UJ242A is not compatible with the older Z (sob) on a physical level.
BUT
Since the Uj242 is a SATA drive like the Uj232, the 242 WILL work on the old Z, just without the hardware eject and pinhole access.

 

Thanks Zoinks. This rules it out for the Sony TT as well. Other forum members have been enquiring about this upgrade but at least we now know that it is for all intents and purposes a no go.

 

Yep. Considering that the Z1's don't have a physical eject button, it may not be a huge problem. As for the pinhole, I normally only use it if I'm dorking around in the chassis with the power off. Wouldn't be a huge deal IMO. I think the BR drive would work OK

I think I've posted on this before, but I've used the BluRay player (for BR) in the elder-Z a total of two times, literally. Of course I have a PS3 for the home theater so if you want to use the Z as a media station, it may make sense.

I haven't written any BR disks on the new machine, but writes on a LG drive in my workstation and on the elder-Z were horrifically slow. The media is expensive as well, so this is practically useless. External USB is a much better option.

Given other choices with the FHD screen, I wouldn't have selected the BluRay player in the new Z.

 

I guess this is a major bumpage of sorts...

I was wondering if people here know what blu-ray format standard the UJ232a and the UJ242a run on?
So, for example, blank blu-ray discs are standard 1.1 (or 1.2 or even 1.3, though not sure of 1.4 yet). The differences I've seen so far are the these standard deviations and the burning speeds.

Because I bought my UJ232a drive to burn corporate files for long term data storage purposes (...don't get me started on using USB based flashies and HDDs), I'd like to know what standard the UJ232a is capable of burning on; maybe the higher the standard level, the better the reliability?

But then, I don't want to buy the more expensive 1.3 blank media variants only to find out the UJ232a only supports upto 1.1 (which are cheaper). I know discs with a higher standard number are USUALLY backward compatible with drives designed for lower standards, but that's not a preferred path that I'd take considering the price difference between 1.1 and 1.3 blanks are over US$10...

So in a nutshell... My question is what STANDARD number the UJ232a supports upto?

That all said, can I ask what software is used to burn data blu-ray discs? I'm assuming W7 Explorer has one built in like the one used to burn CDs and DVDs, but to be sure as I don't yet have the blank discs on me... Or any good freeware (or, though not prefered, paid software) that can do a stable job?

Thanks in advance to anyone who is able to help.

 

Will I have that same bezel issue with the UJ242A on my VPC-Z11?