In the beginning of the year, I spent my holiday money upgrading my HTPC to an HD-ready machine. New dual-HD tuner, 1TB drive, a larger HDTV, and all the cables to go with it. The only piece of hardware I couldn’t afford at the time was a Blu-Ray drive. After a little saving, I’m back in the market. Happily, there’s quite a range in prices, so I picked three that seem to represent the different levels of Blu-Ray drives out there. Hopefully there’s something that you can pop in your DVR.

Under $100: Sony BDUX10S SATA Blu-ray Drive

For the homemade DVR owner simply looking to get Blu-Ray into his machine, the Sony BDUX10S is the cheapest route. At $85 from Amazon, this drive plays Blu-Ray discs, CDs, and DVDs. However, it cannot write to any media. If you burn CDs and DVDs, you’ll need to keep your old drive in the machine. The Sony is currently rating four stars at Amazon and comes with the standard trial software to play Blu-Ray discs.

$100-200: LG Super Multi


Moving up a level, LG’s Super Multi drive comes it at around $125 on Amazon. Not only can this drive pump out Blu-Ray, but it also handles the now dead HD-DVD format. Although there’s nothing being made for HD-DVD anymore, there are some pretty slick deals on discs out there. The Multi Drive also handles CDs, writes to DVDs, and supports Lightscribe. If you want to replace your DVD-Burner, upgrade to Blu-Ray AND support HD-DVD, LG’s drive is rated at four stars at Amazon and looks like a good middle-of-the-road Blu Ray drive to pop into your homemade DVR.

$200 and up: LG GGW-H20L Super Multi Blue


At $215 from Amazon, LG’s Super Multi drive is the most expensive of our three but also packs the most features. This drive supports not only Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, CDs, DVDs and Light scribe, but also writes to both DVD and Bluray. With a full five out of five stars on Amazon, LG’s drive does almost anything you could ask and would make an all-star Blu-Ray addition to your DVR.

So, whether you want a simple Blu-Ray player or a multi-talented combo device, there are quite a few options (and deals) to be found out there. Happy shopping!

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