Adding Blu-ray to your desktop computer

Pt. 2 of 5 | 2:57 |

How do I - Use Blu-ray

Tuesday February 1, 2011

If your

desktop computer

doesn't have a

Blu-ray drive built in

, then we'll show you how to install one in this episode. The process for

installing a Blu-ray drive

is fairly straightforward though you should be aware that you'll need both a

monitor and a video card

that

support HDCP content

. We'll tell you more about all that in this episode.

Download this episode now

Quicktime

Windows Media

Mobile

Show Notes

- If your desktop computer has a DVD drive installed, then chances are you'll be able to easily install a Blu-ray drive.

- First, you'll need to find a Blu-ray drive to put in your system. You can find Blu-ray drives that both read and write discs or find one that's less expensive that just reads discs.

- If you'd like to replace your old drive, then you'll need to unscrew it from the back, remove the power and data connecter from within the case and simply slide the drive out.

- Check your drive to make sure the connectors are the same. If your drive is an older one, then it may have used ATA connectors. Newer drives like all Blu-ray drives use SATA connectors which are smaller.

- If your motherboard doesn't support SATA connections, then you can actually add a SATA card yourself.

- To install your Blu-ray drive, just reverse the process for uninstalling the old drive. Slide your new drive in, screw the drive securely into place and plug in the power and data connectors.

- You'll want to make sure that both your monitor and video card can play HDCP content. If they don't, you'll need to replace these or nothing will happen when you try to play a Blu-ray movie.

- Check out our videos for replacing a video card and choosing a computer monitor if you need help with those two things.

Tagged: