Jeremiah,

I am using an LG, its not used very often, but when clients ask for Blu Ray I can deliver it. The drive has met my expectations and as of right now I have only used Verbatim blank media.

I agree with the post regarding media players becoming the future.

Chad

Is the Mede8er available anywhere other than South Africa?

He asks about a Blu-Ray burner and someone recommends a several thousand dollar device??

I have an LG GGW-H20L that works very well. But I believe it has been discontinued so watch out for whomever claims they have it in stock.

John

John, those are S.A. dollars (Rand) which translates into about $335.00 U.S.

That's right. We use Rands which = +/- $8. What does a BD player go for?

You can pick one up for $199.00 U.S. (maybe less).

Yep...I understand Bluray might not be around forever...but neither has any other format...yet we still buy DVDs and DVD burners...

I just need some solid advice on a bluray burner as I am in need of a bluray burner. So far everywhere I have looked seems to be LG is on top. Is that the case? You guys agree?

what about this one...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/608053-REG/Pioneer_BDR203BKS_BDR_203_Internal_Blu_ray_Writer.html

jeremiah

I have an LG about a year old.... works fine. I use only Verbatim Discs.

You can get it at New Egg cheaper.

John:

I also have the LG GGW-H20L.

It's a bummer to see it discontinued. I tried to buy a spare, but you are right, they are mostly gone except at high prices.

I agree, to an extent, with posters that say media storage devices will most likely start gaining a foothold over Blu-Ray. Almost none of my customers have any interest in Blu-Ray. You still have to have BR capabilities though, it's not that expensive. I see the new LG BR burner is $159USD.

I bought the Pioneer BDR-203 burner from B&H. I haven't really used it a lot to give it a proper recommendation.

I was going to get the popular LG, but the Pioneer has gotten plenty of great reviews, so I went that route.

I bought this one. I don't know if it is still available.

j razz

I haven't gone to Blu-Ray yet - haven't had the need, and for HD playback I'm using the WD HD Media Player.

Works fine, BUT - how will these devices give us the same interactivity as DVD/BR, i.e. individually designed Menu Screens, Chapters for scene selection etc. etc.?

Those devices sure will not give you all the menu options that DVDs have. That's a plus in my book though.
I keep thinking to buy a BD burner simply for backing up files from my EX1 but the cost of the media itself is what puts me off. One of my local suppliers has Sony 50GB dual layer media at $93 per disk. For that I can buy a 1TB HDD.

Bob.

Wow, $93 a disc! Have they ever sold one at that price?

I'm paying $5.91 each for Verbatim 25GB discs and $17.17 for Verbatim 50GB discs and $21.50 for Sony 50GB discs.

"Have they ever sold one at that price?"

I have to wonder, they list them as "in stock at supplier"

The other place that I buy blank DVDs from has the SL BD media at an affordable price. He tells me there's recently been a HUGE surge in demand for BD media, from 5 units/month to maybe 15.

I had a talk with someone from the marketing department of a local large IT company and as he said the problem with BD is no one thought to push it as a data storage medium, that got lost in The War. Down here BD burners are still not mainstream, media prices stay high becuase there's little demand. I've given serious thought to buying Sony's XDCAM PDW-U1 drive. It's expensive but the media is more reasonably priced for what it is than the naked BD disks.

Bob.

Basically every store that primarily sells big screen TV's is now giving away a free Blu-Ray player. At least in the Los Angeles area. That will help, but we need to see the same thing from more mainstream outlets like Best Buy and Walmart.

Bob: Your question answered on the Mede8er forum.

1. Does it play ripped DVDs and Blu Ray ISOs? I wanna store my DVD's, complete with menues, features, etc.
- The Mede8er will play DVD Video_TS files as well as DVD ISOs with their full menu functionality and surround sound glory - I have my entire DVD music collection on my home network which all play flawlessly, so no more scratched, 'lost' DVDs or misplaced covers...

Here are the supported codices (is that the plural for codecs?)

Video Codec Supported:
MKV, H264, DVD (VOB - IFO - ISO), DIVX, XVID, DAT, AVI, MPEG, HD MPEG-2, TS, HD MPEG-4, SP, ASP, AVCD (H.264), MTS, M2ts, WMV9, FLV, VC-1, Real Networks (RM/RMVB) 8/9/10, up to 720p

I'm definitely getting mine this weekend at the RageEpo.

"No more coasters for me"

"No more coasters for me"

The Mede8er sounds nice for the content producer, but what about the consumer/client?

Jay most consumers are still moving over to HD. For me 720p is the CG of HD which most folk can afford ie 768 x 1336 compared to full HD

I have many folk who walk into the studio and say “ I am shooting my home movies HD , what do I do with the content?
I explain the BR option, add up the cost = player, righter, disc’s and production time and production knowledge needed for Blu Ray, most consumers back off
Then when they look at the media player option cheaper , less hassles and many render options they all say that’s the best option

All my clients that do events and launches use media players because it is more reliable so I don’t have a problem producing content for them
If they don’t I tell them go invest in one…if you want HD that’s the way to go

But, as I think Jay is asking .... ok, we complete a HD project for client , they're happy with it and now the time comes to supply copies for distribution.

What happens - buy hundreds of thumb sticks? Or what?

Yes, Peter, you nailed it!

The Mede8er does not address the distribution question.