Vaio VPC-Z128GG & Blu-ray Drive UJ-242 result.

It is the case for the BD drive but the DVD drive should work. Do you use the original firmware?

 

Yes. I looked around for other firwame for the BD drive but nothing, I didn't check for the DVD drive.

 

For the DVD drive UJ892, go to The Firmware Page • View topic - Making Matshita DVD-writers region free running Windows. I applied this patch to my VPC-Z11's DVD drive and it is now region-free.

 

Yes, you can patch the Z1x's DVD drives, you get RPC1 firware which you can use with Region Free tools.

To clarify, the BD drives are not yet supported by the flashing utility, so Region Free will not work on DVDs (RPC2 firmware). Most BD are region-free, the fewer which are not though can be played since Blu-Ray has no hardware region setting - you can simply change the region software-based (playback software have also counters that allow limited changes, but those can be simply patched or reset).

 

Thanks I'll try that after I get my SlimSata to Sata caddy...

 

Hi pyr0, any news on the BR upgrade?

 

I wonder, how genuine guys you reckon, this one might be:
Sony Vaio Z Series VPCZ1190X blu-ray burner player BD-R - eBay (item 400160081129 end time Nov-01-10 01:36:54 PDT)

seems to be an original...

 

^With that bezel, no way it's an original.

 

Quick question. I was interested in the Z series and found this VPCZ series was wondering what the most I should be paying for it is?

330M i7 8GB 256GB bt

 

To determine the invoice price, I need to know the screen resolution (1600x900 or 1920x1080), the finish(black/silver/carbon fiber) and the country of transaction.
It was not cheap (around $2500-2600 at least in US - more in the rest of the world).
What's the asking price?

 

Did the VAIO Z series ever come with a white lid?

 

I believe it is a Euro Model with 1920x1080 res. Not sure what the finish is. I am going to go see it today.

 

I am not sure I think he may have meant white on the inside but I won't know until I go see it later today. What is the max I should be paying for this?

 

Probably he meant white paper specs.
You should open another thread as this one is about something else.

 

It is not a VPCZ1 drive and also very old (manufactured Dec 2008).

@anand00x, SPEEDwithJJ, XnetX
Please stay on topic.

 

Well, at least now I know who not to buy from

 

...I would have expected a bit more research from people buying new drives for their VPC-Z but...

@versager
That ebay seller has a habit of putting up out-dated pictures of his auction. If you see closely, that auction picture is for the UJ862A (which is an old optics drive). Personally though, I wouldn't buy from a seller who can't be bothered keeping his auction pages up-to-date as that shows lack of care.

@beaups
The drive bezel is removable from all optics drives. That means you can 'recycle' your DVD drive's bezel with a new UJ242a. It's just a matter of click off and snap back on the new drive.

To be of some assistance rather than correcting people...
Panasonic UJ-242A 242 4X Blu-Ray Burner Slim DVD Drive - eBay (item 250680928847 end time Nov-08-10 17:58:12 PST)

That UJ242a is intended for Dell's warranty-parts department. But it SHOULD work with all blu-ray capable laptops nonetheless (minus slight firmware differences).

I speak from experience researching for and buying a UJ232a for my VGN-Z. I've searched high and low, got through a mountain of troubles to end up today with a Sony-intended UJ232as which I bought for US$130 (got lucky with a no-reserve auction from a wholesaler), which is actually manufactured in January this year.

 

^My point was that this drive was not FROM or specifically FOR a VPCZ1. If it was, it would have the correct bezel. Will it work? Not necessarily...your vgn-z experience isn't entirely relevant to vpc-z. Us vpc-z users need a correct firmware for the eject button to work properly, since it is not software-controlled like the vgn-z.

 

5ushiMonster: That's the drive I was asking about on page 4 of this thread. So, thanks for giving a few more details. However, 'minus slight firmware differences' sounds a bit worrying to me.
I've been following this thread along since it started. It seems like nobody can actually suggest a BR drive that would properly fit into our VPC-Z's (and I mean physical specs-wise and software/bios -wise). I'm anxiously waiting for pyr0 to try his... It's a 242 and he's got a VPC-Z, so all queries will be answered for all of us if he succeeds. Pyr0, I keep my fingers crossed for you, my friend!

