A Blu-ray Drive is a device that reads Blu-ray discs. It uses a blue laser as part of the process of reading or writing data to or from Blu-ray discs.

A BD drive

Many manufacturers produce them for Blu-ray players or computers, manufacturers include Sony, LG, Panasonic, ASUS, Pioneer, etc. 

A device that uses the drive is called a host (player or computer). 

BD drives for Blu-ray players reads all types of Blu-ray Discs (BD-ROMs, BD-Rs, BD-REs) and are backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs. There are often internally inside and connected to the player's system-on-chip with a wired ribbon cable.

BD Drives for computers (Windows, Linux, Mac), often called "burners" or "writers" can write and burn data to BD-Rs, BD-REs, and other burnable discs. They also contain firmware, separate from the host's OS. There's usually two physical types of drives, internal and external. External drives are usually for laptops for portability and are connected using a USB. Internal drives is for desktops are connected using a SATA bus interface.

All BD drives use the Multi-Media Command Set (unrelated to HDMV Commands.), a set of commands that allows the host to control the drive. It is based on the SCSI Multimedia Commands (MMC5), which defines a SCSI/ATAPI-based command set for accessing and controlling devices of type 05h.  It is unknown if a BD-J Xlet can control the drive.

Sources

• Blu-ray Disc (BD) Multi-Media Command Set Proposal for INCITS Version 1.1 8 July 2008
• Blu-ray Disc (BD) Multi-Media Command Set Description - Draft 0.5 2005

Author(s) : Æ Firestone