Anyone had good success with any of the PC based Bluray writers? I should really get one to start reviewing my footage on the big plasma in my A/V room! I would be writing out from Premiere CS3.

Thanks,

Paul.

Hi,
have tried out this one: LiteOn LH-2B1S SATA (there´s a similar one made by Philips). Works pretty well. 2x speed. Good price as well. However, afaik no double layer writing possibility meaning 25gb max.

Here´s the link:
http://www.liteonit.com/global/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=182&Itemid=170

You can get it for under 300 euros at the moment. I am not sure about whether it makes much sense to invest more money at the moment as prices of the higher end devices will certainly drop.

Thanks Emanuel, I'll check it out...

I've been using Premiere Pro CS3 to export 1080p24 footage to Blu-Ray discs using a BWU-100A writer. The quality looks fantastic, and the disc plays back great on my PS3.

Unfortunately my TV is only 720p, so I'm not able to completely enjoy the higher resolution I shot my footage in (or even completely appreciate the 24p frame rate I shot)....but it still looks great.

I'm really happy Adobe has offered support for Blu-Ray with the new CS3 suite. I know Vegas can do this now also, but I have yet to try it out. From what I hear it works great too.

I just ordered an LG GGW-H20L (6x) Bluray writer and HD DVD reader - will see how that goes.

Like you're doing, I'm considering a PS3 - still seems the cheapest way of doing it plus you get a games console thrown in for free! (not that I need yet another console!).

One question - do you know if the PS3 will output an analogue component 1080i/p signal - or is this only through HDMI?

I'm in the market for a BluRay burner too. Please let me know how yours goes. Thanks

Will do - although I forgot to order some BD-R's! Need to go get a PS3 too :)

How about this one

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch.hmx?SCriteria=AA72582

and a review

http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=309&page=Intro

OK, so I got the LG GGW-H20L drive in yesterday and bought a Sony Playstation 3 at the weekend (purely for work of cousre!) to play back blu-ray discs.

The LG drive is excellent - capable of writing suitable BD-R media at up to 6x. It's Sata and I have a PC Xeon 8 CPU, Sata based system (with sata raid AV drives). I did spend a while moving drives around the various sata ports and then spent several hours trying to get the system drive to boot again (some oddities in the BIOS of the Tyan board I'm using). But eventually got it up and running. The drive installation itself was painless with XP autodetecting and installing it.

I upgraded the firmware to the latest version before doing anything else. I then imported an 8 minute project I've been working on into Encore and burnt my first BD-RE disc. Played back on the PS3 with no problems at all.

So, all in all, an excellent drive so far :)

OK, so I got the LG GGW-H20L drive in yesterday and bought a Sony Playstation 3 at the weekend (purely for work of cousre!) to play back blu-ray discs.

The LG drive is excellent - capable of writing suitable BD-R media at up to 6x. It's Sata and I have a PC Xeon 8 CPU, Sata based system (with sata raid AV drives). I did spend a while moving drives around the various sata ports and then spent several hours trying to get the system drive to boot again (some oddities in the BIOS of the Tyan board I'm using). But eventually got it up and running. The drive installation itself was painless with XP autodetecting and installing it.

I upgraded the firmware to the latest version before doing anything else. I then imported an 8 minute project I've been working on into Encore and burnt my first BD-RE disc. Played back on the PS3 with no problems at all.

So, all in all, an excellent drive so far :)

That sounds like an awesome drive. I have not seen that listed anywhere yet. All the BD burneres that I've seen so far top out at 2x. However, with the cost of a blank BD-R disc at $15-$20, I think many here are content to burn BluRay onto a dual layer DVD. I would love to here more details of your system. 8 Xeon cores, now that must be fun!! How many SATA ports are on the MB, which model is it , etc. Thanks - PK

I have the same setup as Paul Gale. The LG is an excellent burner, and no fails so far. Important to use re-writables at the mo due to costings.

Still trying out different ways to get the best possible image to disk. Have you found the perfect image yet? I seem to get jaggies occassionally. Best bet is to let PP do the rendering then output to encore and don't let it transcode.

