External Blu-ray Player

[Alexandros Angelopoulos Apostolos]

I was wondering... Has any of you had an external Blu-ray player?

 

Or do you perhaps own one now?

 

I’m strangely attracted to buying one while at the same time kind of wondering what’s the purpose.

 

The Wirecutter, part of The New York Times Company, recommends one of Pioneer’s models:

 

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-external-blu-ray-drive/#a-faster-louder-desktop-drive

 

This, though, does make sense:

 

If you still need an optical drive, but only sometimes, you’re better off getting an external optical drive to pair with a thin, light laptop rather than a chunky laptop with a built-in drive.

 

[Satsuki Murashige]

Yup, I bought that same Pioneer model to use with my 2012 Macbook Pro last year. I mainly got it so I could take screenshots from my Blu-Ray collection for reference material, but it's turned out to be great for traveling and watching Blu-Rays on the road, or meeting with directors in random places and watching film clips in high quality. I think it makes sense if you have a large disc collection or have a lot of older obscure films that aren't on streaming services.

 

It's rather loud when spinning, but if you're watching with headphones it's fine. You do need special software to play Blu-Rays on a Mac. I use an app called 'Free Mac Blu-Ray Player' which has an ad banner on the bottom, but you can always pay for the ad-free version. Otherwise, it's very small and fits easily into my laptop bag with like 30 discs, which is amazing.

 

Haven't authored any discs with it yet, but it's nice to know that it can do it.

[Alexandros Angelopoulos Apostolos]

Yippie! This reply made me so happy on so many levels! :D Part of the scenario you describe is almost exactly what I’d need it for. Can’t really believe it, actually, that you have this exact one. :D Great! I was looking at some other models by LG today, and I was so bummed, because they all seem to be such bricks, and I don’t need yet another brick to move and carry around. This is the one to get, then. :)