Use Bluray player as an external drive - is that possible?
Blurays and your players are becoming increasingly popular, but can you also connect a Blu-Ray player to a PC as an external drive?
Bluray is not Bluray
A standard Bluray player that is normally intended for use on a television cannot be used on a PC. However, there are external Bluray drives (for example from LG or Samsung) that have been made especially for this purpose. In this practical tip, we clarify the advantages and disadvantages of these external drives and what you have to pay attention to when buying.
Advantages of an external Bluray drive.
- With an external Bluray player you are much more mobile. So you can also watch Blurays on your laptop on the go, even if it doesn't normally have a drive. Warning: The prerequisite for this is that the drive receives its power exclusively via USB. If your drive is equipped with an external power supply, you will not be able to enjoy film on the move.
- You are significantly more flexible because you can use an external drive on a wide variety of PCs. Would you like to see a Bluray film with friends, but they don't have a Bluray player? No problem, as you can simply take your external drive with you and connect it to an existing PC or laptop.
Disadvantages of a USB Bluray player
- The readout speed is heavily dependent on the interface used. With USB 2.0 devices, it takes a minute for the Bluray to be completely read out. With an internally installed drive connected via SATA, this is much faster (under 10 seconds).
- Caution is advised with rather cheap Bluray drives. Often there is no playback software for Blurays and you have to buy them expensive, because only a few programs can handle the copy protection of the Blurays. One of these tools is PowerDVD 13, but it costs around 40 euros and thus a supposed Bluray drive quickly makes bargains very expensive.