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

Now that all the new iMacs no longer have a disc drive, I had to find an external one but didnt want to pay a ridiculous amount for something that only gets used once in a while. I trust LG products and went with this one. The build quality is a bit light but I like that it works right out of the box without having to download any software or anything - just plug the sucker in and BOOM - that Ace of Bass cd goes right into my iTunes. Woot! Woot! Will it wear out at some point? - yeah but so does everything else computer related. And again, for the price, this thing is amazeballs. Simple, easy, and ready to go when I need it. Just like my husband.

Pickup could be a little better

I am the type of shopper that usually buys a cheap knockoff brand for items like this, as long as it has decent reviews. I started by buying a $17 (or so) knockoff brand and it didnt even work. The knock-off brand even came with a user guide to fix common issues that happen with it, which tells me they hardly ever work correctly. Mine didnt work at all. I gave in and bought this LG brand and it is so worth it. Wish I had bought this the 1st time around. It works great. I even dropped it twice by accident and it is still working thankfully.

But works well. Good value.

Installed to a freshly built Windows 10 PC. Built in drivers found the drive without issue. I have not installed any of the software from the enclosed disc. I inserted a DVD and it opened right up in VLC Media Player. I tried a music CD and the device ejected it. Same result with a CD with photos burned to it. Everything I have read says it should play music CDs without issue. LG has no updated firmware for this device on its site. I again tried a DVD and now it ejected that as well. For some reason it was just not recognizing any type of disc as playable. I was ready to send it back to Amazon when I decided to give it another shot. I always change DVD drive letters to Z: on my machines so this may have messed something up in the system. Never had an issue before. Here are the steps I took to get it working: 1) Unplugged the USB cable from the computers port. 2) Opened Windows Device Manager. From the search bar run mmc devmgmt.msc (without the quotes) to open. 3) On the Tool Bar select View> Show Hidden Devices 4) Under DVD/CD-ROM drives select the HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GP60NB50 USB Device and delete it. 5) Once uninstalled plug the drive cable back into the computer port and let Windows find it again. The device now plays CDs and DVDs just fine and it remembered the the DVD was the Z: drive.

I was very confused by the post made by Blue. It said I would need to install the software. This comment set me on a wild-goose chase looking for a CD to install the software, which was not included. The LG webpage was very complicated and gave me no decent info. I ended up reading a comment somewhere else that it only works on LG computers (which I didnt know existed). Finally, after six months of giving up on trying to use it, I simply decided it must be plug-n-play. It worked perfectly after I downloaded and installed the VLC media software (free) that is needed if the pc does not have a DVD player of its own. Please make it clear what you mean by installing the software to people like me who have no clue! What a waste of time! I nearly threw it out because I thought it would never work with my HP computer! Bottom line - The DVD reader drive is plug-n-play! Just download VLC software for free (which is not the same as software to install the device) and youre good to go! Now that its installed, its beautiful!

My sons hard drive crashed on his recently (~1 year old) built gaming computer. To save space, minimize power consumption and heat production we decided to go with a Memo**x external drive (of course he had to have it right away and we payed out the wazoo at a box store for it). We loaded the OS, put the drive away and had ~ a year of play time. Fast forward to Feb and his hard drive crashes. No big deal we buy a new HD, hook up the Memo**x drive and .........., nothing, other than some lights and sounds of a DVD drive failing, nothing. This time we decided to look on Amazon for a more cost effective alternative and came across the 20 something dollar drive, plugged it in and it immediately did what we needed it to do. We boxed it up, put the computer back together and got back to business. Hmmmm, I started thinking.....I wonder if it will work twice (unlike the Memo**x), pulled it out of the box, plugged it in and YES!!!!!!! it worked.

I thought this might require a powered USB hub, but so far, it was recognized right away and hasnt caused any power problems. Well see if that changes when I actually burn something. So far I have only been reading, but the drive seems to work fine. I use the Pi as my main desktop and had been missing having a CD/DVD drive. I did put the max_usb_current=1 entry in the config.txt file. LG doesnt officially support Raspbian or Linux of any distro, but eventually theyll figure out that there are millions of Pi users and many, many millions of Android users and pull their head out of the sand and quit bowing to Redmond.

plug n play, so quiet.

Works great. I am using this with a MacBook Air. Plug and play. The package came with an installation CD-ROM, but it is not needed to use the DVD reader/writer. The reader/writer can also be plugged into a television and used as a portable storage device (IE: The TV recognizes it as a USB drive so you can play videos, music or view photos that are on a CD-ROM. The files must be readable by the TV, however. You cannot play a DVD movie in this reader through your TV). Shipping was a day late from the Prime 2-day delivery, but it came in a protected padded envelope.