External Blu-Ray Burner for 2012 Imac

Thanks for the update - so what does that software do? Is it similar to iDVD or iMovie or simply a burn app?

It works like the Mac DVD Player. Start the app, insert the BR disk and it displays the menu for playing the movie. I just tried it out and compared the picture quality on my 24" imac with the same movie as a DVD. The extra clarity was very noticable. The only nuisance was the repeated attempts to access the internet in order to play the disk.

When I played the DVD version I had to use DVD Player as the Blu-ray app could not play it properly. I was still using the Blu-ray drive for this. I also had to select the correct region.

I also tried out burning data to a 25Gb blank disk (actually part of my iPhoto library). I just used Finder to drag folders to the disk icon then selected the burn icon in Finder. This also worked well, taking about 30 minutes. Note that the current iMac is USB2, as is the burner.

Thanks for the info; I think the fact that it insists on having an internet connection would be enough for me not to buy it. Having it access an online server to "catalog" you playing your own homemade DVD is a bit intrusive.

Quick dumb question: If I plan to edit movies using iMovie, will I be able to write them to a Blu-Ray once I get an external Blu-Ray player? Or do I need to plan on using a different movie-editing program to write to Blu-Ray DVD?

You can edit in iMovie, but you will need a software such as Roxio Toast with the blu-ray plugin (and a blu-ray burner) to be able to burn to blu-ray disks. Keepin mind that any editing/rendering/compression will diminish the quality - so, unless you have video editing software that will process true HD without any loss of quality (and the newer iMovie versions cannot do that), burning something to blu-ray after using iMovie is an overkill - that's my humble opinion. I believe Final Cut Pro X does support blu-ray - you could check into that.

Just got the

LaCie d2 Blu-ray XL

for Christmas with a new iMac on order. I see people have issues with Thunderbold not supplying enough power to supply some devices, well the d2 has its own power suppy. Has anyone seen a burning speed improvement using the Thunderbolt to fiewire adaptor? I do believe the dive is on firwire 400 even though there is a 400 to 800 cable supplied.

Its a pretty case, I can't wait to try it.

Good news - the MCE Blu Ray burner works well on a new iMac.

Rather than waste a USB3 port on the back of the iMac I have also bought a Kensington 3-port USB2 hub & iPhone4 sync station (for $29). I now have a printer and keyboard also plugged into this device. The MCE performance does not seem to be affected by working through the (powered) hub.

BB - I have found the Apple Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter very disappointing. See my post of 10th December. Don't expect unpowered Firewire devices to work with it. As the Lacie D2 burner is powered you might have better luck. However I do expect you will find the performance no better than using its USB2 cable instead of Firewire.

posted below…

Today I received the LaCie USB 3.0 Blu-ray Burner/Player:

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10602

I connected it to my Retina MacBook Pro (15") USB 3.0 port. (It's bus powered so that's all you need is the USB 3.0 cable supplied with it.)

Using the installed Blu-ray Player software I purchased earlier this year from macblurayplayer.com, I was able to play a Blu-ray movie.

And using the installed Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper for Mac I purchased earlier this year, I was able to rip a Blu-ray movie to iPad 3/4 Retina compatible format (full 1080p).

Tomorrow I'll install the same two pieces of software in the 2012 iMac and confirm that it also works there.

A search on external Bluray writer has brought this discussion up to the surface. Rob, are you still happy with the Lacie USB3 Bluray writer? I plan on buying one for a MBPr, though Lacie is out of stock at the moment.

Are there perhaps other options, anyone ? A USB3, Toast compatible, single USB cable as opposed to Y, would have my favours!

Still happy with the performance with Blu-ray rip and play. The Apple USB SuperDrive burns DVDs faster but lacks the Blu-ray dimension.

The Y cable is a puzzle since it's unnecessary. Visually, I would prefer something in silver aluminum instead of black plastic.

I haven't burned any blu-ray movie discs. I assume Toast would work with it fine.

rob_ART wrote:

Still happy with the performance with Blu-ray rip and play. The Apple USB SuperDrive burns DVDs faster but lacks the Blu-ray dimension.

Both specs at DVD write are the same on paper: 8x. Only dual layer (which I never use) drops from 6x for the Apple Superdrive to 4x for the Lacie Bluray.

The Y cable is a puzzle since it's unnecessary. Visually, I would prefer something in silver aluminum instead of black plastic.

Some notebooks have insufiscient power supplied through one port, especially when working on battery. It's the case for my 17" Powerbook G4. The fact that you found a Y cable in the package worries me… I wish that the newer MBPr 15 would supply enough wattage through one port, since ports are getting scarce on that model. I'm not fond of the glossy shine either, but as long as it works !…

Thanks Rob for your post and feedback !

Paul

rob_ART can you provide a link to the "Mac Blu-ray Player"? It seems that there are 2 products using that same name, but are different.

RRFS wrote:

Not Mac/Apple compliant! 😢

All external hard and optical drives are "mac compliant".

This is the one I have:

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10602

No mention of the Mac or Mac OS X but it works perfectly.

The page says, "Available at LaCie resellers only." You used to be able to order it direct from LaCie. Check with MacSales.com. They carry LaCie products and can special order if it is not in stock.

"Not Mac/Apple compliant"? If you mean Blu-ray burning and playback using Apple factory software, it is not compliant.

But I use Blu-ray Player to play movies and Pavtube Blu-ray Ripper to rip Blu-ray directly to iPad Retina format (or other formats). Toast can be used to burn blu-ray movie discs.