Blu-ray Player|My First Blu-Ray Experience

I admit from the get-go that when it comes to Blu-Ray technology, I have been a bit of a Luddite. I don’t relish the idea of mu DVD collection, painstakingly built up over the years, being relegated to obsolescence. However, with the launching of Drewsim.com a couple of years ago, and its emphasis on video-editing and Blu-Ray/DVD burning and authoring software, I thought that it was time to take the plunge. Being rather cautious, I did not go whole hog and buy an HD flatscreen with its attendant Blu-Ray player. No, I decided to start small and went with an external Blu-ray player for use with either desktop or laptop computer. I searched E-Bay and came up with a slim-line external Blu-Ray/DVD-RW with Light Scribe technology. The description fit my needs exactly, and I accordingly both the drive and eagerly awaited its arrival. When it came, I took it out of the box and was astonished at how little it was. My first thought was “Is this for real?” It looks as if a strong wind would carry it off straight away. However, I ignored my prejudice and hooked it up to my laptop – an HP G62-355DX model and installed the software (in this case WinDVD Pro 11). When that was done, I inserted on of the Blu-Ray movies I purchased in anticipation of this purchase. The movie I chose was an old family favorite – Twister, which I have seen many times with my family. So much so, that I have memorized much of the dialogue. Nonetheless, I was curious to see if Blu-Ray made any difference. Well, it did, big time!

Knowing the movie as well as I do, I thought I had every detail down, but the Blu-Ray version was much more detailed, bringing out details that I didn’t even knew existed. Playback was in a word -spectacular! Audio was excellent, too! To make sure that was not a fluke, I inserted the Blu-Ray version of Poseidon – the 2005 remake of “The Poseidon Adventure” – and found that in terms of clarity and visuals, it was truly awesome, and that Blu-Ray was not a fluke, and that this little drive was not a fluke, either. In addition to Blu-Ray playback, it is also a DVD multi burner, with Light Scribe technology. For forty-nine dollars, it was a real deal, and I look forward to the next step – getting Blu-Ray/DVD combos for my two desktops!

NB! Above is a photo of the drive. It is an HP, and is designed to run on the computer’s power supply, although there is provision for AC power as well!

Update

Since writing this several months ago, I have since tried this out with several different Blu-ray player software – namely CyberLink’s PowerDVD version 13, and Nero2014 Platinum. Both worked very well – playback was clear and clean, and there was no hesitation whatsoever. Erlier in this blog, I mentioned that I was going to get blu-ray/dvd combo drives (external) like these for my two desktops, but as time went on, I decided to go a different route. It wasn’t because of this drive, not at all, but because technology advanced, as did my own knowledge. More to come in a later post.