20 Best External Blu Ray Writer (2023 Updated)

Before I jump in, I’ve worked in IT and the video/audio industry for years now. This includes everything from building custom PC builds, servers, to setting up home theaters, auditoriums and stages. With that being said here’s my experience and I hope it helps others: This external drive can play DVDs and regular Blu-ray discs.

I tested several without any issues. If you’re buying it for that then you “shouldn’t have issues. ” Apparently it can also play 4K Blu-ray discs as advertised according to some other customers. *** However in my particular case I was only able to play DVDs and regular Blu-ray discs.

I was not able to run the installation software CD that came with the external drive. It’s an old OEM CyberLink software. It kept giving errors and crashing. I ended up purchasing the newest CyberLink PowerDVD 20 Ultra software which allows and supports 4K Blu-ray media on players such as this for both Windows and MacOS.

After installing the new version of CyberLink PowerDVD 20 Ultra and checking the player drive for updated drivers I was still not able to play 4K Blu-ray discs. FYI I also have all the latest Windows 10 Pro operating system updates along with the system drivers.

There are several requirements that you will need to run 4K Blu-ray playback and that I understand. However with a fairly new and mid-range laptop, and here are the specifications: Operating System: Windows 10 Pro Processor: Intel i7 9750H Memory: 32GB Hard Drive: 1TB SSD Video Card: Intel HD 630/ Nvidia 2060 RTX I still wasn’t able to achieve 4K Blu-ray playback.

I mention the specifications because they’re important to the next issue. Even with updated drivers for the integrated and dedicated video cards and motherboard I was not able to play the 4K Blu-ray discs.

The CyberLink software will give an error saying that the computer’s cards are not capable or updated even though they are according to Intel and Nvidia’s specifications and latest patches. NOTE: I opted with CyberLink’s new software because it’s one of the few certified ones that can actually play back 4K media content.

There are forums with other users with more powerful builds and as prepared as I was and they still weren’t able to play 4K Blu-rays either. There’s also the issue of HDCP connections and HDMI which I won’t get into but that will also affect other users.

Bottom line in my experience and others across the forums, it’s a great DVD and Blu-ray player but I wouldn’t advertise or count on it to play 4K Blu-ray discs. The build is on par with the LG brand and it arrived in good condition.

Sadly it’s the only 4K Blu-ray player that Best Buy sells and one of the few in the market.

Just recently had a chance to use this little goodie. I’m (slowly) building a new machine which has no optical drive slot, so I bought this unit. It runs beautifully, helping me to transfer files from one machine to the other.

Also, I tested a couple of DVD movies on my old machine with it. Those DVDs refuse to play in my old machine, and I’d thought they were possibly corrupted. They ran perfectly as well. So this new player has passed to critical tests for me.

Very happy with this. Now I only need to be VERY careful with its tray. It has no noticeable support when it’s out, it seems a bit flimsy, and pressing a DVD down into position seems sort of ‘reckless’.

I trust, tho, the great reviews I’ve read at various sites with no mention of the trays breaking. Anyway, thanks LG, I hope to be using this item for a long time.

For those of us who still need an external dvd drive / writer, I recommend this New Upgrade from their previous DVD Writer and basic Blu-Ray reader/writer. However, the 4k UHD feature is void if you don’t purchase the proper update software.

The Cyberlink software that is included is ONLY a trial version. Back in the day when you purchased a unit like this, the FULL VERSION software was included. My How things have changed. LOL. Oh, btw, don’t expect tech support from LG.

Thank the Stars for Best Buy Total Tech Support. LOL.

I wanted a high quality external drive. My old one was a “LITEON”, and very good, however it stopped opening on demand and needed replacing. There is a huge price jump between basic, very slim units that take their power from the USB port and those, like this model, which have an outboard power supply and a more substantial build.

This model also reads blu-ray discs, though I didn’t need that. Its not the very latest. If you want Windows 11 compatibility then you pay considerably more. This is a comprehensive model that is Windows 10 compatible and very fast.

It has greater read accuracy than my previous device which is a major plus. If used with software such as dbpoweramp, then you have to read a few CDs before it is automatically set up – be patient, that’s definitely worth it to establish the “offset”.

Despite the high price, I’m happy with my purchase, because I’m achieving what I wanted without any trouble. I’m also glad that it provides the software and functionality for quite sophisticated backups.

NB. SCAN had the best price, despite the annoying addition of post & packing.

Just received this. The description says “ASUS BW-16D1X-U supports Mac OS X and Windows without any installation that will be operated directly when plugging the USB in the notebook or PC. ” and then states “Simply plug this blu-ray writer drive and you’ll begin to enjoy watching movies, writing requisite forms of multimedia content to the discs, and much more.

