Hitachi-LG BP55 External Blu-Ray Drive, USB 2.0 Slim
Hitachi-LG BP55 External Blu-Ray Drive, USB 2.0 Slim Portable Player/Rewriter for Laptop, Desktop PC, Windows 11 Compatible, with TV Connectivity, 3D Playback, 8x Read/Write Speed – Black
Style Evolution from Slimmer to Slimmest
The overall slim design of only 0.57 inches high optimizes space for the slim OPU installation.It allows for a sleek companion to thin Ultrabooks and enhanced portability.
Dimensions: | 15.6 x 14.4 x 1.5 cm; 270 Grams |
Model: | BP55EB40.AHLE10B |
Batteries Included: | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. |
Manufacture: | LG |
Dimensions: | 15.6 x 14.4 x 1.5 cm; 270 Grams |
A good player, once you get the right tool. The supplied one is great for what it does, but didn’t allow me to play blu-ray discs, I had to download Leawo to do that.
Only had it for a day so a first impressions review. I opted for this Blu-ray player because 1 – it’s made by a well established, well known company and you can tell. And 2 – the Cyberlink software that comes with it. You can’t rip/burn blu-ray with this software without paying for an upgrade.
I’ve watched a couple of films and am pleased. it’s quiet when playing.
I run both Linux and Windows on my laptop, and the drive works well for CDs and DVDs in both easily.
A CD-ROM with software for Windows comes in the box, which allows the computer to play Blu-ray’s, and the software works well, but a little cumbersome to install. (Still less cumbersome than trying to get a Blu-ray working in Linux)
It’s not a dainty model though, when comparing to my last model, but then again this one does Blu-ray’s, and isn’t broken, so it has that going for it 🙂 I have to store this one separately from the laptop, rather than in the bag with it.
Drive works fine out of the box but unable to install the bundled software.
Under windows 11 64bit on a high spec PC I get “software can only be installed with a LG(HLDS) device”. This is odd since that’s exactly what the device is.
Found out what the problem was Windows security had blocked folder access (quite common with old software installation setup.exe’s). If you get this check your security notices & allow the Protected memory access if blocked.
A very tidy and well-engineered product. Simply plug in a Windows does its thing. Well packaged too, feels like a premium product. Would have liked this to have been a bit cheaper, but needed a drive and this ticked the boxes.
First impressions of this external drive were good. A very slim, compact unit. Installed on a Windows 10 computer with no problem. You need to use two USB 2 sockets so that the unit has adequate power. The Cyberlink software that comes with the drive includes plenty of options and seems to work well. The disc tray does feel very fragile to me. I`m use to the old-style interior writers that have a more substantial feel to them but I`m hopeful that with careful handling it might last well enough. So far I`ve burned 25 Verbatim bluray discs at 2x speed without a problem. You can burn blurays faster, up to 6x speed I believe, but I`ve learned over the years to distrust manufacturers speed claims and you can always leave the machines to get on with it while you have some tea and toast (or whatever you wish to do). So far so good.
I bought this during the black Friday sale so it was cheaper than normal, but even at full price I think it would still be worth the money, considering that the cyberlink suite disc provided is more than 50 alone RRP. I had a bit of trouble installing it and getting my laptop to recognise the player, but that was because I already had a different version of cyberlink installed so it didn’t know which one to use. Once I uninstalled the old one and installed the suite from the disc provided, it all worked just fine and didn’t take long to set up. The player itself is lightweight, and while it’s a bit noisy while it’s initially reading a disc, once it’s actually playing it’s pretty quiet.
Does work better with both USB slots plugged in, unless you’ve got a really high powered pc/laptop. Overall, definitely worth the price for anyone wanting a portable bluray player.
All photos I take go onto DVD – now Bluray – moving from burning 4.7GB dvds to 22.5GB Bluray discs really speeds things up. Product is great, it does need two USB ports as it uses a fair amount of power (for a USB device). Buy it – you won’t regret it.
I bought this because I thought it would be a simple way to play Bluray on my PC. As it only has USB connectors that’s obviously what it’s for. Except if your PC and monitor are not HDCP (copy protection) compliant the bundled software won’t let it work. However, if you download alternative software like, say, Bluray Ripper software you can load them on this machine but watch them through the other. Basically it’s a work around solution. If your PC is HDCP compliant you shouldn’t have the problem I did with my old PC.
Really good product! Reads all my dvds and blu rays (bar region locked ones). The 2 USBs are not fully needed if you’re running USB 3.0 or higher, but i do plug them both in ro be safe. Read speed can be up to x5 normal, which is fine for something so small. This is perfect for me backing up my CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays to my server.
Easy to install, just plug it in. Works well with blu ray disks which is what I wanted it for, I can now play these on my PC desktop using VLC.
Should be round, like the discs. It did work as intended. Amazon says I could mention portability, easy to install and lightweight so here goes.
Paul Tability was a lightweight in a world of heavyweights. He knew something had to change if he were to become as easy to install as his peers. So, taking control of his destiny, he became a Hitachi LG portable blue ray player. And life was good.
This is a nice little external Bluray player. It does what it is meant to and I don’t really have any complaints there.
Some things to bear in mind:-
1. It is not silent, but it’s not loud once it starts playing. Frankly, it’s fine once you have the audio playing.
2. It can take a while to load Blurays, but once they start, they run fine.
3. It will NOT play 3D Blurays, unlike the title and description says it will. I have tried it connected to multiple devices, and all say it’s not a 3D player.
This will run better if you plug it in to USB3 ports instead of USB 2, and direct in to your laptop over a hub (for reference, I have it in a USB3 hub, and it is perfectly fine for me). If you go for USB 2 ports, you may find it slow to skip Bluray timelines, and it will take longer to load the Bluray.
If you are looking for a Bluray player to go with it, check out Leawo Bluray player. The basic version is free and works fine.
Simple plug-and-play performance and read/write speeds are excellent, which was why I bought it. It did try to watch commercial Blu Rays – though that wasn’t my aim, which is why it gets 5 stars – but as with all the external Blu Ray players it struggled. Couldn’t get VLC or Cyberlink to work despite trying the workarounds suggested on the web. If you’re after a way to watch Blu rays on your laptop this isn’t the solution.