[SOLVED] Blu-Ray Drives: Quietest 5.25" Tray Models When Playing BD Movies

[soundtrek]

For my new "mid ("mini") tower pc build, I want to use a 5.25" BD drive to play BD movies via https://jriver.com/

Currently, I have free access to Panasonic SW-5584-C and Plextor PX-891SAF BD drives.

Of course, with the tower several feet from my ears and with my surround sound system going I wouldn't expect much if any drive noise to be noticeable. However, have you used one or more specific models or brands of BD drives, which were found to consistently produce low mechanical or vibration noise when playing 1080p BD movies?

Conversely, which model drives have you found to generate very noticeable noise during BD movie playback?

Also do most BD drives get very warm when playing full length BD movies?

And/or have you noticed if your tower's case fans run any faster/noisier during BD movie playback?

Lastly, do you find that playing (never or rarely burning) BD movies more often on BD drives than playing them on your standalone BD player tends to shorten BD drive life?

 

[hotaru.hino]

Of course, with the tower several feet from my ears and with my surround sound system going I wouldn't expect much if any drive noise to be noticeable. However, have you used one or more specific models or brands of BD drives, which were found to consistently produce low mechanical or vibration noise when playing 1080p BD movies?

Conversely, which model drives have you found to generate very noticeable noise during BD movie playback?

I have an LG BD drive. However I mostly used it to rip my Blu-Ray movies, so it runs at about x6-x8 speeds, so anywhere from 5000-6500 RPM, and it would make a audible higher pitched hum. However, technically speaking movie playback doesn't need to be faster than x1 speeds, which is about 800 RPM. So I can't imagine the drive making that much noise during that.

Also do most BD drives get very warm when playing full length BD movies?

No.

And/or have you noticed if your tower's case fans run any faster/noisier during BD movie playback?

No. It's no different than playing a 1080p high bitrate video locally. Or if you want to test this, go run a 4K YouTube video. It's not really an apples to apples comparison, but it should provide enough of a workload on your system to determine if it ramps up the fans or not.

Lastly, do you find that playing (never or rarely burning) BD movies more often on BD drives than playing them on your standalone BD player tends to shorten BD drive life?

Well, using any device wears it out. So I'd expect using the drive more than a standalone player will wear it out faster.

 

[soundtrek]

Really appreciate the info. But might the choice of BD playing software possibly impact mechanical playback noise at all? I'd be using JRiver. https://jriver.com/ BUT I's also be using https://www.redfox.bz/en/anydvdhd.html not for actual ripping but to run in the background to decrypt the BD movie so i can unlock zoom control, which is often disabled in BD discs, often unintentionally, due to default settings in the BD authoring software.

For example, all of my Criterion Collection and Shout!Factory BDs are zoom disabled but none of my Warners, Kino Lorber or most of my Twilight Time BDs are zoom enabled.

So will JRiver and Redfox used together somehow make the drive spin faster or cause any other kind of mechanical noise?

 

[hotaru.hino]

Decryption of any sort happens off disc once the data from it is loaded. There's no real advantage to spinning the disc faster for movie playback other than having quicker response when seeking by large amounts.

 

[soundtrek]

Decryption of any sort happens off disc once the data from it is loaded. There's no real advantage to spinning the disc faster for movie playback other than having quicker response when seeking by large amounts.

All great news, for a change. Thanks for all of these details.

 

[umeng2002_2]

As others have said, I'd just rip them, decrypt them, then play them from the hard drive with whatever software player you want. Although SlySoft does do on-the-fly decryption so you can still do the retro, play straight from disc, thing.

 

[soundtrek]

Decryption of any sort happens off disc once the data from it is loaded. There's no real advantage to spinning the disc faster for movie playback other than having quicker response when seeking by large amounts.

As others have said, I'd just rip them, decrypt them, then play them from the hard drive with whatever software player you want. Although SlySoft does do on-the-fly decryption so you can still do the retro, play straight from disc, thing.

But might there be CP conflicts with 2022 top model OLED TVs? Though AnyDVD HD will decrypt the BD, will the OLED TV's HDMI input be expecting an HDCP handshake which it may not then get (as it would otherwise certainly get from my Oppo BD player) and therefore reject or degrade the video signal?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Bear in mind that if you plan on running one of Intel's 11000 or 12000 series CPU's or upgrade to Windows 11 you will no longer be able to play 4k Blu-Ray, if you have any intentions of doing so, unless you crack the files (something we here will not help you with).

Intel Breaks 4K Blu-Ray Disc Playback on New CPUs

In many cases, though, DRM causes more problems than it helps.

www.howtogeek.com

 

[Nighthawk117]

Currently, I have free access to Panasonic SW-5584-C and Plextor PX-891SAF BD drives.

Of course, with the tower several feet from my ears and with my surround sound system going I wouldn't expect much if any drive noise to be noticeable. However, have you used one or more specific models or brands of BD drives, which were found to consistently produce low mechanical or vibration noise when playing 1080p BD movies?

Conversely, which model drives have you found to generate very noticeable noise during BD movie playback?

I've used an LG BH16NS40 as my daily driver for around 8 years. I would say it is very quiet and I've never really noticed it when the movie is playing. I've also used LG DVD players for decades and found them fine as well.

I've recently moved to a Pioneer BDR-XS07TS as my new PC doesn't have a 5.25" bay. That's also fairly quiet but slightly louder than the internal one. I've found some of the cheaper optical drives to be louder than more expensive ones.

Also do most BD drives get very warm when playing full length BD movies?

Never found any of my optical drives to get that warm when watching movies.

And/or have you noticed if your tower's case fans run any faster/noisier during BD movie playback?

No, depending on how they are configured they will either run at the same speed all the time or linked to something like CPU temperature. Obviously I don't have your machine but I've never found my computer fans audible when watching Bluray's, it's not stressful enough.

Lastly, do you find that playing (never or rarely burning) BD movies more often on BD drives than playing them on your standalone BD player tends to shorten BD drive life?

I always watch movies on my PC, used several 5.25" LG drives for many years at a time, never had one fail. Nothing lasts forever but this in my mind is a non issue, you would have to watch a lot of movies to wear it out to the point of failure.

I would have thought you would be fine with either those.

 

[BFG-9000]

By default, most optical drives treat movies as data so will annoyingly keep spinning up to fill the player's buffer then ramping down repeatedly, while you are trying to watch a quiet movie. I remember there were some drives featuring firmware that claimed to recognize when you were watching a movie and automatically keep speed at ~1-2x.

Plextor drives used to have a setting in Plextools called SilentMode to do the same, but I think this only worked on "true" Plextor drives by Sanyo and not later rebadged ones that could be made by Benq-Philips, Sony-NEC, Teac, Lite-On or LG. The current Plextools only seems to mention SSDs so now is like Samsung Magician

cdvdcontrol still does offer SilentMode for most optical drives but is only for Linux. I believe it was a fork of the Plextools for Linux. However this means software should be able to control most drives and this kind of thing should be included in media players