Quietest external Blu Ray player?

May 1, 2020 12:34 PM

I want to buy a new laptop (Lenovo ThinkPad, Windows 10) in the coming months. All of the laptops that I have my eye on don't have the ability to add DVD or Blu-Ray drives internally, so I'll be looking for an external CD/DVD/Blu Ray drive.

I'll be using it to play my Blu Rays, but also ripping my CDs to MP3 format and burning long-term storage records to CD. I don't see myself taking this drive too many places, so while I don't want a spun-sugar super fragile item, I don't need milspec ruggedness either.

Most desired features:

* Windows 10 compatible
* can play Blu-Rays, DVDs, CDs (I don't have any 4K, and...dammit, I've already done the Format Re-Buy with music (cassette, CD) and with movies (VHS, DVD, Blu Ray) I'm not jumping on this latest bandwagon for a white more yet.)
* R/W capability
* quiet!!! when playing my movie Blu Rays or DVDs
* speed is my lowest consideration, but I would like at least a 4x write

posted by Tailkinker to-Ennien to Technology (6 answers total)

I have the second runner up Pioneer as recommended by the Wirecutter. I've had it for... maybe three years now. It's worked on both Windows 10 and macOS with no issues.

I use it to rip BDs and DVDs and not as an actual media player (I'm ripping the discs into the media player), but it seems fairly quiet when it's working. I've never used it for CDs, so I can't speak to that.

I would guess that any of the Wirecutter's picks would probably fit your requirements.
posted by ralan at 1:00 PM on May 1, 2020

Suggestions for buying an external blu-ray burner
posted by Bangaioh at 2:10 PM on May 1, 2020

Thanks ralan for your feedback on what you've personally used.
posted by Tailkinker to-Ennien at 9:35 AM on May 2, 2020

I have an earlier revision (BDR-XD05B) of the Pioneer drive recommended by the Wirecutter, and while it's reasonably quiet at playing DVDs, it's fairly loud for Blu-rays, since it has to spin them faster. Unless they've changed the internals significantly I suspect this model is likely also on the loud side.
posted by Aleyn at 1:46 PM on May 2, 2020

OK, so I don't know all the facts on this one, but from my personal experience on playing Blu-Rays on PC is that the software can be a fever dream of an experience. I ended up having to install VLC with the wink-wink 'extra' drivers to be able to play legal Blu-rays on a fresh Win10 install because I didn't want to pay like $70 for 3rd-party software to enable functionality that exists on a $30 player. It's some insane hurdle put there to prevent piracy that is 100% terrible.
posted by Dmenet at 11:09 AM on May 4, 2020

Seconding that the blu-ray player software that tends to come with these drives is usually very finicky and while you can use it for free for the most part, it will nag you to upgrade to the paid version at every opportunity, and may just decide to stop working for mysterious reasons. Seconding the advice to find the Blu-Ray support drivers for VLC if you want to play directly from the discs, or use something like MakeMKV to rip the disc entirely (which is what I did before I found the VLC option).
posted by Aleyn at 10:28 AM on May 7, 2020