Optical drive - Help in determining attributes when purchasing

System:  Microsoft Home 10 or 11

I will be purchasing a new laptop.  Today's laptops do not come with optical drives, so I need to purchase one.  We use the optical drive to see movies on DVD which we borrow from the local library. 

I want an optical drive that can use both regular DVDs and Blu-Ray DVDs.

What optical drive attributes should I consider when purchasing the drive?

Thank you.

Hi, Buy Win11 then should be compatible for the future.  Do check the Chip by googling it and seeing the Spec sheet for year of release to know you are not dealing with obsolete hardware.

They tend to do that, if the price is to low will prob be obsolete.   Future Proof it if possible.

Make sure have lots of ram and the Chip has GHz (speed)(along with cache) that will be able to play the below without any lag.

Ok you need nothing other than buy a Bluray DVD player external. : https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=blue+ray+dvd+player+usb

So what you buy above does not really matter it is more important system has ram and power to play with out buffering.

Edited by Pkshadow, 20 April 2024 - 04:38 PM.

When researching potential buys, I like to check Amazon and read the users' reviews. That will give you a good idea of the quality of the drive. Don't forget to specify that the drive is Blue Ray capable. When in Amazon inspecting a drive, enter the users' reviews. Scroll down until you see "see more reviews" and click on it. Next, in "Sort By", specify "Most Recent", and in "Filter By" click "Verified Purchase Only". That will give you the most accurate, up to date reviews.

Note that you would need to buy suitable software to play the BluRay movies, as the players supplied with windows do not (DVD's are OK) - e.g. PowerDVD - so you'll be paying a lot of money for the combined cost of an external USB BluRay drive and the playback software.

True if wanting to play it in Blu-ray format.  Any Player will play movies.  VLC or MPC-HC  both have settings to do so.

Do not need special software unless want true bells and whistles Blu-ray.

Edited by Pkshadow, 20 April 2024 - 05:44 PM.