FZ38 BD-ROM

[philitalia]

I just bought the FZ38 for about €1300 (it seemed the"normal" price). Yesterday I found a shop where the FZ31 (with BD writer) costs €50 cheaper than I paid mine, so I'm a little annoyed (to say the least). Is the fact that the BD-rom is "read only" a matter of software or also hardware. Can my BD-rom (read only) station be turned into a BD-writer ?

[Nat1986]

Hi Philatalia
I'm a newbie here but I have also literally jsut bought a FZ38M so I know what you're talking about.
There are three models of FZ31 (VGN-FZ31S , FZ31Z and FZ31M) The first two play and record Blu-ray, the third one only plays it. The FZ31M is a lower spec notebook than the FZ38M so it won't have blu-ray recording capability. if you saw an FZ31 for less than what you paid, it will most likely be the FZ31M, unless you have uncovered an incredibly good deal!!
If you want confirmtation of this, go check out the links on sony style for these three notebooks here:
FZ31S FZ31Z FZ31M
As for the software/hardware problem, you'd need to replace the dvd/bd drive with one that writes to blu-ray, I'd recommend getting specialists advice for doing that though, as I don't know enough about it to advise you, but it is definitely a hardware as opposed to software issue. Ofcourse if you want to pay the extra £300/Euros you can always take the notebook back!
Hope that was useful

[philitalia]

thx for your reply.
to be sure I just checked out the website again ... and it's the FZ31S for €1250 ... a bargain !
it's also from a trustworthy shop ... so I'm a little ticked off, but then again I'm very happy with the FZ38M.
Maybe in time I'll buy an external blu-ray burner.
I asked this question since I also have a blu-ray player and I've read on the blu-ray.com forum that in some blu-ray players -although they are "read only" - the laser inside is technically capable to burn.
These days you don't know what you buy ... there are Samsung parts in Philips, Panasonic parts in Sony, ... it's all so confusing.

[Nat1986]

Hiya
oh wow that is a good deal! Do you have a link to the website by any chance? Not that I should be buying another laptop but t never hurts to covet does it?

[philitalia]

it's on www.mediaworld.it about €1200 for the FZ38M and €1250 for the FZ31S. I don't know in how far the italian keyboard is different from the UK one though and I have no idea how much "postal" cost would be. I have regularly ordered stuff from other european countries and spedition costs are usually quite low.