@ JMac - agree w/ Bob; your older laptop has a built-in optical but should only be compatible w/ handling CDs or DVDs - you will need an external Blu-ray player/burner w/ appropriate software to handle that technology. You might want to do a chat or phone call to the OWC Tech Support to determine the needs for your laptop and the OS X version needed to use a blu-ray optical device. In searching the link given, OWC offers a number of BD external drives, one packaged w/ Roxio's Toast - see the pics below for some information. Hopefully, others w/ more personal experience will 'chime in' - good luck! Dave
.
Roxio Toast will not allow you to play the standard commercial "encrypted" blu-rays. You'll need something like MacGo for that. If you're not staying up to date with OS X, will suggest you verify the B-R player software works with your version of OS X before purchasing the optical drive. There are also some addons out there that claim to add B-R playing to VLC I have not tried yet. Have to do some internet searching.
edit:
I did test out Macgo when it came out and played all the B-Rs I threw at it.
Did not keep it as a pay option since I don't play them on my Mac.
I only use the B-R portion of the drive with Vudu's convert to digital when I'm too lazy to go to the back of the house and use my Windows machine.
The OWC drives are likely plenty good (they do have great customer service), but in the low cost external drives, I have preferred Pioneer drives.
Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.