200 disc changer blu-ray conversion

[angelnegron]

Can the VGP-XL1B2 drive hardware be replaced with a Blu-Ray capable drive? Just curious...

[vinthebutcher]

AVS forums had a top about a VGX-XL1 and saying how Panasonics UJ-215 or UJ-225 would work in it. Thread was from Jan 2008, so I would think there are more options available, like your average laptop blu-ray drive, but not sure.

[sinful]

A bit late of a reply but I'll throw it out there just for future reference. The XL1B can be converted to Blu-ray, I have a working conversion hooked up to this computer. However speaking first hand it is not at all worth the hassle. It works exactly the same as it did before the conversion but the problem lies in the lack of support for Blu-ray by windows. Windows detects all of the Blu-ray discs filed in the changer as data disc so within media center none of the blu-rays are shown in the movie library instead you have to navigate to the disc manager to view any of the BRs with no way to edit any of the BR volume labels making it a big pain in the ass to find the movie you're looking for. Another problem that came up was for some reason whenever I boot up the computer with the changer hooked up and powered on it adds about 2-3 minutes to the loading screen. And I have tested this with XP MCE05, Vista and Windows 7 all with pretty much the same results.

If you're still interested in giving it a go, the drive I used was a MATSHITA BD-MLT SW-5582. I have no clue where you can get one but I pulled mine from an old beat up powerfile R200-BD.

[Oliver]

Hi Sinful,

Welcome to the forums Sinful,

Don't worry about the late reply mate, it's never too late for a useful post like that.
So basically the hardware is capable of BluRay conversion but the software lets it down. That's a shame as a few people have been interested in this.

I cant help but look in envy at your amazing specs in your signature, you've gotta let us know how you achieved such a feat, you must have heavily modded your case? This should be saved for another thread, but it would be great if you have any picture of your mod. Im surer a lot of users here would be very interested.

Cheers

[sinful]

Thanks for the welcome. The mods were just started actually, all the parts are in the case and working but the rear panel is still in the works. There will be plenty of pics and probably a bit of a guide as soon as its finished.

[gladiateur555]

What about your upgrade ? I'm also VERY intersted about that and some pictures would be very welcome!
EDIT: I see pictures on the other post ! 



By the way I don't understand your config choice! What do you want to do with your new VAIO? It's seems that your put a very high end CPU with a high end motherboard and the most

powerfull PSU available in SFX factor. So I suppose you want to play with. In this case why did you chose a mid-range graphic card? In my mind if I realise the moding, I will put a

card like the GTX 760 and place it horizontaly with the original bracket of the case.


With this kind of graphic card the heat is exhaust outside the case and that is very nice! You can connect to the motherboerd with a flexible cable like this:


If you don't want to play with your VAIO I will choose a Core i3 4330 (only 54W tdp) or a Core i5 4570S (65W tdp).

[sinful]

A high end video card wasn't/isn't in the budget at the moment.

Pics

forum.vgx-xl.com/thread/77/vgx-xl-redux

[gladiateur555]

But that's what you to install later, right ?

[sinful]

The 6 core cpu was chosen more for multi threaded tasks like compressing blurays with dvdfab than it was for gaming. To be honest the HD7750 handles most games pretty well. Out of the the 100 or so games I have it only has trouble with a couple flight sims. Plus I have a dedicated gaming rig that I use for games I dont like playing on a TV with a controller. So a high end GPU is low priority for this VGX.

[Woody]

Have to agree with sinful, I find the HD7750 more than capable of playing most games at 1080 (even some recent ones such as Skyrim), but on the VGX-XL you also need a fast multi-core CPU (courtesy of the Mr Big BIOS upgrade).

To be honest, to make the most of high-end full height graphics cards you really need a much bigger case with much more efficient cooling. 
Trouble is I think the VGX-XL just looks cool (excuse the pun).. ..I do like some of the Corsair Obsidian cases, maybe a future project?!? 

[Gee]

Oct 14, 2013 6:38:11 GMT sinful said:

A bit late of a reply but I'll throw it out there just for future reference. The XL1B can be converted to Blu-ray, I have a working conversion hooked up to this computer. However speaking first hand it is not at all worth the hassle. It works exactly the same as it did before the conversion but the problem lies in the lack of support for Blu-ray by windows. Windows detects all of the Blu-ray discs filed in the changer as data disc so within media center none of the blu-rays are shown in the movie library instead you have to navigate to the disc manager to view any of the BRs with no way to edit any of the BR volume labels making it a big pain in the ass to find the movie you're looking for. Another problem that came up was for some reason whenever I boot up the computer with the changer hooked up and powered on it adds about 2-3 minutes to the loading screen. And I have tested this with XP MCE05, Vista and Windows 7 all with pretty much the same results.

If you're still interested in giving it a go, the drive I used was a MATSHITA BD-MLT SW-5582. I have no clue where you can get one but I pulled mine from an old beat up powerfile R200-BD.

Looking at this again, has anything changed with regard to the Media Center handling Blu-rays ? This would be a stupendous upgrade if the functionality's there.

[sinful]

Nope, nothing has changed and is likely to stay that way. Microsoft has all but officially declared media center as no longer being supported.