BD-RE drives

[theterminator93]

I've got a couple Panasonic UJ-260 drives that I use with my W520. They are a little crabby at times, so I've been considering a replacement.

From what I've seen, there are a few drives that may work.

UJ-260 - SATA interface, BD-RE (no BDXL support), Discontinued - counterfeits/NOS only. 12.7mm.
UJ-262 - SATA interface, BD-RE (no BDXL support), 9.5mm. Discontinued - counterfeits/NOS only. May also work in T400/T410?
UJ-272 - SATA interface, BD-RE (BDXL/4K supported), 9.5mm. Not discontinued. May also work in T400/T410?

Any experiences/thoughts to share before I take the plunge on one of these?

[ZaZ]

I've got a couple Panasonic UJ-260 drives that I use with my W520.

For what?

[RealBlackStuff]

Methinks they are Blu-ray DVD.

[TPFanatic]

I have a UJ-272 in my P71, it worked alright for playing Blu Rays which was my purpose in purchasing it. There’s a whole rabbit hole of getting VLC media player to play Blu Rays.

I never treid 4K Blu Rays. I cannot actually see the difference between 1080p and higher res movies, but the higher res movies do take a lot more processing power, I believe.

My friend who has been playing discs longer than I have has gone back to choosing DVD as they are more reliable.

[theterminator93]

I've got a couple Panasonic UJ-260 drives that I use with my W520.

For what?

Reading or burning Blu-rays, often with MakeMKV or ImgBurn. I am familiar with the challenges of playing them direct from disc on a PC. I keep the discs for my theater which has a 10' screen and 7.1.4 sound system. DVDs look like crap in there.

[TPFanatic]

Im jelly. Bet your picture is better than the actual theaters.

[theterminator93]

Thanks! I'm quite proud of it; my two favorite things to do when friends visit is either take them up for airplane rides or have them watch movies. I'd say the picture isn't quite as good... but the sound is quite a bit better. IMO theater speakers are driven at power levels that cause too much distortion and as a result they sound horrible while also causing aural pain.

For the curious, I documented my basement/HT construction journey here... https://forum.birdcats.com/threads/the-home-theater.13/

[ZaZ]

Any experiences/thoughts to share before I take the plunge on one of these?

I wouldn't think one drive's going to be noticeably better or worse than the next. I doubt they've put much R&D money in to optical drives in quite some time. An external desktop drive will offer improved performance, if that works for you. I've found ripping and re-encoding to be a superior way to view movies as you can cut out the advertising, though if you're coding 4K on a W520, it may take a while.

[theterminator93]

I'm mostly interested in something that's proven reliable, though it may be subjective after 10+ years since these were made. The UJ260s that I have sometimes don't read DVDs while reading BDs, then vise-versa another day. So I want to get a replacement while I still can and ensure I'm getting the best option given the experiences of others. Also, if I can get something that will work in either T400 or T410 too, that's a bonus.

I don't transcode any movies on the W520, I would either read the disc or burn it only. I leave the heavy lifting for my desktop.

[TPFanatic]

I agree with using an external heavier duty BD drive.

The laptop ones are chintzy.

[theterminator93]

I appreciate the time taken to share thoughts, but I am not going down that path and the suggestions do not apply to my situation.

I will not be buying and hauling around an accessory to do the job an internal component can do.

[TPFanatic]

At least since it is a ThinkPad you can swap them out when they fail. In that case, I suggest purchase a number of drives to keep as spares. My 12.7mm BD burner in my T420 randomly devolved back into a DVD player, and my first 9.5mm BD burner in my P71 broke when I accidentally bumped it.

[dr_st]

The UJ260s that I have sometimes don't read DVDs while reading BDs, then vise-versa another day.

Having similar symptoms with my desktop LG BD-RE drives. Their treatment of DVDs has become random at best - probably 70% of DVDs don't work in them, but I've never had a BD or CD that didn't. Sometimes after a few attempts it will read a DVD, but that's very flaky.

Therefore I also suggest this:

At least since it is a ThinkPad you can swap them out when they fail. In that case, I suggest purchase a number of drives to keep as spares.

[ZaZ]

For read issues I'd try cleaning the lens as a place to start, which will only cost a dab of isopropyl alcohol and a Q-Tip.