Alright, before I get yelled at, I just want to say... damnit I like my home theatre system and when I'm on vacation for a few weeks, I'd really like to bring and watch some of my blu-ray movies on my Macbook.

(Is that really too much to ask for?)

Alright so I just wanted to know if you folks have a "year 2011" workaround for Macs reading (or not reading) blu-ray movies, since all the advice I can find is from 2009 (big whoop).

I just dropped $200 on a sweet multimedia burner (from CDs to blu-rays) and here's the link:
Amazon.com: Buffalo Technology MediaStation 6X Portable Blu-Ray Writer BR-PX68U2/BK (Black): Electronics

When I put in a blu-ray movie, the disc comes up in the Finder as a blank BD. Interesting... but that's not what I want. I've considered using Handbrake, but that doesn't work if Finder says "no your disc is blank, so Handbrake fails."

Any workarounds?
I'd rather not lug around a huge brick of a blu-ray player for vacations.
And while I'm prepared to take a beating for re-livening the blu-ray debate, I really need some expertise here.

[Chito]

Does VLC read blu- ray?

[AKcrab]

MakeMKV - Download

Supposedly, that works well. It produces a .mkv file, which can then be used by handbrake if you want it in a different format.

Not necessarily. Sometimes the disc comes up as blank, sometimes not at all.

Actually for like 15 seconds, I was able to navigate the folder contents of one blu-ray disc (which loaded somewhat successfully).

But then after those 15 seconds, those windows just suddenly went away while the disc was spinning around, and I was told falsely by Finder that I now had a blank disc.

When I insert the legit. blu-ray movie, which Finder considers blank, and launch MakeMKV in an attempt to get it to read the disc, I get the following message:


"Optical drive "BD-RE Optiarc BD RW BD-5730S 1.02" opened in OS access mode.
Error 'Posix error - Input/output error' occurred while reading 'BD-RE Optiarc BD RW BD-5730S 1.02' at offset '524288'
Error 'Posix error - Input/output error' occurred while reading 'BD-RE Optiarc BD RW BD-5730S 1.02' at offset '1048576'
Error 'Posix error - Input/output error' occurred while reading 'BD-RE Optiarc BD RW BD-5730S 1.02' at offset '32768'
Error 'Posix error - Input/output error' occurred while reading 'BD-RE Optiarc BD RW BD-5730S 1.02' at offset '524288'
Error 'Posix error - Input/output error' occurred while reading 'BD-RE Optiarc BD RW BD-5730S 1.02' at offset '1048576'
Error 'Posix error - Input/output error' occurred while reading 'BD-RE Optiarc BD RW BD-5730S 1.02' at offset '32768'
"


So, what does all this mean? I just bought the drive brand new.

[QuadG5Man]

This thread frustrates me. Apple's stance on BR: ignore it, it will go away.

Bad stance for all of us Mac video types. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad...and very disingenuous of the company. Shocking, really.

QuadG5Man, I tried "shocking really" the disc, then ignoring it, but that didn't seem to help. Do you have any other suggestions?

[seanc]

Looks more like a faulty drive or damaged disc.

Tried it with Windows?

I've tried several blu-ray movies, and that's what happens.

I don't use Windows.

I would test the device with Verbatim BD-RE media but I don't have any.

Should I purchase some test discs and test the device with them to see if it's faulty?

UPDATE:

I have purchased the Verbatim BD-RE discs, single layer, one-sided.

I was able to record 7.91 GB of data to one disc and verify it from the Finder with no problem.

When the burn was done, the disc image appeared on my computer, and I was able to access my data from the disc.


But when I ejected the burned disc, then re-inserted it, Finder told me that I had a blank blu-ray disc and asked me what to.


So, now what do I do? Apparently the device can record data to all advertised media, can read CDs and DVDs, but it can't read blu-ray discs.

Is this a problem with the firmware or with the drive being advertised as PC only? Is the burner damaged? Is Mac OS X interfering with the device? Should I ask the company for a replacement?
I don't understand what's happening.


====

EDIT: After contacting the company directly, they have determined that the firmware for reading blu-ray media is not fully supported on Mac OS X.

Therefore, this device DOES NOT read blu-ray discs on a Mac.

Why would I go through all this pain?
Because Neurorad from MacRumors reported that he had the device working on an intel Mac.
So I was disappointed to find that, in fact, the device does not work on a Mac.

Buyers beware: Just because it works for someone else DOES NOT mean it will work for you!

We can close this thread.

Here's a convenience update for you folks. (You can send me your acknowledgements later.)


I swapped out the Buffalo player for a DIGISTOR blu-ray portable... and this thing JUST WORKS. Blu-ray movies come in finder, MakeMKV recognizes and backs up the disc content, so I recommend the DIGISTOR drive.

Now the blu-ray's m2ts files won't play in VLC. Nothing happens.

Any more ideas?