TT replacement? Any ultra-portable with Blu-ray?

I've a Vaio TT that I'm (or was) fairly happy with, and before that I had the TX and the TZ.

I would however like to replace the TT since the Blu-ray has stopped working for the second time and I just refuse to pay an insane amount of $ to have it fixed. The question is, - Replace it with what?

I want an ultra-portable, i.e. 12" or smaller screen, weight less than 3 lbs, and it must have Blu-ray and SSD. Where can I find one?

The only one existing, to my knowledge, is the Vaio TT that I already have. I find it very odd that Sony is the only manufacturer offering a Blu-ray drive in an ultra-portable. Or was offering; since Sony ceased selling the TT, not even Sony have an ultra-portable with Blu-ray. My family can't possibly be the only one that mainly uses their laptops to watch movies and wants the convenience and quality of HiDef.

Anyone know of any ultra portable with Blu-ray?

 

If you do find a last gen ultraportable that is around 3lbs you'll most likely find that even they do have an internal drive that they use the same BD drive.
I see in another post you started that you were considering a last gen Z. Well both of those models Vaio TT and VGN Z use the same BD drive.

The latest ultraslim BD drive that the latest Z uses is a UJ242A and the last gen model was a UJ232A. I see though that you're not happy with the location of the headphone jack.

Reading your post made me worry a bit as i just upgraded to a BD in my TT and was selling my DVD drive but i've withdrawn that from sale now.

Another possible option is to may be get an ultraportable like the Fujistu P770 and look into upgrading to a BD yourself.

 

you could just buy a slim drive and replace it yourself

 

Thanks for response.

I would be willing to buy a laptop with the same Blu-ray drive as the TT; if I just could find another ultra-portable that uses it. The TT is not the first Blu-ray that's failed for me, so either I'm just unlucky, or the quality of PC Blu-ray drives just suck. I've had 4 PC Blu-ray drives/burners fail for me. I was however a very early adopter and bought my first Blu-ray burner day 1 when Sony released its BWU100A, so the time span is a couple of years.

You're correct that I'm considering the previous model of Vaio Z. I would much prefer a slightly smaller and lighter laptop, but as a Blu-ray is a must have for me, I guess I'll just have to choose from what's available.

I haven't even thought about the possibility of buying a laptop without Blu-ray and replace the optical drive myself. I guess I didn't think it was that easy and that the optical drives used some odd interface ;-)
Can you recommend any laptop where I can pop in a Blu-ray? As light as possible, but with performance (great if it can play back 1080p).

 

The replacement of the TT is coming soon from Sony, check out Conics.

 

It is very hard to recommend any models without knowing what drive or the measurements of a drive that a laptop uses and what type of bezel it is has.
The P770 is a new model and hasn't been reviewed yet but it worth keeping an eye on this model or researching into it more.

And in regards to the TT replacement it appears Conics doesn't know if there will be a new model released soon or not.
Sony may well have discontinued this line. It is just a matter of waiting and seeing. With the ultraportable market as it is now it wouldn't surprise me if they came out with something more budget friendly therefore omitting the dvd drive.

Forum member the-Orb posted this in another thread.

 

you can swap drive bezels

 

Thanks for info, that sounds really exciting. I don't think I've ever visited conics.net before so I looked through all Sony laptops they listed and found a TT93 - New Model Soon

Guess I'll hold off on that Vaio Z order and wait for some more info about this one.

I don't currently see many changes in the spec, but my wish list would be (compared to current TT):
- Lighter. For some reason the TT feels a lot heavier/bulkier than previous TX and TZ.
- Play 1080p movies (e.g. h.264 mkv) without a glitch.
- Faster SSD. No idea why current RAID 0 SSD only manages 100MB/s throughput at best.

Surprised I've missed this... Did some searching, but couldn't find any info at all about a US release.

 

Some bezels seem to built for a specifc laptop. The Sony TT has its own unique bezel. A standard bezel would be no good to use in this laptop. It probably would leave a gap. Not all bezels say from one drive can be swapped to another. For example the Sony TT came with two 2 dvd drives. One came with a NEC drive and one came with a Pansonic drive. To do the BD mod those who had the NEC drive had to buy the Panasonic TT bezel.
Also, the eject button and pinout might be in a different location.

Edited to add:
The TT93 is a discontinued model. It has now been discontinued by Sony in Japan last week. The Sony TT appears to be now a discontinued line but a few places still sell it like in the EU and in NZ.

Could you not just replace the BD yourself?
A forum member bought this drive before and got a decent amount of warranty on it.
May be you could email them and ask them if you could have longer warranty cover for a 1yr.
It would work out cheaper than buying a new laptop.
http://www.fazecomputers.net/servlet/the-94/UJ232A,-UJ232,-dell.-IBM,/Detail

If they won't help may be search where you can get at least a years cover.

Also, may be look on ebay and see if you can get the drive covered under Square trade warranty. I bought a BD new of ebay and paid £180.
You might be able to pick up a similar deal.

