LG Electronics 8X USB 2.0 Super Multi Ultra Slim Portable DVD+/-RW External Drive with M-DISC Support, Retail (Silver) GP60NS50

Worked out if the box with my Windows 10 PC. Unlike most external drives it does not show up until you insert a disc in the drive and it disappears as soon as the disc is ejected.

Attached to the USB port on the back of an Apple Cinema Display which is, in turn, attached to a Mac Pro desktop machine (running 10.14.6 at the time of this review). This drive works as it should for playing both audio CDs & video DVDs with no additional software required (uses native Apple apps). Burning to disc for data archives, audio playback, and playback in dvd movie players works as it should. Was a good purchase, would recommend this over the Apple Superdrive, for price, ease of connection (doesnt need to be on the mainboard USB hub) and for the m-disc compatibility. [Users on Mac should be aware that external optical drives (all of them, not just this one) dont mount to the desktop when there is no disc - or a blank disc - in the drive. Its not until a readable disc (prerecorded or one have just created) that it shows on the desktop or device list. Your burning software will find the blank media as needed.]

I needed this disk drive because my Mac Air doesnt have one and the printer I ordered for college required a disk to install the software. I got it today (was pleasantly surprised with the Sunday delivery esp since I ordered yesterday--thanks Prime!) and tested it by putting a movie in. The first time it didnt work, but I opened and closed the drive and it worked fine the second time. I also just burned a CD and tested it in my car and it sounds perfectly fine. The burn time could have been shorter, but as my dad pointed out when I was buying this, it does use only a 2.0 usb and can only write to 8x speed, which is perfectly fine to me given the affordable price point. There didnt seem to be any problems loading the movie. I was surprised how light it is, and that is an additional perk. It does get a little noisy, especially when burning the CD, but I expected that and it doesnt bother me. Overall, Im very pleased with so far but I may update my review upon more use if the performance worsens. But of course I hope it wont!

Modern era drives our life towards absence of CD and DVD ROMs in our computers/laptops, especially those that are designed for personal home use. Indeed now speed of internet is much much faster that reading speed of the laser inside a ROM. However, most of us have collected enormous collection of discs covering old FLAC, MP3 music albums, home video, family pictures and so on. Of course you can keep one of those old machines to read your stuff, but after few years of progress that will be painful to work on such slow machines and eventually you will either put everything in clouds or buy a set of external hard drives. BUT, there is another option. You can simply have ONE and only ONE per family external CD/DVD readers. This particular one has astonishing slim design, laptop like mechanics of loading and unloading disks, and, what is the most important, high speed of reading and recognition. It took my Macbook air (late 2012) absolutely no time to start working with this device. I thinks at some point a lot of people will end up with having one of those along with their laptops and all-in-one machines that like iMac do not have CD-roms anymore, but I dont fell like that they should have one.

Recently I decided to go with a case for my desktop that took up less space. There are several reasons for that, but I wont bore you with the details of that endeavor, just suffice it to say I chose a case that had no bays for an internal DVD multi drive. Even though I mostly use digital media and streaming services I thought there might be a time I might need one, so why not get an external that I could use with the desktop and my laptop if the need arose. I went with this one because it had a nice sleek look, and was inexpensive as well as having a good feature set. Externals do not burn as fast as internals, but I knew that going in, it does however seem to burn perfectly. It is super lightweight, nice and slim and again didnt break my wallet. I have to say I very satisfied with the build quality and functionality as it does what LG claims and fits my needs perfectly.

Plug-and-Play on my Macs–I was watching a DVD within fifteen seconds of opening the box. Its quiet–the only time I hear it is when it first gets power or you load or stop a DVD, and that lasts for just a couple of seconds. It is perfectly quiet during Play. Ive had no problems with its response to any control functions I issue either by using my mouse or my remote control. So far Ive used it about a couple of dozen DVDs. Ill edit this post if I encounter problems in the future. I cant speak for the software disk that comes with it since you dont need that stuff for Macs.

I bought this as an alternative drive to rip certain problem CDs that were trouble for my Apple SuperDrive. This drive rips them very quickly and without issue! I love it! Yes, it is very lightweight and seems thin. However, since it is only my backup and I wont be watching DVDs with it, I suspect it will last quite a while.

Pickup could be a little better

I needed an external drive to go with our new MacBook Pro and wanted to stay with the brushed aluminum look. While it doesnt quite match the same look as the MacBook its pretty close and for the amount Im really going to use it close is ok with me. The outercase is all plastic which makes it really lightweight. It worked immediately when I plugged it in and didnt have to load any software or anything like that. A true plug and play device with the MacBook. My only nit with it so far is that it does get noisy when the disc is spinning at full speed. Because it is all plastic there isnt much weight to it so it vibrates. Ive ended up just resting my hand or finger on it just to put a little weight on it to stop the brief vibrating. Overall though, Im satisfied for now especially for a fraction of the price of the Superdrive.

A solid LG drive that will work with most any system. Instantly detected under Win 10 with no drivers required. My only complaint is the USB cable. Its too short. Just an extra 6 would give the unit much more mobility. Outside of that, this is a no brainer purchase if you need a portable DVD burner.