Blu-ray discs are the gold standard in physical movie formats right now. You probably have a decent Blu-ray collection of your favorite movies, but without a Blu-ray drive, you can't play them on your Mac. Blu-rays aren't just great for movies; they also make great storage devices for backups or other important data as well. If you want to play, read, or write Blu-ray discs with your Mac, you're going to need to start off with an excellent Blu-ray drive. Here are our favorite Blu-ray drives for Mac.
Fast write speeds
Pioneer BDR-XS06
The Pioneer BDR-XS06's 6x write speeds on single layer and dual layer discs, and up to 4x max write speeds on quad-layer discs, makes it one of the faster drives around. Compatible with Mac right out of the box, it also has an auto quiet mode, so it won't make a ton of noise when you're using the drive.
Budget option
SEA TECH Blu-ray drive
Completely compatible with Mac, you won't need to reformat or install anything to get the SEA TECH Blu-ray drive to talk to your Mac. Plus, it uses a USB 3.0 connection, meaning all you data transferring is happening at the fast speed of USB 3.0!
Bulky backup machine
OWC Mercury Pro
This bulky drive excels at backing up your files and other important info by having Archive quality M-DISC compatibility. It needs an external power source, meaning it will take up a wall outlet; however, its 16x Blu-ray burner pack a lot of power!
Windown and Mac compatible
ASUS BW-16D1X-U
The ASUS 12X Blu-ray drive has a 16X burning speed, which is among the fastest of the optical drives out there. Plus, by using a USB 3.0 connection, the ASUS BW-16D1X-U Blu-ray drive can also write data much faster than other drives that still use USB 2.0. The drive is formatted both for Mac and Windows, so you don't have to worry about reformatting the drive if you want to switch back and forth between operating systems.
When it comes to playing Blu-rays on your Mac, you're going to need software as well as an external drive, and sometimes that software can be expensive. For that reason, I think the SEA TECH Blu-ray drive is worth a look for people who just want to watch Blu-ray movies.
Either way, you'll need one of the great drives listed above if you want to watch or burn any Blu-rays on your Mac.
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