This one for example you can get Square trade warranty with it.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dell-Latitude...C_Drives_Storage_Internal?hash=item5ad8302368

You can have up to 2 yrs warranty cover with Square Trade . I've never tried them before so look around for feedback if you're interested.

It was very easy for me to upgrade my BD myself.


In regards to your SSD question i don't know what SSD you have but there are two different generation of Samsung SSD's.
The first ones have speeds of about 90/70 for a single drive. The second gen ones have speeds about 220/200MBS.
With a later model Sony might have moved onto the 2nd gen drive.

 

I think the standard 3 month warranty for the brand new Blu-ray drive applies with only the part purchase. If you have it professionally installed, there's a possibility that the warranty gets extended to one year, but only if it's installed by Faze Computers and then a labor charge for installation would be added. But I can't say what that labor cost would be. And I can't even guarantee that the warranty would be extended. I can say that for my installation of the UJ-232A Blu-ray optical drive it was an additional $75.00. I'm very happy with my purchase from Faze Computers though.

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

 

thats why you swap bezels. they come off for a reason. the drive is the same behind that small piece of plastic.

 

Please note that the Panasonic Matsush*ta UJ-232A and the UJ-242A Blu-ray optical drives, though they both physically fit INSIDE the VAIO TT, it is the matter of the bezel lining up with the pin hole emergency eject button. This is the case with the UJ-232A as it also requires not only the pin hole to line up but also the physical eject button on the side of the bezel in the case of the UJ-232A. The UJ-232A also lines up with the power indicator light that is on the bezel.

The UJ-242A Blu-ray drive lacks the physical eject button mechanism but has the pin hole to emergency eject . So depending on which Blu-ray drive is bought and for which notebook will determine the one to get, and as the OP was asking about, that being a " new gen " Z, a " last gen " Z, or the VAIO TT.

And as far as the differences between the UJ-232A and the UJ-242A, they are not exactly the same in regards to what burning capabilities are supported. So, it's not just as simple as " swap the bezel. " Hope that cleared up some confusion.

 

Like i wrote before with the Sony TT these came with a DVD NEC Sony drive and a Panasonic DVD drive. Those who have the NEC drive have to buy a Sony TT unique bezel for the Panasonic drive if they want to do the BD mod. This forum member here had to do this.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5568235&postcount=42

They were able to do this because Sony offered two different type of drives and bezels. If Sony did not though they would be pretty much stuck doing this upgrade because they could not use the NEC bezel for the Panasonic drive and the standard Panasonic bezel would be no good.


Other companies might only offer 1 drive with a unique bezel therefore not possibly offering a alternative bezel if it is needed.

About the UJ242A on Ebay you cannot get any Square trade warranty with it. Although the discussion was heading before in a thread i posted into the pin out being in a different place they might possibly be ok.

This is the Lenovo UJ242A drive and bezel
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b163/bogielives/242i-1.jpg

I was looking at ZoinksS2k photos here and the emergency pin out looks different than were it is in the above drive.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=466881

Of course someone needs to test it for sure to see if everything lines up but in any case you will lose the eject button.

 

I can confirm that the pinhole on the UJ-242A lines up perfectly with the original DVD bezel. I have the VAIO Z11.

 

Did you try this on the VGN Z?
If so that is very good to read.

 

Unfortunately I don't have the VGN Z. Mine is a VPC Z.

 

New Z ( VPC Zxxx ) UJ-242A
Old Z ( VGN Zxxx ) UJ-232A
TT ( VGN-TTxxx ) UJ-232A

If you want to upgrade to a Blu-ray optical drive, these work with the corresponding model and will enable the functions of the emergency eject pin hole to work correctly and are designed for the physical eject button that is located on the bezel. Note that the " old " Z has eject on the bezel and also next to the right side speaker. The new Z and the TT appear to lack the button. Also, I haven't seen a 9.5mm NEC branded Blu-ray notebook optical drive, but have seen a 12.7mm from NEC. What part number is the NEC 9.5mm Blu-ray optical drive ?

 

Thanks for all your detailed responses...

I'll consider switching the Blu-ray drive in my current TT, but I guess I'll probably end up ordering a new computer instead. It can still play DVD's, so it's not totally unusable. I.e. I guess it's just the blue laser that's not working (this time).

I've done some additional searches for light-weight small performance laptops from other manufacturers, but, as before, I found nothing. I guess there is a reason why I continue to buy Sony ultra portables

 

ehosey2 the NEC drive is a standard DVD drive.
Sony used two different DVD drives in the TT series.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AD-7910S-Sony...pAccessories_LaptopDrives?hash=item20affa7caa

Mine came with a UJXXX which allowed me to upgrade directly to a BD Panasonic drive.

Also, Zoinks has confirmed in the thread i started in the hardware forum about the UJ242A drive that the bezel for all intents and purposes cannot be used on the UJ232A.

@ nutte i trust that you've already tried cleaning your drive?
Quite a few owners of this TT series has gone for a BD drive and i've never read of one failing yet before this.