 

Looks like the uj242's for $199+$9 shipping are gone from eBay. Bummer. I was holding out to get it sub-$200 shipped from a USA seller. While I know it is super thin @ 9.5mm and can read/write all formats I cannot justify the price of the upgrade yet. Any ballpark idea of how much should I be able to sell the uj892 DVD-RW drive for (w/o bezel of course or with the bezel that comes with the uj242)?

 

Good luck finding one. The only one that would 100% physically fit is the one designed for the VPC-Z. I'm happy with mine, it works.

 

That's great Enny02. Sorry I missed that yours was a Z12 as well. That is a good solution too then. The issue with the one-side-screws is minor in my opinion, although as a perfectionist I wouldn't mind an absolutely solid solution! :GEEK: But as you said this could possibly only be with the SONY original drive. It's good to know that the eject button works on yours without any mods. Great work, thanks.

 

Enny02, it looks like the metal bracket on the Sony drive is removable, and can be swapped with the one in the UJ-242. From your pics of the top of the drives there are tabs that look to be the same and in the same locations.

 

You can remove the bracket from the Sony DVD drive but you cannot put it on the Blu-ray drive because it already has this kind of metal bracket built it and it is not detachable.

 

Is it riveted in place on the UJ-242 rather than screwed in like the Stock Sony DVD drive?

They really do look interchangable. Maybe not without risk of damaging the drive.

 

I know that this is the Sony section of the forum but I figured that someone here may be able to help me. I recently installed the Panasonic Matsua UJ-242 blu ray burner into my Dell M4500. It was a pretty simple install and I followed the guide from Enny and modified to suit my laptop.

Anyways the drive specs state that it is capable of reading BD-ROM at 4x and writing BD-Rs at 4x. I am only able to obtain read and write speeds of 2x using Imgburn.

Does anyone have any ideas what may be causing this? The drive was manufactured Sept 2010 and was Lenovo branded. I got it from here: IBM LENOVO BLU-RAY DRIVE T400 T500 W500 UJ-242 NEW! - eBay (item 270655875434 end time Nov-27-10 09:11:56 PST) . Does it need a firmware update? (By the way, my SATA Bios settings are set to RAID in case that helps.)

Thanks for any help.

 

The Product # you mentioned (42T2604) belongs to a UJ-232 drive. Since that drive is not capable of burning 4x that would explain the behavior in Imgburn. Make clear that in the device manager its name is 242.

 

Thanks for the response. In Device Manager it shows up as MATA BD-MLT UJ242. The firmware is TB01. Physically on the manufacturer sticker it says it is a UJ-242(b). So I guess it is a newer hardware version than the UJ-242(a)? Is there another way to tell what the drive is capable of? Any settings in Windows that would prevent it from reaching full speed?

Thanks for the help

 

I took the plunge and just ordered the same drive as AUJIMMY via eBay. Hopefully it will work 4x reading BD-R/ROM and writing BD-R. And hopefully the eject button of my VPCZ114GX will function with this drive. And hopefully there will eventually be a patch to the firmware like for the UJ892 DVD-RW, which enables RPC1 or at least allows AnyDVD HD to read discs even if the region setting of the drive mismatches the region of the disc. And hopefully the price will not drop like a rock weeks after I got it for $199+$9. And hopefully the installation will be successful without damage to the keyboard cable or other parts of the Z.

 

LOL a lot of "Hopefully" ^^

 

Please keep us posted on how it goes. Take photos for us if you have the opportunity!

 

OK, I just finished the installation. I have not taken any pictures since the video and instructions in Post #38 tell it all. The only things I would add: instead of taking a picture of the bottom and printing it, I just took a blank piece of paper and drew circles of the screw locations and put them on it. It is important since some screws are longer than others so screws need to go back where they came from. It is true that only one bracket can be attached from the DVD drive since it seems hard to take off the cover off the UJ242 and I did not make an attempt. But what I did was I took a little tough piece of plastic, made a little hole in it and cut it just the right size. I used the screw from the DVD drive bracket which was covered in tape, pushed it through the plastic snippet and secured it to it so it holds the drive in place even when closing the tray with some force. I also put some clear tape to hold the loose side. Now, it feels every bit as sturdy as the DVD drive even though really only one screw is holding the UJ242 in place instead of the three holding the DVD. It took a bit over an hour as I did everything very slowly. The ebay seller shipped the drive fast and securely packaged.

