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Liteon 4X Blu Ray Reader Black Retail Pack | List Price: $169.99
Discount Price: $137.00
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Platform: Windows 2000
Brand: Lite-On
Binding: Personal Computers
Runs at 4x, works well, no compliants [Posted on 2008-04-05]
I have ripped maybe 20 Blu-rays with this, they all get up to 12MB/s which is the 4x advertised. There's no complaints to be made, just update the firmware to the latest, and it works beautifully for a great price. This is the bang for your buck BD reader.
Great Blu-Ray drive for the price [Posted on 2008-04-12]
I received this drive and had it installed and working within 10 minutes. It was nice how the package included a silver & black front piece so you could match your PC case color. The Blu-Ray movies look awesome on my TV and I have had no issues with the drive so far.
Solid drive, needs a strong underlying system [Posted on 2008-04-15]
Don't expect to run this device on a two- or three-year-old system. You need XP or Vista, 4 GB of RAM, a modern video card, and a Core 2 Duo or better to really exercise this thing. Given these caveats, If you're building a new PC, or doing a major upgrade binge, get the Lite-On DH-401S-08 Blu-Ray drive as a key add-on. If you have any type of wide-format LCD, 17" and up, you'll get a lot more entertainment value out of your new PC. (My specs are given below.)
Here's how to do it: When you install the Lite-On drive and software, go on the Web and get the latest updates to the bundled CyberLink software. It's likely that the drive will not play movies out of the box unless you do this. Be persistent, because CyberLink doesn't always make the updates terribly easy to find. (A straightforward Google search helped.) Also, if you can afford it, get the AnyDVD HD software, which allows you to mount Blu-Ray movie discs on a virtual drive in the system tray, and removes many compatibility problems. (If you have a monitor that is already HDCP-compliant, which I recommend, you can skip AnyDVD HD, which costs up to $120, making it difficult to justify.)
Once you've updated the CyberLink software, pop your disk in. In my system, Blu-Ray discs have never taken more than ten seconds to initialize. Once I got the software squared away (which in the end wasn't that hard), my experience has been absolutely flawless. The best my system can do on a fairly old Dell 2001fp 20.1" monitor is 720p - and yet the quality is SUBSTANTIALLY better than anything you've ever seen on standard-def. Visuals are just stunning. The bundled software supports only stereo HD sound without an expensive upgrade, which I find I can live without quite comfortably. A 24" or better HDCP-compliant monitor is definitely my next purchase. (I may revise this review after I've done that.)
I ***highly*** recommend this drive. If you know what you're doing, you can add a whole new dimension to your PC experience. System specs: Lian-Li V350B uATX case, Asus P5E-VM HDMI, e6750@3.48 GHz (8x435@1.42V), 8 GB G.Skill DDR2-1000, 2x250GB Seagates in RAID 0, Lite-On BD-ROM, Pioneer dual-layer, HD 3870 512MB, Vista 64-bit.
Excellent quality and value! [Posted on 2008-05-03]
This is a quality product at a great value. I almost bought the Sony drive but I'm so glad I didn't. Lite-On has great support and is providing firmware updates on a regular basis. Be sure to upgrade your drive to CP56 ASAP! It really improves the performance over previous versions.
The included PowerDVD software is O.K. but is a trial version and only designed for Stereo sound. You'll need to buy WinDVD 9 or PowerDVD 8 to get the full 5.1 surround sound features. Also, the trial software likely doesn't include full optimizations for playback. So, if you do upgrade your software, you can expect a bit better performance.
I do have a "fast" system, which is required. I highly recommend a dual or quad-core processor. I have a 7800GTS 256mb which plays fine on my Dell 24" wide-screen; however, I was rudely informed (by the PowerDVD software) that my Dell monitor isn't HDCP compatible. But, you can still play thru the analog video port. So, make sure your video card AND monitor support HDCP (or you'll be swapping cables like me.)
Overall, the drive is solid and installs in a snap. It uses a SATA connector which brings me down to only one IDE ribbon.
I have to give this product 5 stars for the product quality and great support by Lite-On.
It's pretty good [Posted on 2008-05-11]
It plays ok, but I had a scratched disk, and it froze my computer, had to cntrl alt delete. Not sure if this is a drive problem though. Happened on another pc also.
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