External blu-ray reader? Cheap and single USB port

[lokiju]

Has anyone purchased an external blu-ray reader for their Mac that works with a single USB port (I have a current gen 13" MBA) that works on a Mac and is cheap? I'd like to keep it around the $50 mark if possible.

 

[alfa147x]

Most will use the split Y usb cable for extra power. I have used the LaCie Slim Blu-ray (uses the y cable) on my MBP with only one USB plug used.

I know it's out of your budget but I wouldn't discount drives with the y cable.

 

[modestninja]

Considering there are hardly any external blu-ray drives even near the $50 mark and most of those are sold by sketchy shops, I don't think you'll find what you're looking for...

 

[Eug]

How much power will the MacBook Air output over a single USB port to a non-Apple optical drive?

All I can say is that I bought one of those "sketchy" eBay external Blu-ray drives and it definitely wouldn't work reliably even with power from two USB ports on my machines.

However, I then plugged it in using a single USB port and then for the second USB port I attached it to an Apple 1 Amp USB AC power adapter and it works fine on both my MacBook Pro (2009) and my Windows laptop. It does NOT work fine with a third party 500 mAmp or cheap noname 1 Amp USB adapter. It needs that clean and solid 1 Amp power from the Apple AC adapter.

Note that the Apple external SuperDrive requires more than 2.5 Watts of power (5V 500 mAmp). I suspect it needs about 5 Watts or so (5V 1 Amp), which I believe The MacBook Air can provide, for that drive.