It works beautifully; I just played a blu-ray on the Z. Most of my "hopefully's" of my previous post have been addressed, phew! I'm still hoping for a firmware fix for the regions. This is the biggest drawback of the Matsus-hita drives.

 

try recording a bluray, I wonder if yours gonna be stuck at 2x as well.

 

So this means that the VAIO eject button works without any problems as well?

 

Eject works as expected. I will try recording a BD-R in the next few days and post back. Speed may depend on the particular media used and I only have one kind, TDK.

 

nicely done. As far as I know there is no rpc1 firmeware for the UJ242 out and AnyDVD is useless with most of the Panasonic/Mata drives without rpc1 firmware.

 

I promised to try burning a BD-R on my new UJ242b so I did. The Nero Info Tool, Imgburn and Nero all confirm the burn speed is 2x, not 4x, for my TDK BD-R media. Perhaps in the UJ242b the burn speed is limited due to overheating problems or to moderate power consumption. I am OK with it, as I plan to use this drive mainly to watch blu-rays.

 

I recall there are various types of blu-ray media. There is a 1.1, 1.2, and a 1.3, with burn speeds from 2x, 4x, and 6x respectively.

That TDK media you used; maybe it is a 1.1 thus only allowing for the 2x burn speeds?

Temperatures and power-consumption shouldn't affect an optics drive's performance in any case. The only power setting for an optics drive I think is the on-and-off switch...

 

Hi,

I was looking to buy a blu ray drive for my VPC-Z11.

Is this the correct drive? Panasonic Lenovo UJ-242 UJ242 Sony UJ-242A blu-ray BD-R - eBay (item 160493842225 end time Nov-13-10 21:47:08 PST)

 

Yes, any UJ242a, UJ242as or UJ242b should do it.

 

That drive is really expensive. for $500 you could buy the original from Sony.

 

Thanks for that info

 

Just thought I would mention that I successfully installed the other stock sony bracket to the Lenevo branded drive by using a Dremel to remove the metal bracket that comes on the Lenevo model. You also have to glue the plastic piece to the remaining medal enclosure that keeps the drive arms in place when released. The end result is a perfect fit with no wiggle action.

 

do you have some picture or can you show any step by step action for that please, thank you

 

???

Link is not working and there is not even one "1" ....

 

Hmmm... this looks pretty darn similar to the UJ242:

Newegg.com - SONY Black 6X BD-R 2X BD-RE 8X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 6X BD-ROM 4.5 Mbyte Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner BD-5730S-01 - Blu-Ray Burners

 

^based on the feedback I think it's thicker than the drives in the Z.

 

medwes:

I didn't take any pictures during the process. It's pretty simple to visualize though. Take a look at this pic: ImageShack: Host and Share your Photos and Videos - 46317538.jpg

I cut the entire metal piece on the top off. I found it to be much easier to turn the drive upside down during the dremeling process. The end result is that both sides should look identical to each other.

 

Frankly I would not recommend this. You lose the warranty on the blu-ray drive, risk damage to the drive and it will also take a lot of time to do this. On the plus side, you lose some weight and the ability to use both brackets. I have it mounted with one bracket and one piece of plastic on the other side just the right size so it can absorb the force of closing the tray. My drive sits snugly and nicely aligned with the bottom case.

Just curious: on another thread I read the Vaio Z is also offered in a version with a blu-ray reader/dvdrw combo drive. Does anyone know brand name and model number of this drive? This might represent a cheaper way to upgrade to blu-ray if you have no need to burn these discs.

 

Any qualms about this drive going into a VPCZ1290X? Any snafu's i should be concerned with and has anyone done it before?

DELL Latitude E6500 E4300 Blu-Ray BluRay Burner Player - eBay (item 230558152320 end time Dec-31-10 19:18:56 PST)