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    Cheap way to add blue ray dvd player to T161P?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by Zigot, Dec 27, 2008.

  1. Zigot

    Zigot Notebook Guru

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    Happy Holidays!!

    I have a t61P with normal dvd and I would like to add blue ray player.
    Is there any cheap way to do it?

    - How reliable those slim external blue ray player/dvd-ram found on Ebay ( i believe the internal drive is Panasonic UJ-120 )
    - There's also a slot load version.

    Thx
     
    Zigot, Dec 27, 2008
    #1
  2. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

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    With the T61 you're pretty much hosed for Blu-Ray. UJ-120 is too big height wise. The T61 uses super slim 9.5mm height drive. The UJ-120 is a standard notebook drive, which is 12.7mm in height. The new T series have Blu-Ray options, but those use SATA connectors. I think Panasonic did have a 9.5mm ide Blu-Ray drive, but as far as I know it never went into production.

    I feel your pain. I been looking for a Blu-Ray reader for my R60, but I'm not completely without hope. I looked at modifying the UJ-120, but the connectors are different. Lenovo made an ide Blu-Ray burner for the R61, which fits the R60, but it's $400. It's not worth that much to me. Actually, last year Lenovo was offering the Blu-Ray burner on the R61 as a $100 upgrade. I was thinking of buying it, swapping drives with my R60 and flipping it on eBay. In the end, it wasn't worth that much too me. I'll wait it out. They'll come down eventually.
     
    ZaZ, Dec 27, 2008
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  3. ernstloeffel

    ernstloeffel Notebook Consultant

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    There is a Sony NEC Optiarc BC-5500A IDE drive (available at my local store). It's 12,7mm, but I read somewhere Sony uses small profile 3mm reader modules. Maybe it's possible to swap the electronic board and laser module/servo motor and put it into the old readers housing. I did this with normal audio cd players a few times years ago (didn't have the money as youth to afford a cd player so I got a few broken ones to make a working one) and found it pretty much remarkable how interchangable these parts are. I think - guess - there is a 50% you could just swap the parts.
     
    ernstloeffel, Dec 27, 2008
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  4. Zigot

    Zigot Notebook Guru

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    Thx for the replies.
    I think I just get an USB external Blue Ray DVD-ROM for the T61P for now.
     
    Zigot, Dec 28, 2008
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  5. txholdem

    txholdem Newbie

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    txholdem, Jan 14, 2009
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