” Nothing in the description says you need an external power source and it reads as if you just plug into computer and it will work. This is what I was expecting and am disappointed it does not work this way.

I looks like a nice sturdy unit and should be ok as long as you have easy access to an external power source.

It pretty much does what it says in the description. My only detractor, is that no one wants to deal with licensing or included software anymore, it would seem, and I had to dig to find software to make this do everything I wanted.

There are some things I still haven’t gotten configured, but that’s on me and my limited time. At the moment, at least, I have DVD playback working on both my Mac and amy Windows Tablet. I wanted something for my workshop, so I could play the stacks of anime DVDs I’ve not watched in 15 years while I work, and wanted something on my Mac that I could use for backing up old archive data and ripping media.

You’ll likely find that BluRay playback is difficult, if not impossible, without the right software, and OS makers like Apple and Microsoft long ago gave up on optical media. As such, you won’t find a dedicated player for Blu Ray, like Apple had for DVDs.

The fact that companies can’t just give us a properly licensed solution on a disc, in box. Manufacturers and OS makers are both making the user jump through hoops, and a LOT of the software that can be found is either just outright bad, or doesn’t seem to work anyway.

That’s what keeps me from giving it fully 5 stars.

USB-C connector on the back is poor, and very touchy. The device is very thin and light, so if you aren’t careful to hold the unit steady when inserting or removing discs, the USB cable will move slightly and the drive will disconnect (you will hear the Windows sounds for disconnecting, and maybe then reconnecting – if you are lucky).

This results in strange behaviors, depending on the app you are using the drive with, and a lot of wasted time trying to get it to reconnect and be recognized by your apps. Other than this, the device itself works as you would expect.

But definitely needs a better connector design that isn’t so flaky when you touch the case. Maybe I just got a bad one.

Don’t know why so many laptops don’t come with CD Drives anymore. And those few desktops that feature them will only do CD/Blu-ray, or CD/DVD (mostly the latter). But then along comes this little external drive, that will do all three! I can listen to music or install files/drives for other items; I can can watch a movie on DVD; or I can even watch a movie on Blu-ray! What’s more, I can even write to all three file types.

One little drive with all 3 features and at a really great price; what more can you ask for?!.

I was looking to replace A failing DVD burner. I could’ve opted to get the same one but I chose a more compact version with this Pioneer. Don’t let the compact size fool you. This little guy really does the trick.

So far for me, It’s done everything that I could throw at it. Whether it’s just playback of a blu-ray or DVD or copying and burning. Works well with my third-party software. The only con that I have with it is the way you have to load and unload the discs.

It’s a kind of a top loader. You have to lift the cover and actually place the DVD and snap the center of the disc onto that middle holder part. Then you have to snap it out the same way. It’s almost inevitable to not get fingerprints on the disc while trying to do this.

I would’ve rather had the sliding drawer come out like I did in my previous DVD burner. That’s why 4 stars. I knew what I was getting though when I purchased it, so I share some of the blame. The good reviews is what lead me to purchase and so far it does what it supposed to do !.

I used to archive to CD in the 90s then DVD then BR but every few years had to perform a do over because disks made then used dyes to burn the data. Even when stored under the best conditions I would redo them as a precaution.

M-disc doesn’t burn using dyes and I can rip my archives and know the data is going to be safe for decades. Problem lately has been phasing out of optical drives. Thing is those like me need to archive beyond cloud or external platter/SS hard drives.

I wanted something not just for ripping but allows me to install software I have on disk I perpetual licenses for. I gave it a test run archiving 20GB of RAW+JPEG photos from a trip 4 years ago. Placed a 25GB single layer (SL) m-disc and ripped at the 2X speed and 45 minutes later I got those files onto a medium that will last decades.

By the way, it’s was quiet and didn’t notice a heat problem. Haven’t ripped using the 50GB dual layer (DL) or 100GB triple layer (TL) but specs say it can and I certainly plan to. It’s size is nice so it’s easy to transport.

No need for a separate power supply because it uses the USB cable to power the drive. The only down side is USB connection. If you’ve owned a lot of Western Digital external drives then you will have a spare USB-A to USB micro B super speed cables (has an odd look).

These days we’re seeing more USB-C/Thunderbolt in place of the old A style on laptops. So consider getting a male A to male C USB connector if you don’t have A ports but have the C ports. As noted, this is powered through just the USB cable and my first time was with an AIO desktop without optical drive.

Haven’t tested it using just my detachable laptop’s battery. The burning software is CyberLink and you just download it. Once you register on the Pioneer website, they provide a download link. Activation key for the CyberLink software is on the instruction book.

Considering the price, features, and being a I’ll have it when I need it. externals, I would say it’s worth getting.

I got a new laptop which like nearly all modern laptops lacks an optical drive. I needed a portable one, so I opted for this because I had nothing to play a blu ray with. I’ve learned that Blu Ray is not as straightforward as DVD playing was.

