Product Description

Marketing description is not available.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1645 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sony
• Model: BDUX10S
• Released on: 2008-02-11
• Platform: Windows
• Format: CD
• Dimensions: 4.60" h x 8.80" w x 10.20" l, 1.98 pounds

Features

• Plays/reads Blu-ray, DVD, and CD's
• No writing capabilities

Customer Reviews

Solid brand-name Blu-Ray (BD-ROM) drive, painful setup
Installing the drive was a snap, SONY includes all needed cables and even an replacement faceplate which I had to use in order to get this player in my Gateway desktop case.

The bundled software is Cyberlink PowerDVD BR Edition. This was a bit disappointing. I was expecting SONY branded software to supply the Blu-Ray playback (their menu system found on the PS3 on their stand alone Blu-Ray disc players is very intuitive). The PowerDVD software cost me about 3 hours troubleshooting. On launch the software detected and downloaded the latest patch, but even after it was installed I would try to play a Blu-Ray movie and I would get an error message "Fail to enable HDPC" right after the FBI warning.

This problem turned out to be Blu-Ray copy protection preventing the disc from playing with my hardware. Blu-Ray copy protection is picky about the output source (i.e. video card) and if you have a dual display card or if you're connecting your monitor over DVI (even DVI-I & DVI-D) instead of HDMI the drivers may trigger the Blu-Ray copy protection to block the playback. The solution is to download the latest video drivers for your card, firmware and make sure the PowerDVD application is updated. If you're connecting to your monitor through DVI, make sure your DVI cable is DVI-D or DVI-I and not analog only DVI.

After updating to the latest ATI Catalysis drivers everything began working great. Make sure your video card and CPU meet/exceed the minimum requirements before buying.

Mildly recommending to friends as a best bang for the buck
The whole purpose of buying these drives is to watch blu-ray movies. With players now as low as $200, and even $150 when on sale, I would recommend getting a player instead. Here's why:

I got the player for a low $79 on black friday. Even with this deal, it's not quite the steal it seems to be. At that price you get the drive and the bundled software. I popped in Transformers blu-ray. There was so much aliasing when running Cyberlink BD. The text and graphics were not as crisp as expected. The problem was the bundled software. You need to upgrade to Cyberlink ultra to get the full graphics as expected from blu-ray. That's another $100.

So $79+$100=179. Get a player instead if your purpose is to just watch movies (not read data).

Great player - but with a ton of software updates!
After a searching and weeding through a bunch of forums and product reviews, I settled on this player (drive) vs. the LG/LiteOn/Pioneer/etc. It was just bundled with decent software, cables, and has the Blu Ray originator, "Sony," brand name. I just finished watching Narnia (Caspian) and the Sony drive worked FLAWLESSLY.

My base desktop media center is a Gateway GT5224. Here are the specs:
Windows XP SP2
Pentium D 2.8GHz (4MB cache) - not overclocked! Yes, it runs smoothly!
2GB DDR2 SDRAM memory - added 1GB aftermarket
XFX GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog Edition Extreme (256MB) video card -sweet!
300GB of free drive space - added 2nd 320GB internal hard drive

I am running 1080P (native resolution on my TV) through DVI->HDMI to my Samsung 56" DLP.

OK, now for the install pains...
I connected the Sony BD drive using the supplied SATA cables. Setup drivers using provided installation CD. Installed Cyberlink using same CD. Immediately, software recognized that an XP software patch was needed to continue. I ran the software patch after downloading it from Cyberlink's site. Reboot. XP recognized new hardware again. Finished self-installation. Reboot. Tried to run the BD and the top half of my screen was clear, but the bottom half looked like a "waterfall". Found new the latest nvidia driver for my card, "178.24 WHQL". Downloaded and ran it. Reboot. My screen size was now skewed wide. Oh, crap - check forums! Found it. Common problem with new driver & DVI-HDMI connection. Using nvidia settings, set screen resolution to 480P, resized screen, and then switched back to 1080P. BINGO! Screen back to normal. Ran Sony BD drive and played Narnia. Cue teary eyes. It was so beautiful!

My biggest fear was that my CPU (processor) wouldn't be up to the task, since all I've been reading has lead me to believe the BD drives were CPU intensive not GPU intensive. My video card simply kicks serious butt! Either my case is an anomaly, or Intel is spreading rumors to force people to upgrade their CPUs. Conspiracy??? hehehe

Anyway, it looks great, no frame drops whatsoever, and I am one true believer in Blu Ray. I'll never go back to DVDs again! Hope this helps! God bless & Merry Christmas!