Question 1

As an OEM product, does this (and other similar Original Equipment Manufacturer) product come with an included SATA cable?  Or will customers need to provide their own?

Accepted Answer

The product does NOT come with a SATA Cable. A customer will need to provide their own.

Question 2

I have every component for my first build besides the cable for this drive since it's OEM. What kind of cable do I need? I use the 	
ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX motherboard. Sorry if this is a noob question, I am one.

Accepted Answer

It takes the same cables as a SATA hard drive does, one for power and one for data.  For step-by-step instructions, Google "how to connect a sata dvd drive" and go to the ehow dot com URL.

Question 3

Does this drive fit a 5.25" form factor? I'm assuming it does but I didn't specifically see it mentioned in the specifications.

Accepted Answer

Yes, it fits perfectly.  Enjoy it!  Be sure you have Cyberlink Power DVD (I recommend power DVD Ultra 16 - its cheaper than 17 and has all the capability you need to fully enjoy blu-ray discs).  Without it, you can't play Blu-ray Discs.  I haven't found any good alternatives in the "free S/W market.  I love the player, it's quieter than my previous player, and just as reliable.  Go for it!

Question 4

Is this product compatable with windows 8.1?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it is a SATA drive.  As long as your motherboard supports SATA, it will work. It will however not play blu-ray disks unless you have software that supports blu-ray for the codecs.  The drive does not come with any software, so if you get the drive and your PC did not have a blu-ray drive with software previously, you will need to aquire software that supports blu-ray as well.

Question 5

my computer keeps telling me i need to install a playback application that supports blu-ray. how do i fix this?

Accepted Answer

There is no "fix" per se.  Windows will play DVDs with no other applications required but Blu-Ray will not.  You will need to install an application that can play Blu-Ray discs..

There are many you can purchase as well as freeware ones.

you can go to cnet, go downloads, go to windows, and do a search for Blu-ray.

That should give you what you need as they have links to both freeware and pay for applications

Question 6

This will read CD's, DVD's and Blu-ray(with software), correct?

Accepted Answer

Yes to CD's and DVDs.  I have not tested with and Blu-ray disks, however I have never had any issues with ASUS ROM drives in the past so I have no doubt it will work.

Question 7

is this w10 compatible?

Accepted Answer

Its not compatible yet but I am sure they will update the drivers.
Id risk it if they don't have any w10 BD-ROM Drivers

Question 8

What software do you use to play blu-ray movies?

Accepted Answer

I just recently purchased one and was able to use free trial Make MKV and save it on an External Drive. However it would only play on the FREE DivX player not open source VideoLAN VLC player. Other suggest installing extra software to use VideoLAN VLC directly or pay lots of cash to CyberLink.

Question 9

i have windows 7 64 bit and i tried playing transformers dark of the moon on blu ray and it wont play... what do i need to get to be able to play the movie?

Accepted Answer

Hello Dave,
Since blu-rays are encoded different than DVDs (and may support 3D and other features DVDs don't) you'll need some form of blu-ray compatible playback software that isn't part of most operating systems by default. Since I'm still going down that road of research myself I'm not sure which one to recommend, but a quick Google search will list several to choose from.  Good luck and I hope that helps.

Question 10

Is this compatible with Windows 8?

Accepted Answer

I don't know the official answer but I've had it installed on a system running Windows 8 and later 8.1 for about a year.

Questions & Answers