You need software. I’m not aware of any operating system that supports Blu Ray natively. Recent windows versions don’t support DVD either. I started looking for free options naturally. Most of them did not work or were not stable.

They might work on one of my machines but not another. Long story short, you will probably need to purchase software to do Blu Ray at least to play commercial disks (more later on that). Fortunately they all seem to have a trial period, so you can verify they suit your needs before purchasing.

I’m not recommending since i found different hardware may work while others won’t. I would say don’t think about doing Blu Ray in windows without at least a core I5 processor. A high end graphics card might get you around that limit, but i don’t know.

You should plan on some experimentation before you start relying on it for Blu Ray. Ultimately remember Blu Ray got the nod not because it was best, but because it offered the best copy protection. The system requires that the player download code from the kisk to unlock the disk and play it properly.

I think this is where the free software stumbles. Some codecs need to be licensed. If you are only using it to record and play your own home made Blu Ray disks, the free versions might work for that.

But, again, plan to experiment!! Despite the Blu Ray challenges which would be true for any drive I suspect, it is a good clean well built drive and I’m happy with my purchase. I could not give it 5 eggs because of the very poor documentation.

CH.

I wanted this player due to the huge backup capacity on one disc. Some of the new Bluray discs can hold 100 GB or more (although I could not find any above 100 GB). It is very easy to create a backup using the provided Cyberlink software for backup, playing discs, or any function this machine can do.

There are only two things I found that it can’t do (apparently). One is, it won’t play a 4K Bluray disc, only standard Bluray. The second is that it (apparently) won’t write to the new “M” discs, although I didn’t try it.

Those discs are the ones suitable for archiving because they are said to last many years without the risk of deterioration. They are heavy duty discs which apparently need a more powerful laser to record data on them.

I did use my Buffalo drive to save data to a 100 GB disk and it worked fine. I also used it to play standard Bluray discs, and that worked well also. The only other thing that is a bit annoying is that the software is from Cyberlink and they like hardware companies to ship their product down-rev.

That way, they can keep prompting you to upgrade the software for a price. Luckily, I just bought a new PC and the Bluray player Cyberlink software provided was nearly the latest available, but even that can be upgraded for more $$$$.

In other words, the software, not the hardware, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Other than that, I like it!!!!!.

If you are not burning M-Disc, you are burning temporary discs. Even the best purple dye discs have a lifetime of around 5-7 years. M-Disc has a 1000 year lifetime so the ability to burn them is essential.

(We use the white printable M-Discs and a Epson printer that can print on discs. ) The picture on Home Essentials Direct, shows a nice pleasant green LED indicator light. Sadly, they switched to a eye-piercing blue light.

Blue lights should always be avoided in this kind of application. Red or green is the way to go. As a retired electrical engineer I was curious to see inside. You can remove one screw but it would require a lot of force on the case to get it open.

I decided not to risk it. I don’t like designs that make it difficult to get inside the case. Should the optical drive over fail, it would be nice to be able to get inside and replace it. Regarding the optical mechanism inside, doing a system report on my 2019 Mac Pro shows the manufacturer to be “Buffalo”, not “Pioneer” (nothing wrong with Pioneer in my view).

I do not know if the firmware has been crippled by the Hollywood cartel or not. I am only burning M-Disc DVDs and Blu-rays, I have not tried anything of larger capacity. Some disc burning software is included.

If you are using a Mac, none of this is necessary. If the activity indicator LED was green and not blue, and the case were easier to open I would give a 5-star rating. Frankly, no one does optical enclosures correctly.

The OWC enclosure is excellent except it’s 1/4 of an inch too short to accommodate the longer Pioneer drives. I was hoping this Buffalo unit would be a replacement for the OWC enclosures we normally buy.

However, because of the difficulty in opening them up I can’t justify switching to Buffalo. Shockingly, the enclosure has no, On and Off switch for power! First time I’ve ever seen that. For the more casual home user, the Buffalo unit is not a bad choice.

With the shortcomings mentioned above, I will close with the fact that the unit does appear to work as advertised. The product is manufactured in Japan, not China.

Big, chunky, black. what my wife calls a “man brick. ” This is not a slimline, delicate item, it has a large desktop footprint at 22x16cm and 5cm tall. It is however, a good solid design. Well constructed I have had zero problems using this and it has yet to fail on a burn – unlike other drives I’ve had in the past.

Operation is surprisingly quiet, I’m used to drives humming and whining, hissing and buzzing while in use. This one is much quieter than drives I’ve had in the past. It still makes a noise, but much less so.

The single front mounted button is firmly mounted with only a little play and the click when ejecting a disk is positive. The tray when ejecting is quite aggressive, I’m not entirely sure why it should be so, but it’s sufficient to push a 50 stack spindle out of the way (discovered by accident).