That sounds like an awesome drive. I have not seen that listed anywhere yet. All the BD burneres that I've seen so far top out at 2x. However, with the cost of a blank BD-R disc at $15-$20, I think many here are content to burn BluRay onto a dual layer DVD. I would love to here more details of your system. 8 Xeon cores, now that must be fun!! How many SATA ports are on the MB, which model is it , etc. Thanks - PK

Um - these are the specs:

Dual Quad Xeon 2.33GHz (E5345)
Tyan S2696 Tempest i5000XT M/B
4 Gb ECC RAM
Chenbro SR109 case (noisy but planning fan replacement)
2 x 5 Drive SATA hot swap caddies (Icy Dock)
3Ware 9650SE SATA RAID controller (12 channel)
5 x WD Raptor 150Gb 10,000RPM SATA II HDD (Raid 0 for AV drive)
Other drives for system and cache drive (TBD)

the m/b has around 6 ports from memory - the 3ware controller has 8 channels - the AV drive is the 5 raptors (very fast).

Still trying out different ways to get the best possible image to disk. Have you found the perfect image yet? I seem to get jaggies occassionally. Best bet is to let PP do the rendering then output to encore and don't let it transcode.

I've only burnt one BD-RE with Encore so far - I imported the video from a Matrox HD (I-frame) output and let Encore do the transcoding at top quality. It looked very good but took a LONG time (40 mins or so IIRC?) for only 8 mins!

Will have a bit more of a play. Not got to grips with menus etc yet - need to have a read up to see if they're any different to DVD menus?

I've only burnt one BD-RE with Encore so far - I imported the video from a Matrox HD (I-frame) output and let Encore do the transcoding at top quality. It looked very good but took a LONG time (40 mins or so IIRC?) for only 8 mins!

Will have a bit more of a play. Not got to grips with menus etc yet - need to have a read up to see if they're any different to DVD menus?

So the encoding on your system is about 5 to 1 (5 minutes encoding for every 1 minute of footage). That's not bad, on my 2 year old AMDX2 system its more like 10+ to 1. Of course, I only have 2 cores :) Thanks for the info - PK

I just pull the trigger to buy this burner from Directron. $349.

Where you guys order blank BD and BD-RE disc? I need white inkjet printable BD-R disc.

Sorry- can't help as I'm in the UK!

How many do you need? I use Master Recording supply for all of my duplicating supply needs. I usually order 1000's of discs (CD & DVD) but i think they will sell a spindle. For Blu-Ray they have the following
• Verbatim 25GB Blu-Ray Disc, Jewel Case - 95357
• Verbatim 25GB Blu-Ray Disc, Rewritable, Jewel Case - 95358
• TDK 25GB Durabis Blu-Ray Disc, Jewel Case - BD-R25A
• TDK 25GB Durabis Blu-Ray Disc, 50-Disc Spindle - BD-R25X50CBS
• TDK 25GB Durabis Blu-Ray Disc, Rewritable, Jewel Case - BD-RE25A
• TDK 25GB Durabis Blu-Ray Disc, Rewritable, 50-Disc Spindle - BD-RE25X50CBS
• TDK 25GB Durabis Blu-Ray Disc, White Inkjet, 25-Disc Spindle - BD-R25PWX25CB
• TDK 25GB Durabis Blu-Ray Disc, White Thermal Everest, 25-Disc Spindle - BD-R25THX25CB
• Panasonic 50GB Dual-Layer Blu-ray Disc, Jewel Case - LM-BR50DE
• Panasonic 50GB Dual-Layer Blu-ray Disc, 50-Disc Spindle - LM-BRS50D50
• Panasonic 50GB Dual-Layer Blu-ray BE Disc, Rewriteable, Jewel Case - LM-BE50DE
• Panasonic 50GB Dual-Layer Blu-ray BE Disc, Rewriteable, 50-Disc Spindle - LM-BRE50D50

www.mrsmedia.com

What about burning program? I have Nero 7. Does it support burning BluRay data or video disc?

Thanks

Mitchell Skurnik,

Thanks for the link to the site. I looked at it. They don't have any price listed for the BLuRay media. I need inkjet printable white BD. I found in Meritline the TDK 25 pcs spindle is $25 each disc. Very expensive.

Yeah you have to call them to get a quote.

In the UK SCP have black printable Blu-ray disks in stock. They cost £7 each, which currently is a good price.

2x speed Verbatims.

Paul Gale, making chapters and full blu-ray menues in Encores CS3 is exactly the same as any other SD program. Very easy to do. Full motion menues etc.

http://www.opusshop.com/

I note that most PC/Laptop makers now offer Bluerayburner for about $400