Added a Blu-Ray drive to a Mac Mini

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 651465
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Deleted member 651465

Deleted member 651465

Hey all,

I thought some of you might be interested in my latest escapades, in the pursuit of making the Mac Mini the ultimate HTPC.

I've been using an external Blu-Ray drive connected to a Mac Mini via a SATA-USB adaptor for a few months now, and it's always annoyed me because it felt like a chore to plug it all in to rip my movies on to the NAS.

So.. I bought a slimline Blu-Ray drive and fitted it inside the Mac. The procedure was really straight forward (if you follow the guide) and it's all working without fuss, but still.. I'd like to share the pictures :D


The equipment
  • Mac Mini (Late 2009)
  • Sony BC-5640H slim Blu-Ray drive
  • Phillips Screwdriver
  • Pizza cutter
  • Plastic tongs

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The pizza cutter opens the case, the tongs are used to pull the connectors off the circuit board and the screwdriver is used to remove the drive from the mounting cage.

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The antennas for AirPort, Bluetooth etc are found on the outside in the shape of 3 plates. This is where it can get messy if you snap or snag these wires!

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The hard drive is buried under the drive, pretty much at the bottom of the guts. Shame I didn't have an SSD while I was at it.

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At this point there was no going back, the internal drive has no front fascia, so before fitting the new drive I popped the fascia off it.

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Close up of the drive label. There were no issues with fitting, so I suppose any off-the-shelf notebook drive will work. I only chose this drive as it was a well known brand and most Macs seem to have Sony / Pioneer drives these days.

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Drive fitted and top assembly re-seated.

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Same view from the rear. I tested it all worked BEFORE putting the case back on. That thing is as snug as a bug in a rug, and I didn't fancy having to rip the case back off if the drive was DOA, especially given the fragility of the antenna cables.

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System profiler, showing the new drive has been recognised. I didn't choose a BDRW for the simple fact I only want the drive to rip movies for backup purposes, and the RW drives are pretty expensive.

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I've made a short video showing that the drive will correctly read and mount the disc. Apologies for the first half of the clip, it was filmed on the iPhone. * I DID NOT RIP THIS MOVIE, the pictures and video are for demostration only *

 
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I know. Even if they enabled native playback with the next OS I'd be happy.

Until then I'm happy to play the files through the media centre app, Plex, but the choice would be nice.
 
It doesn't play the files from disc, because OS X can't handle playing the discs, but if you rip the movie to a MKV then the lossess files are perfect and will play in VLC or Plex. I only use the drive to rip the movies for the NAS, but it's nice to have it all built in :)

In a twist of irony, I could boot in to Windows and play the discs!
 
Ah that is pretty good! Been tempted to get a mini once in a while but havnt done it yet.

Go on boot into windows just to see it play it live once too... :D
 
Excellent work, nice little project. Can't believe the wife let you do all that on the "New" kitchen worktop :eek:
 
Fozzie55 said:
Backup your rented discs? Mmmmmm
Click to expand...

Pull the other one, we haven't long had Sky put in, so the only way to watch anything is DVDs / Lovefilm.

The only discs I have ripped are my own. Do I really need to post a picture of my massive bought Blu-Ray collection? :p
 
Apologies EVH, I was in a bad mood this morning :). Anyway, by replying I noticed your House Building Thread. Awesome build, awesome house. That has got to be the neatest, tidiest building site I have ever seen! (internally especially) no mess. Now where is the jealous avatar? :)
 
Fozzie55 said:
Apologies EVH, I was in a bad mood this morning :). Anyway, by replying I noticed your House Building Thread. Awesome build, awesome house. That has got to be the neatest, tidiest building site I have ever seen! (internally especially) no mess. Now where is the jealous avatar? :)
Click to expand...

No problem. In retrospect I shouldn't really use the lovefilm disc in my pictures, so I'll change it before everyone thinks I'm a pirate. It's actually the opposite, I buy at least 2 Blu-Rays a week and I'm currently only using lovefilm because shortly after we moved in we had no tv and no Internet and the only thing I could do was watch DVDs. 3 month free lovefilm code came along and I'm still using it to "try before I buy".

I will post a picture of the collection because I know how it comes across.

Finally, thanks for the comments for the house. Not quite finished but there has been a lot of work and planning gone in to it to futureproof the design by having a whole house audio and video system, controlled from a central location with iPhones, iPods and iPads. Not to mention it had to be kid friendly (thank you lockable rack doors) and wife / idiot proof in case we decide to move.
 
For those who wanted to see..

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The 4 cupboards in the kitchen are full of Blu-Rays and DVDs. In the second picture you can see how each shelf is dual stacked.


PardonTheWait said:
I might have to get on this. My Superdrive's shagged out anyway and this is actually cheaper than an OEM Superdrive
Click to expand...

I can recommend this drive wholeheartedly. I'm ripping the DVD "Fanboys" now, and I can barely hear it. Possibly the casing was put on weird by Apple but the stock DVD drive made a lot more noise.
 
Nice mod. :)


Surely in that house of yours you should have some kind of voice automated self picking and loading blu-ray player! :p
 
I'll settle on being able to play the film on the TV, shut it down, open iPad and continue watching from the same spot :)

Going to experiment with Mac OS X server again soon, so this Mini is going to take a hammering in the next few weeks while I put it to use for a bit of everything, not just a HTPC.
 
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