I’ve run cd, dvd and blu ray through this unit and it picks up write speeds without issue, allowing the software to work at optimum speeds. Something else that I’ve not had before with other writers.

I’ve previously always had to manually set the write speed. There are two LEDs on the case. One blue, to the rear of the casing indicating that when it is on. A smaller green LED under the drawer and next to the eject button flashes when the unit is operating.

The drive is nicely finished in a semi gloss black, with a slight curve to the top of the case and rounded corners. Cleaning is simple and without little edges and unnecessary decoration where dust gets caught.

I’ve never understood why manufacturers have to cut dust traps into their cases.

If you have a lot of CDs and DVDs that need backing up, this puppy is a fantastic investment. Does as fine a job w/ blu-rays as can be expected, considering the density of the format. As it’s pretty much the physical media standard now, it’d be nice if the ripping process wasn’t an full-day investment.

The length of the included USB cable seems to indicate the drive is meant more for laptops than desktops. Again, though, as fewer and fewer desktop towers are being made to accommodate ODDs, and as fewer ODDs are being made, a longer cable – at least 3′ – would have been nice.

Still, w/ the increasing rarity of internal and external ODDs, beggars can’t be choosers. And it’s not like longer USB-A to Micro-B cables are hard to come by, either. So take the dive. It even comes in black if that’s more your speed.

I just built a PC to replace my 9-year-old Dell. That last computer had an internal optical drive that I still used occasionally (e. g. currently ripping my DVDs & Blurays since I’ve had discs go bad in the past).

I went with external because it would be more flexible to use with a laptop if necessary and it would be one less thing to reinstall if I built another PC in the future. I was very surprised how small the drive was.

It’s about the same size as 2 CD cases stacked, even a little shorter one direction! It’s also pretty quiet. Yes, at high-speed read/write jobs you can hear it but nothing out of the ordinary. It’s quieter than my old internal drive and very stable; very little vibration.

For longer, slower jobs like ripping a Bluray or playing a disc real-time, it’s basically silent. I really appreciate the top-load since I set this on top of my PC that sits next to me under my desk and is easier to use there than a front-load tray.

And they designed the lid very well; it’s spring assisted and lifts with the gentlest touch. This is really nice because the drive is so small and light, if it were not so easy to open you’d have to hold it with both hands to keep it from moving around while you handle it.

Instead it’s easy to do with one hand. USB 3. 0 transfer speeds are very good for these kinds of jobs. Well, we use optical drives less and less as time goes by but Pioneer has a really solid solution here while there is still a need.

Waited several months to open this and hook it up. I see now that I was suppose to have a DVD included that had additional software. I did not. Windows File Explorer will not recognize this drive when properly hooked up.

Device Manager shows that the driver is updated and the “device is working correctly. ” But it also does not show up in Control Panel > Devices. LG Support’s only solution was to download 3rd party software (that malwarebytes flags as a warning for extreme malware) to “play videos.

” No solution offered at all for being able to open the drive and view files, or to write to the DVD. The only other request was to “find another computer to try it in. ” I don’t know about you, but I only have my own computer, so that was also a no-go.

Complete waste of money.

I bought an LG external CD/DVD drive which is wonderfully featured and normally very sturdy. (I had owned one several years ago. ) surprisingly the USB input dislodged after just over a month of use.

I happen to be disabled and in a wheelchair. I can’t drive so I can’t get to the post office myself. The company arranged for a very compassionate and fast exchange. I had my brand new drive in no time at all! This sword of service I thought was gone forever in this day and age.

I’m certainly glad that I purchased from LG and will continue to do so in the future!.

can’t express how happy I am with this piece of equipment. The second you take it out of the box you know you’re holding a well constructed, heavy duty piece of computer equipment. Installation was a snap and took less than 1 minute to be up and running.

I didn’t bother to install the DVD writer software provided as I have a favorite I always use. The software disc also comes with other packages if you choose to use them. But if you already have a DVD burner software you’re ready to go the second you plug it into your computer.

I burned a DVD first thing. WOW, what a difference in speed than the same speed DVD burner built into my computer. What took me up to 8 minutes to burn in the computer DVD burner took right at 4 with the LG unit.

To sum up this purchase, I am ecstatic!.

I still collect / buy physical media, Bluray, DVD, Games but I sold my old work station about two years ago and upgraded. My old PC had an LG Bluray Drive in it of which was the perfect workhorse. I was planning on purchasing an external drive for my new build anyway since my new case doesn’t allow for a BD Drive to be mounted, plus I wanted my new build to have a clean aesthetic without the noticeable clunky BD Drive.

Read a lot of great reviews on this item, so I though why not jump at it, it’s slim and stealthy looking which is what I was looking for in an external drive and it also needed to be silent whilst running.

