Blu-Ray misadventures part 2: MCE’s missing Support

I wrote email to MCE’s technical support last Wednesday, with details about the problems their drive was causing my system. I heard nothing back, so I wrote to their customer service address on Friday. I have still not heard back from either. So I can’t recommend purchasing from these people, after spending over $500 on a drive (which was back ordered for weeks). Which is a pity, because the specs on the drive are very nice.

I needed to be able to use my G5 tower this weekend, so I took out the new Blu-Ray drive and put the factory DVD burner back in. This yielded an instant and total restoration of system stability.

Out of curiosity, I pulled off the jury-rigged SATA to ATAPI adapter they shipped the Blu-Ray drive with, and tried hooking it up externally using my NewerTech USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter (a veritable “swiss army knife” of drive attachment which I have found very useful on occasion—they are selling a newer version with more blinky lights and a slightly higher price today.)

In this configuration, I still had the exact same error trying to burn a BD-video disk using Toast 9, but the drive otherwise worked perfectly. I was able to burn and read all different kinds of media with no issues, and my system remained completely stable. So it looks like the drive itself works fine, but the card they taped to the back to connect it to my older Mac is garbage.

I expect them to do something about this, because I would really much rather have it work internally. And even if I can’t get to that state until I upgrade my Mac, I can’t have it sitting naked on the floor with lab wiring running to my computer every time I want to work with Blu-Ray media. So if they can’t get me a stable internal adapter, I want a working Firewire or USB enclosure. And I want a response from their support teams, and an apology for the delay and silence so far.

I’ll also need to open a ticket with Roxio support to sort out the Toast issues burning BD-video when I get back from my trip.

MCE Blu-Ray Burner: So Far, So-So

Almost four weeks ago I took the plunge and ordered a Blu-ray burner from MCE Technologies to install into my Power Mac G5 tower. It was on back order for quite a while, as was the media I ordered from Meritline (which I expect to finally show up this week). The drive itself arrived at the end of last week, and they were kind enough to ship a re-recordable Blu-ray disc with it, so I was able to play with it some over the weekend.

The results so far have not been encouraging.

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Where has Jim been?

You might think my hopes to start a habit of blogging failed miserably. Well, that’s not actually true; I did get into the practice, but all my activity over the past several months has been on a private blog for my family and close friends, as I dealt with the end stages of terminal cancer in my partner of almost seventeen years.

I’m through that now, and ready to move back to more public thoughts. But I will be busy or away much of the next month, between catching up at work and going on a cruise from London to Barcelona with a friend. So I apologize for the hiatus, and hope it can be understood.

I’ve set up a memorial page to commemorate Joe, and will be adding links and resources to it as they are shared with me (and as I have time).