Blu-ray Disc Alphabet Soup – Part Two

Apr 07
2010
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Intro

In Part One of this series , I looked at some of the basic ‘Blu-ray’ drives that can be added to a computer or used as external drives. These included the basic players – whose sole function is to play Blu-ray discs (and, possibly, to read data recorded onto a Blu-ray disc), and the so-called ‘Combo’ drives that, in addition to playing Blu-ray discs can also read and write to DVD and CD drives.

Being able to watch a Blu-ray movie on your high resolution desktop or notebook computer is nice to have. In most cases, you’re sitting closer to the screen than you would be if you were playing the same video on a high-def television, and the fine items on the screen look even better. (You may lose the surround sound that a good home theater system can deliver if you use your computer, although it’s also possible to take advantage of the surround sound processing on many computers and feed the sound to multiple speakers arranged for surround sound.)

It’s a good thing, if your computer is short of slots, or you’ve run out of USB ports Read the rest of this entry »

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Blu-ray Disc Alphabet Soup – Part One

Mar 31
2010
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I went to my local nerdy electronics store a few days ago and was slightly dazzled by the many options a person can have if he or she wanted to install a Blu-ray drive into a home or office computer.  (Even the term ‘Blu-ray drive’ is one that lacks a single definition.)

The basic drive is one that is similar to the one used in home entertainment sysems — it does ONE thing, and should do it well.  That one thing, of course, is ‘playing’, or ‘reading’ the discs put into the drive.  These discs don’t necessarily have to be Blu-ray videos or games – the drives should be able to also read DVDs and CDs.  It should be able to read discs that you get commercially, like a game or movie, and also those that have been created with a DVD or CD or Blu-ray recorder.   This type of drive, with no settings for anything other than reading a disc, is the basic type of Blu-ray drive you can buy.  A drive of this type often goes by the name BD-ROM.  No recording media (BD-R or other) is supported by a BD-ROM drive.

A Combo drive adds functionality (and cost) and goes beyond the basic Blu-ray drive.   In addition to handling the reading tasks, a Combo drive is also capable of recording onto Read the rest of this entry »

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