Packaging: Comes package really well inside it’s tiny box which has nothing more than a picture of the unit and a few manufacturer details printed on the outside, I’m glad manufacturers are finally moving away from the ugly plastic clam shells and are keeping things environmentally friendly with recyclable materials.

The drive was held snuggly by a couple of soft foam pads to prevent it from moving around during transit, inside the box has it’s double ended USB power / data cable, a CD with bundled software and a small instructional leaflet.

Aesthetics: The unit is typical of a stealth looking drive, you almost wont even notice it on your workstation because of it’s slim design and dark color theme. Powering and Data transfer: It is recommended to use both USB connectors as one utilizes a single USB port to feed a sufficient amount of power to run it and the other for data transfer, buyer beware, using only one USB port would cripple it’s performance and it may struggle to read or transfer data from your media disc especially Bluray disc’s that hold more information.

Installation and OS compatibility: The unit presented no issues with installation and was immediately detected upon plugging it into two free USB 3 ports on my Windows 11 PC, yes, this unit will run on a Windows 11 PC with the latest 22H2 update build version 22622.

601 installed. User awareness, be sure you have x2 USB (either USB 2 or USB 3) ports free like I previously mentioned, this requires x2 USB ports to run at it’s full potential. Use and performance: Ejection button is very responsive and the disc mounts securely into place, the tray slides in and out freely and locks securely into it’s closed position, the supplied software disc spun up almost immediately upon closure of the disc tray which presented a few typical clicks and whines as the disc spun up.

The unit presented no issues reading or playing back data, DVD’s and Bluray discs although I haven’t yet written or burned any media to disc (as I don’t have any blank disc’s) but I’ll try that out at a later time.

The drive is really quiet, I couldn’t hear it working which is a good thing, there was no heat detected coming off of the tiny unit and the USB cables provided must have been doing extremely well with feeding power to it as unit didn’t seem to fluctuate during playback of any media.

The bundled software included on the CD disc is Cyberlink Media Suit 15, I wont go into what apps were included as I most likely wont be using any of them since I have my own personal preferences already installed on my PC anyway.

Now for the downside which isn’t really a downside but just me being nitpicky. For those who have a huge work station and have their PC’s sitting under their desktop, you would need to have your PC close enough to manage a suitable or permanent spot for it to sit as the cables for this unit are not that long that they can be conveniently routed cleanly from USB ports at the rear of your PC, perhaps I would recommend that you’d use a couple of USB extension cables or a USB hub extension to have placement options.

Other than the short cable, I’m very happy with the unit as it will more than likely be used simply to backup my physical media library to my PC and nothing more. Would I recommend this unit? more than likely yes to those who are looking for a slim, quite external drive for either using with their desktop workstations or mobile laptops.

So this bluray player was being a little difficult to use because of the power it need from the usb outlet. It needs a stable 5 volts 2 amps in order for the bluray player to work so i had to use a samsung fast charger power brick from my note 9 connected to the included cable with the two USB type A connectors.

One of those usb type A plugs goes connected to your computer and the other needs to be used for power i recommend a external power adapter. Plug it in and see of it works, if you get the unit disconnecting and reconnecting then swap the usb type cables and that should do the trick.

Another issue i had with this player was the software. It was very confusing to use the correct one because instead of it coming with 1 software to simply play your bluray or dvd movies on your laptop or in my case a windows 10 PC it came with many that were completely useless for this unit.

I decided to return it because it was wasnt as easy yo use and i would occasionally get the unit to restart it self randomly and repeatedly even after fixing the power issue, i even had a bluray dist get stuck for about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to safely get the disc drive to open and once i finally did thats where i drew the line and packed it up and sent it back.

I had this unit for a while and reached out to LG about the issues and never got any support. I went woth LG because i own 2 of their OLED 4k tvs and love them and figured if they can make such an amazing TV then their bluray players must be built in the same quality manner.

I was wrong.

On unboxing I tried peeling back what I thought was electronic film on the case since it is riddled with air bubbles. I discovered that it wasn’t removable and is just a super crappy build. The tray that holds the disc feels like it could snap with little effort.

Then I realized how hard it was to hook up to my MacBook Pro, which I consider a major design flaw. I had to buy two USB adapters that were thin enough to connect on the same side since the provided cord is daisy chained with a very short second connection cable.

I was willing to look the other way on all this, but then it would only recognize discs some of the time. I tried multiple times with different discs under a number of conditions and it just doesn’t reliably recognize discs.

That is a deal-breaker and very frustrating! I also could register through LG website and was told to email LG my product info. I did this and never got a response. This is my first experience with LG and I definitely will steer clear in the future.

