This is a great high quality drive that is Windows 7 compliant.(although the instructions don't say so) It is a compact external so it is not super fast, but it is fast enough for all my needs. Watching dvds, burning cds/dvds etc. Now onto why this Drive has gotten bad reviews.
Complaint- This drive does not come with a program to watch dvds, I had to pay extra just to do so.
Answer- This just an external drive. It will work with your current media software. The DVD industry licenses the coding to read DVDs and so it is generally not given away free with products. It does come with Nero which is a great DVD/CD Burning program. The program has a trial for DVD watching with the option to buy. There are free codecs that you can download also to accomplish this. Head on over to [...]
Complaint- The drive only opens a 1/2 inch, there is something wrong with it.
Answer- Actually this is a power saving feature and keeps it slim line. This Drive is powered completely by your computer, and is designed for netbook use. It slides open easily with your finger. When the drive is not being used, it shuts down and does not draw power.
Complaint- The drive does not open when the power is off like the description says
Answer- Actually it does. There is a small hole on the front of the drive where a paper clip can be inserted. This will pop the drive open and allow you to access your disc.
I hope this helps clear the water a bit. All in all I am much happier with the product that I thought I would be. In fact since getting it for my net book, the DVD drive on my home computer died and I have just been using this one instead. Samsung USB 2.0 8x DVD Writer External Optical Drive for Mac and PC SE-S084C/RSBN (Gloss Black)
I needed an external DVD reader/writer mainly to load software onto my Acer 1410 which does not have a drive, and this Samsung drive works perfectly for me. The drive comes with Nero 8 "Essentials", which is a basic OEM suite of utilities for use with the drive. I find it neither great nor bad. If you need any of the utilities, it does the job. The drive itself does not use external power. It uses 2 USB ports. Some people claim it also works with only 1 USB port, but I have not tried it. Installing the drive couldn't be easier. I took it out of the box, plugged it into my system, and was up and running in probably a minute. The Nero software installed without issue. I loaded several programs from DVD onto my system without problems. I tried burning a couple of DVD's, and they all completed successfully and faster than expected. Although I have no intention to watch movies on my my netbook, I did pop a movie into the DVD drive, and it played without issue using Windows Media Player. I'm happy with the drive and does exactly what I bought it for.
MAC users ! Don't ever hesitate to buy this wonderful inexpensive little creature ! The CD involved is only for PC users, but you don't have to worry if you already have a software program to burn CDs/DVDs like Toast Titanium etc..
Installation wasn't an issue at all, why??? Because it is a MAC !!! ;) I've just plugged the USB cables (2 of them give a better performance, not a big deal for me to use 2 USB ports on my MacbookPro) and it started working in seconds !
I can read and write CDs and DVDs perfectly. (or copy stuff from internal drive to this external drive or vice-versa at the same time.) It automatically chooses to read DVDs by using DVD player software already installed in all MACs. Briefly you do not need any single thing to achieve what you want from an external CD/DVD drive. I didn't even have to show my Toast Titanium burner software that there's is a new external drive connected. It recognized it immediately !
My intention was to be able to use both Region 1 DVDs (for US) and Region 2 DVDs (for Europe) without worrying to change the region of my actual MAC's drive. Because it was only going to allow me 2 more times (out of 5) to change the drive's region. I'm a grad student in US, but my home country is in Europe, so this solution definitely worked for me perfect. The coolest thing is of course its price ! It is really an affordable piece of creature if we think about its abilities..
One more thing, it is really so small that you can put it in your laptop bag and enjoy it everywhere you go..
Thanks to Samsung & Amazon !
I bought this drive to use with my new Acer 13" 3810T which doesn't have an optical drive. I rarely use one, but I needed to have one....just in case.
The drive itself is VERY small, and I don't see how they could make one any smaller. Aesthetically it looks great. It came with one cable, with an interesting design. It has two regular USB plugs, which BOTH connect to a single mini-usb plug. You plug in both USB plugs to your laptop, and plug the other end into your laptop, and you're good to go.
Obviously this would pose a problem if you only have 1 usb port on a side, because the cord is not long enough to reach around. In the manual they show a picture of using an extension usb cord to reach the other side. I haven't tried this using only one plug, because I knew ahead of time I had two side-by-side usb ports I could use. The cord itself is quite short also, so expect to have the dvd drive less than a foot away.
I used it to burn recovery disks for my Acer, but haven't done any "speed" tests, but I didn't buy it for that purpose.
It's small, light, looks nice, and doesn't need a separate power cord!
I received my Samsung Super WriterMaster SE-S084C as scheduled but found it unable to install programs from DVD's I proceeded to have Amazon replace the defective unit, which only took a few days, and was happy to find the new unit worked perfectly. I understand that some problems will occur with any model, but based on what I have seen in these reviews this model has more problems that good QC should allow. Never the less, I have been please with the unit for its' small size and easy to use functionality. The same cannot be said for the included Nero 8 software. I got the unit to make installation of software easy and that is fine. When I installed the Nero* software to try to play back a DVD i got video but no sound. In researching the problem on the Nero site I found that the Nero 8 Essential OEM bundle will not play DVD sound, you only see the silent video. You need to buy their upgrade to the Nero 9 suite to get basic functionality. That is a crock. An "essential" software bundle implies basic functionality not this bait and switch "crud". The Amazon page states "Simply plug it into your USB port and you are ready to watch movies, install software, copy photos, play music, etc." That simply is not true. I decided the unit was worth keeping even without the software, so I avoided a second return to Amazon. I uninstalled the Nero 8 Suite and installed VLC open source free media player. It works just fine. The hard ware is fine and does a great job, however, I cannot recommend getting this product because of the deceptive software claims. - Netbook - External Dvd Burner - Dvd Burner - Slim External Dvd Rw'
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