Thinkpads Forum

Hello. This is my first post on this site! I recently got an SL410 for my wife for 600bucks on Amazon. So it has an HDMI output which is of no use to me unless I stream or download hidef from the web - which I don't on my measly 1MB DSL. So I'm considering swapping the drive for a blu-ray. I know it was optional with the SL machines so there must be a way to do it. Can anyone advise me on that? Can it be done, what software/drivers required, where to buy, any issues with same?

Thanks.

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

I don't have a definitive answer to this question as I've not personally tried swapping out the optical drive in a SL500 that my daughter uses. Generally speaking, Thinkpad Ultrabay optical drives can be swapped out without any hardware issues. As the SL410 does not have a traditional Ultrabay, but does have a way to remove the drive, it might be possible to swap the optical drives.

The only software that you might need for the upgraded drive would be programs that take advantage of the new capabilities; a player that can handle Blu-ray disks, for example. My recollection is that Windows 7 by itself can't play Blu-ray disks (from Media Player) but that there are several free players and well as commercial software players. Vista, I believe has bulit-in Blu-ray player support.

ref: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 73322.html (Hardware Maintenance Manual for SL410 and others)

Vista does not support Blu-ray playback. With the addition of SP2 you'll be able to burn data to Blu-ray discs via explorer, but you'll need to buy software to play back Blu-ray discs. As far as I know there's no free software that does like VLC for DVDs. PowerDVD, WinDVD and TotalMedia I think are the main ones. The part number for the Blu-ray drive on the SL410 is 41W0749. Searching Google and ebay reveals they're pretty expensive if you can find one. If you look at the part numbers for the SL400, there's a Blu-ray combo drive, part number 42T2579. There's one listed on ebay for a somewhat reasonable $140. I've no idea if they'll ship to Trinidad or if it'll work, but if I were to guess, I'd say it'll work, but that's a guess on my part. They tend not to re-invent the wheel, but I could totally see them making a small change to make it not work, like changing the placement of the screw hole where the drive secures to the chassis. The bezel is even sloped like on the SL410. I don't know that's there's going to be a large group of SL410 owners who've swapped the drive who's experience you can draw upon. If you're not willing to take a chance on the SL400 drive on ebay, you could always get an external drive. They're pretty cheap on ebay. Good Luck.

FredGarvin wrote:Vista does not support Blu-ray playback.

Thanks. I forgot to mention the unit came with Win 7 pro. Don't know if that would make a difference.

I could totally see them making a small change to make it not work, like changing the placement of the screw hole where the drive secures to the chassis.

You're probably right. Unless I could directly compare the two - I wouldn't know for sure. At $140 I might as well get a dedicated blu-ray player - as I don't intend on watching blu-ray on a laptop. However, the external may be the better option. I'll still see if any other uses have any ideas.