I had a full size DVD burner in my 2010 Mac Pro. I later added a BluRay burner in the second bay. I guess I’m an old timer but I like having the ability to read and burn disks. I just upgraded to an 2020 27″ iMac last year.

Its Apple’s last Mac with Intel. (Yeah, the Pro is still for sale) I still run Windows using Parallels and the M1 doesn’t do standard Windows or Older OSX VMs No place to put my old drives. I put my old BluRay into a USB 3.

0 case that I bought from Other World. It works great as an external drive but it still requires a wall wart to work. I wanted a more portable drive to use with my laptop and this looked good. Its made by Pioneer and I know they are great with optical drives.

This doesn’t disappoint. It plays well with Monterey and Toast Titanium 19. It can play and burn BluRay and M-Disks. It’s a little different since it loads from the top. The door opens up from the top so it can’t have anything on it or put it in a tight space.

Its easy to get the lens dirty since the mechanism is exposed when it’s open. I haven’t found a need yet for an external power supply. I guess if you use this with a USB-A 2. 0 port, the 500mA limitation may not be enough to power the drive.

I haven’t tried that. The external 5V/1A power supply is optional. Its light weight yet solid and stays firmly on my desk. So far, it has worked well. I haven’t banged it around or dropped it so I don’t know how well it holds up to being carried in a backpack or case.

Over all, a great supplemental drive for the price.

After waiting for weeks, this item never arrived and I had to contact the sales department about it. It was explained to me that they couldn’t get all the parts needed to sell these drives, so I had to make a purchase of an older style tray drive they had in stock to enable me to complete the work I needed to do.

It was a very disappointing and less than optimal customer experience. Not at all what I expected based on my past experience. I am now looking for alternative Mac product suppliers since my old go-to source is no longer reliable.

Why not just remove the items from the website until you actually have them? Or, explain the supply issues right on the product page and let people know that you have no idea when the product will be available? I am guessing that Covid has seriously changed the company’s customer service capabilities for the negative.

This drive replace the older model in USB 2 (problem with laser after many years of use), and I find it more robust than the previous one. Same noise but less vibrations. A few Blu Rays with low compression could have data rate trouble in USB-2, but in USB3 it is perfect.

Was waiting it for a long time !Will take another one for the Mac Mini 2012 that is my media center behind the TV (have two OWC blu-ray drive, FW800 and USB2, connected to this computer).

01 Jan 2022 — I purchased this drive. It worked great reading Blu-ray discs of all kinds (film, TV shows, etc. ). Didn’t use it for writing. It is a bit loud, yes, but that’s because it spins discs fast to read 24MB per second off dual- or quad-layer Blu-ray medium.

Mid-February 2022 — The drive began to behave erradically. Discs would stop being read, I’d have to power reset the drive to get it to be recognized by the computer. Eventually it became so problematic that I couldn’t use it anymore.

7 April 2022 — I asked for a replacement under the warranty from OWC. 20 April 2022 — They received it, confirmed the behavior and approved the replacement. They were not quick to run their own tests on it.

13 May 2022 — I finally received a replacement drive. RMA took 5 weeks from start to finish. I continued using the drive until today 26 Aug 2022 when the drive outright failed dead. No lights, no tray movement, nothing.

Through usage the drive can get quite hot, depending what it’s doing, and I suspect that’s what killed it. I sent a request for another replacement, but I don’t have any hopes of getting another. Two drives failed within 8 months.

I would suggest NOT using this drive, and look for another manufacturer.

I have been a loyal OWC customer for many years. I have had a number of Elite Pro products. Since I have an iMac, I have always needed an external optical drive. The Elite Pro bodies and casing match my iMac and other accessories.

They have always performed well over the years. However, the last two devices ha LG MDisk BlueRay/DVD/CD drives installed. Both have failed after approx 12-1 months. This time I took the drive out the OWC case.

hoping for a loose cable. No luck. I did all the recommended trouble shooting items on the checklist. No luck. I expect an optical drive, that is used mainly for DVD read only items, ie, course war DVD for classes I take.

to last for years, vice months. I guess I will find an alternate brand moving forward. Its a shame that this happened.

I bought one of these for my MacBook Pro a couple of years ago, and it refused to mount discs. I exchanged it for another with the same problem so I got my money back. When I got my M1 Mac mini, I thought Id give it another chance so I ordered another one.

When I first received the drive, it mounted just fine and worked very well. But then, probably when I upgraded Monterey to a new version, it stopped mounting discs again. The computer recognizes the hardware is there, since it will eject the unmounted disc with the OWC Unmounter utility, but the discs never appear on the desktop, in the Music app, in Toast Titanium, or Disk Utility.

The drive works no better with my M1 MacBook Pro. Ive tried different cables, different USB-A > USB-C adapters, reboots, all the usual possible solutions – no dice.

