External Blu-Ray Burner for 2012 Imac

rob_ART wrote:

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

That applies to ALL blu-ray drives since no such software exists.

If you want burning and playback you'll need Toast and Blu-ray Player.app

But, shouldn't the Macs be able to write to a data DVD's or CD's with the native Apple software if the Bluray Writer also supports those features? I've seen Bluray/DVD/CD drives being advertised as doing that and came bundled with the Bluray software. As stated in earlier posts, people here used 3rd party software to fill in the Bluray support that Apple lacks.

I'm just looking to find out what the best Bluray play/write drive out there would be the best for my new late 2013 MacBook Pro with NVidia 750 card (fastest MacBook Pro). I will also get 3rd party software to fill in support. I know I need USB 3.0 or better for speedy transfer rates. Maybe someone here has gotten a new Bluray drive and could suggest one?

Thomas Strong wrote:

But, shouldn't the Macs be able to write to a data DVD's or CD's with the native Apple software if the Bluray Writer also supports those features?

They can and do. Its 25-128GB blu-ray that they cannot without third-party software.

I use the LG BE14NU40, MD-3102G-U3BDRW is another option.

Using my MCE blu-ray burner (see earlier post) I just used Finder to copy several important folders to a 25GB Verbatim blu-ray disk. I have not tried larger capacity disks (and cannot easily buy them in Australia - Officeworks has stopped stocking them).

When I insert the disk it pops up on the desktop then I drag folders to it, right-click and select Burn. All with native Apple OSX software - no Toast or special Blu-ray software needed.

Once burned it happily opens in Finder.

The disk should last for at least 20 years, if there are Blu-ray readers around then! Most DVDs deteriorate after several years.

See this discussion for info about forthcoming Thunderbolt docks with Blu-ray drives:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4683331?answerId=24451533022#24451533022

These should work well with a new Macbook Pro. I am holding out for the Sonnet dock as it will give me back ethernet and Firewire ports in addition to blu-ray drive and a hard drive dock.

Watching Blu-ray movies on Apple TV...

My iMac is now running Mavericks, which has Airplay video support (only works for Macs built from 2011). I just tried playing a Blu-ray movie using Mac Blu-ray Player and sent the output to my Apple TV. To do this I selected mirror displays in the Airplay menu (in the menu bar) then selected Audio Device as "Airplay" in the Blu-ray Player Audio Menu. Then I played teh movie in fullscreen mode. This sent the video and audio to my Apple TV. I still need to check for audio sync problems.

The only nuisance is that the video also plays on my iMac screen. Since Blu-ray Player does not appear to support Airplay video I cannot set its video output to Airplay, like I can for it audio output.

There are more tips about mirroring here:

http://jessicamabuly.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/enjoy-blu-ray-on-hdtv-via-apple-tv- on.html

Note you cannot use iTunes to play Blu-ray movies from a Blue-ray optical drive. However many Blu-ray movies now come with an iTunes-compatible MP4 version.

Let us know if you use a Blu-ray player that does fully support Airplay (video and audio).

Incidentally - I just brought a USB3 Blu-ray burner back from a trip to Japan:

Logitec LBD-PME6U3MSV

http://www.logitec.co.jp/products/bluray/lbd-pme6u3m/index.php

(in Japanese!)

It seems to work perfectly with my 2013 iMac running Mavericks. Costs about US$130.

This is a different company to Logitech and the products only seem to be available in Asia.

Speaking of USB 3.0 Blu-ray burner/player, I received the bus powered NuMac FMBDR6x designed to sit under the 2013 Mac Pro. It's circular and black to match the "Turbo Tube," but works with other Macs. I'll post my findings in a few days.

I'm going to be comparing the performance of the NuMac FMBDR6x to the LaCie bus powered USB 3.0 Blu-ray Burner/Player that I tested back in December 2012:

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

The LaCie is smaller and lighter but the NuMac has the advantage of acting as a base for the new Mac Pro. The other advantage of the NuMac is it's slot loader versus the LaCie's tray loader.

More to come. . .

Am looking for BluRay player/burner also and it seems that LaCie has stopped making them altogether. I did find this company that makes software that is both OS X 10.9 and Windows 8.1 http://www.macblurayplayer.com Hope this helps everybody in need.

Also found these same problems on MacRumors.

I use the same approach for burning data disks, although it does have a disconcerting approach of showing the dragged file as an alias (pointing to the file) and when right clicking to burn the dialogue says "Burning track 1..." but the resulting disc opens fine, all files there on the external (samsung) blu-ray and is in fact more stable than the dvd's I use.

However, i found when buring blu-ray films (folders with complient blue ray BDMV and certificate folders) the drag and drop doesn't work. I way I found to get it to work was whne the blank blu-ray has been mounted (when Finder askes you what you want to do with the disc) I then right click on the blu-ray folder of the movie I want burned and select "Burn", with the same "Track 1 burning..." dialoge coming up.

This did work perfectly fine for a while until recently when the films now burnt are showing verty stutterly playback. I'm not sure what it is but since I extracted the movie to see if it had been corrupted and it looked fine, i have to conclude soemthing is happening in the blu-ray burn. maybe with the samsung or at the point of creating the blu-ray complient folders. Maybe it needs a firmware update.

Yes - but it does not currently support Airplay

Any external USB Blu-ray burner or player will work with a Mac.

I can recommend the LG BE12LU30 Blu-ray Rewriter, we have used the predecessor; BE 06 for 5 years non stop.You should also purchase Toast as the burning software.

I've been very happy with the Pawtec Ultraslim Bluray Drive. It's one of the few that I have seen that says it's specifically designed to work wit Mac. It also matches very well!

I have a one-year-old Samsung SE-506BB that works well with my MacBook Air. So far so good.