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- HOTNESS UNHOT
Newegg has the Lite-On iHOS104-06 4X Blu-ray Drive for $60 - 10% off with coupon code BHDFEB24 [Exp 2/24] = $56 with free shipping. Reads DVD discs at 8x, CDs at 32x, and Blu-ray discs at 4x. Sports a 2MB buffer and a SATA interface.
$56
I love the fact that it has a 2mb buffer and reads discs which can hold nearly 30gb of info (like, half a milisecond of buffering capability)
While you can get Blu-ray player for under $100. I don't see why buy this for HTPC setup..
I bought my Toshiba Blu-ray player last BF for $78 shipped. This drive for $56 doesn't make sense to me...
because people want a home media center (hub) and blu ray player in 1 device, not 2. should be pretty obvious.
#3 U r right! If we don't have those people that willing to spend more - how can the economy to recover?? Hoe can the manufacture make $$ & survive ??
I guess these people not only willing to pay more but also have patient to wait for a few minutes till the HTPC boot up to watch a movie. I would rather turn on the Blu-ray player, wait less than 10 sec then showtime....
Can't rip a BD with a STB player. When I had a HTPC I didn't turn it on and off whenever I wanted to use it. It was generally on all the time.
What player do you have that's ready to go in 10 seconds. Even a PS3 can't do that.
Hey, #2:
What would you say if, and believe me this is hypothetical, someone already had a HTPC, but didn't have a Blu-Ray drive in it? I realize this is pretty far fetched, but in this corner case, this tiny subset of HTPC owners would probably prefer to buy just a raw drive than buy a whole new device, make sure there are inputs available on the TV, buy the cables to go from the TV to the new device, etc.
Also, #5 makes a good point about backing up your media. When a disc is scratched, standalone player owners have to go buy a new one, including a new content license. It's much nicer to simply burn a new one, or even burn an "everyday-use" disc and keep your original safe.
How many floppy disks can this hold?
#4, with HTPC, user can use the TV as monitor to browser the net, streaming internet content, viewing slide show on those pictures taken from dig. cam. etc. without the hassle of burning a DVD. I am sure others will have many other uses for HTPC. This is convinient more than saving some $$$.
My 2 cents.
I do believe HTPC got its advantage- like play media file w/o burn to DVD, and it also support whatever file format PC can support. Stream video... etc. That's the advantage of it I cannot deny it.
However, load the O/S and boot is kind of time consuming and keep a HTPC system on all the time that's not really a nice way to save energy. Normal HTPC set up is not really Hi end powerful system for intensive gaming either. So I do use player to play disc and use HTPC to play media files or some minor internet browsing.
Definitely you can rip all your DVD /Blu-ray into media file. But you do need a lot of HD space. Is it worthy ?? I don't know...
I love my HTPC. I can watch/listen to any streaming content I want, download a bunch more content and surf the web. Works perfectly for what I want to do, not to mention no cable TV bill (paid for itself in a few months). Now as far as this player goes, this isn't a terrific deal. This player regularly retails for $55-60. Also I'm surprised no one noticed Ben's math is off. The player is actually $62 and the coupon brings it down to $55.79 so the outcome is pretty similar.
do what i do. since i dont own a bluray player, i go out and buy the bluray disc, then i go online and download the mkv.
Some might like to know, This is a Blu-ray reader, It will not burn Blu-ray disk. Yes, you can download in HD. But It would still not burn in Blu-ray. Just a reader if you want to burn Blu-ray, then buy this..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129051
Just a note, Blu-ray player is much better than Lite-on drive or any drive. Video is much smoother, If your monitor have a HDMI port, everything is easy. However!. If you have a HTPC is a killer machine, then drive is not bad at all, This was selling everywhere on BF for 49.99 ship, I use Power DVD 9.0 Ultra it turns all my regular dvd's in to HD Dvds.
Got this for $52 back in July. It doesn't burn anything but I already had a DVD burner.
I went away from HTPC's because media players are much better than they used to be and mine will play BD iso's which play much faster than the STB and PS3 I started with.
#12 Blue Ray blank discs are still too expensive to take the chance on getting a coaster. $12 each? That said, you might as well buy the original.