When my new computer did not have an installed dvd player/writer, I had to buy an external drive. I went through three flimsily cased dvd that had problems from the start. None lasted more than a year.

I found this dvd writer/player on Staples, and it looked like it had a decent case. When I received it, I was pleased with the case, as it was made of metal and was heavier and more solid that the lightweight plastic, easily damaged ones.

This one cost twice as much, but it’s worth it. Time will tell. When it opens and closes, the sound of the mechanism sounds pretty solid, not plastic clicks. The door is plastic, yes. But overall I like this writer/player.

I am no longer computer literate. This was almost plug and play. The manual is in very small print which gives me a little problem. I did get it up and operating. I haven’t done everything with it yet, but it appears to be what I need.

I may need to get more software. Verbatim products have always been good to me, so I hope that will continue.

Replacing a drive that was built into my old computer that is soon to be deactivated. Very compact. Does not need a separate power brick but does need at least USB 3. 1 to operate. I have hardly used it.

Only put a DVD in it to make sure it works.

Overall, my experience with this device has been a positive one. I especially like how LG bundles Blu-ray player software with the device so you don’t have to pay extra to make use of the bloody thing, something that has always bothered me.

I have yet to make use of the burning options but I probably won’t use that anyways, I bought this for playing movies, not for burning. Also, it can be loud at times, namely when installing or idling with a disk inside.

Luckily, when the disk spins up, the whine stops and become whisper quiet. So, when you are watching a movie, you will not be distracted by any excess noise from the drive unless you pause it for a while.

For the price you pay, it certainly cannot be beat. It’s not perfect, but it does come highly recommended by me, so take that for what it’s worth.

So the player itself is great, burns CDs no problem, plays Blu-Rays no problem, unfortunately the software from Cyberlink is uh. not great is a good way to put it. I had to reinstall it over itself to get it to actually work, but I don’t blame the player for that.

Giving it 4 stars because the software is part of the cost, and the software is meh. Player itself is high quality, solid and slim, have had no issues playing/reading discs of any kind, playback of Blu-Rays on my computer was crystal clear with no issues.

That’s pretty much it. If you’re looking for a portable/USB external Blu-Ray player that can also burn/play DVDs & CDs, this thing is pretty great quality and well worth the money.

I bought this Blu-Ray drive a few weeks ago and it came with Cyberlink(CL) software. The CL software doesn’t work very well. It played ok with standard DVD. But I found I had issues with standard Blu Ray.

It would not play. I figured out why. A software bug forced an important message back to the primary desktop screen. Once I OK’d the message it finally worked for Blu-RAy display of the movie. Apparently this CL software has minimal functionality and you must purchase more expensive products to get all you want.

CL support is not great. CL said it’s not their problem, it’s LG’s problem. Neither is LG’s support that great. LG recommended I download a free package called Leawo. It only plays Blu-Ray and standard DVD.

I want to be able to PLAY/READ/WRITE/COPY and CONVERT media. Needless to say I am very disappointed in the software supplied with the unit. You would think that LG/CL would have beta tested their product combo to see if it works properly???? The audio CD player played but not as the tutorial indicated (Missing software functions) I could not convert to MP3 at all.

Disappointed for weeks!.

At first glance this drive looked a bit pricey compared to some of the alternatives, but I was swayed by the aluminium housing, mechanical eject button and the brand name. I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now and it has been super.

The build quality is as I’d hoped and the drive runs quietly when playing discs (it only gets loud if you’re copying at higher speeds).

Purchased on the basis of being able to play 4k DVD disks but the supporting software is a separate download and comes as bloatware. I’ve uninstalled most of it. Apart from that issue it plays well.

I have tried it with DVDs and Blu-Rays so far plus games. Works fine so far. Free soft ware to Download is out of date. USB cable is way to short. I had to buy another cable. I am using it with a Desktop PC that has no internal drive.

and when it doesn’t work, it doesn’t indicate anything is amiss. It simply refuses to do anything. About half the blueray disks I’ve tried in it, it reads fine. The other half of the disks, it does not acknowledge exist.

No error messages. This is even true for pristine “straight from the factory” disks. I could understand if the drive were defective, and errors were produced. or if the disk were defective in some way, and errors were produced.

but I’m not getting any feedback at all from the drive. Is there a problem with the drive? With the disks? With drivers? Is the operator at fault? Is it an unsupported media format? What about firmware? I can’t even tell if my firmware is up to date – the support pages don’t list this drive.

Looking for support options on the webpage for it from the manufacturer takes me away from the page for the drive to a “select your product” page that doesn’t include the drive I was just looking at.

I bought this when I built my latest pc as I bought a case with no option for a disk drive. Also neither mine nor my wife’s laptops have them anymore, which is fine so for the random times I needed a drive I decided to spring for one.

Right off the bat, I am not sure what all others have tried to hit issues with it. I have tried this drive across 5 machines now (granted they were all win10) with no issues at all, and no need for drivers.

Noise level wise it is a tab loud when it boots up initially, however it is no louder than any laptop drive I have ever used. It plays dvds and bd’s perfectly fine,and comes with a version of power DVD to allow you to actually play BDs and UHDs on your pc.

UHDs are rough to get going though, they are really dependant on your computers hardware if you will ever be able to get them going or not. I have seen some complaints about vibration, but I have not noticed anything abnormal.

It comes with rubber feet and sots fine on a desk or ontop of a pc tower. The connection is just a standard USB Micro cable. It does not need a cable with 2 USB ends for most usb ports that are able to provide modern power supply to USB peripherals.

While I cannot comment on performance on OSX or Linux right now, overall using it I have been happy with the performance. Ripping audio CDs with EAC has actually been faster than any previous drive I have used (however all previous ones were just standard DVD drives).

Would recomend this to anyone looking for a external drive for their laptop or tower drive.

With the right software this looks to be a nice external burner. If the internal BDR drive is replaceable, I would recommend everyone to get one. This thing can be used with any desktop or laptop with Windows or Mac OS and a USB port.

Update: 10/04/2016 Well, I was able to open the enclosure. There are two hidden screws underneath the rear rubber feet. Those that don’t like the bright LED on top of enclosure, a small ribbon cable located at rear of unit can be unplugged to turn it off.

There is another small ribbon cable that operates the eject button. I installed a Lite-On bluray burner into the enclosure to see if it will work. Good news is it does, except the eject button on the enclosure doesn’t work (it will close the tray, won’t open).

I use ImgBurn to burn CD/DVD/BD so that is not an issue since ImgBurn has open and close tray buttons. I’m assuming ASUS uses a modified Pioneer firmware with the Pioneer BDR-209MBK that came in my ASUS BW-12D1S-U to control the tray and identify the drive as ASUS.

In device manager the ASUS showed up as iHBS312 with the Lite-On installed. I burned multiple CDs/DVDs/BDs with no problems. I will try more burners to check compatibility. The SATA to USB conversion is handled by an ASMEDIA ASM1053 chipset.

I’m glad I bought this external burner. I almost didn’t because a Newegg customer who bought the ASUS BW-12D1S-U answered my question about replacing the burner inside the enclosure, without knowing what they were talking about.

They said it most likely can’t be done.

I’m not using their LE drive software so can’t comment on that. I’m just using the Cyberlink that came with my laptop. I bought this so I would not wear out my laptop drive. I’ve found heavy use of laptop drives for playback and burning to wear them out.

So this is my desk accessory I use when not traveling or mobile. [Edit 1/17/2/16] Blu Ray media is particularly sensitive to quality. After some trouble with un-branded or non Matsushita media I now only buy Verbatim media and generally also their mid if not high level.

I have had reasonable luck (no negatives but no depth of experience) using re-recordable media with this drive burning and others playing it. It’s certainly not recommended for archival – but is very handy for shorter term use of a disc for a vacation or loan or such.

Do note that WOTS is if you’re OURchiving movies that Cinavia protection may cause playback issues, esp on standalone players, that may appear to be a bad disc and not a fault of the media or burner.

Bought the external for use with my Mac Mini and MacBook Pro. Owned it for about 2 years, but only used the drive 5 or 6 times in the first year. It sat, unused, until about six weeks ago. I had a heck of a time getting it to power up because the the power switch on the back would not move to the on position.

After 10 or 15 minutes, I finally got it turned on to create restore disks for my niw MSI computer. A couple days later I attempted to use the drive again. When I attempted to power it up, the power switch sliding button came off and the the switch inside the drive that the button was supposed to insert fell into the drive.

There was no repair. I had to take the unit apart, take the Pioneer blu-ray burner out and purchase an external blu-ray enclosure. No more Asus products for me!.

This drive has proven to be fast and reliable even when reading slightly imperfect DVDs. I don’t have any 4K discs to test it with as yet. It is amazingly slim and light, so if you want something easily portable this fits the bill.

I like that it has a USB-C port for connection rather than a hard-wired cable, so you can use whatever length of cable you need; the supplied cable is a little short (44cm). No additional power connection is required which keeps things tidy and simple.

My main disappointment is that it does not work with my Android TV – when I plug it in to the USB port it’s just ignored. While the Verbatim product information made no claims about this I assumed that it would just work, but unfortunately that’s not the case.

Still, a great external drive for a PC.

The good side of the product is the hardware (eg. the material and the connection) the down side is the software which is using Nero. For me personally difficult to use. I will recommend you download a software from the one you are provided thank you.

Arrived in good time and in perfect condition. Worked perfectly for what I needed it for. Thank you!