20 Best External Dvd Drive For Mac (2023 Updated)

(Mac Apple TV users be careful when purchasing. I bought this to replace my BlueRay player. There are some cons: 1. This only plays DVDs and CDs, NOT BlueRay discs. I have more than a few DVDs, so I can watch the DVDs on my 2019 MacBook Pro.

My BIG DISAPPOINTMENT is that i cannot mirror or Airplay DVDs onto my Apple TV to watch them on my large flat screen like I do other laptop screen content. The content shows on the laptop but the Apple TV screen shows only a gray screen.

This is an Apple fail in my opinion. Why limit users to watch DVDs on the laptop only when you market something called Home Theater, and this is your ancillary product? I understand licensing considerations, but we’ve already purchased the DVDs that we watch ??? 2.

Even the DVDs that I created for personal content are not viewable on Apple TV. (I suppose I could ask my family and friends to gather around the laptop) 3. No screen caps are allowed for #1 or #2, so your creativity for presentations is limited.

Again, I appreciate the ability to limit screen captures from licensed content, but I should be able to capture screens from my own homegrown DVDs. 4. An adapter is required to go from USB A (the DVD/CD drive) to USB C on my 2019 MacBook ports, so I had to purchase a $19.

00 adapter to use 2019 software with my 2019 laptop. Ka-Ching. another Apple con. 5. Sometimes discs get stuck (the discs are sucked in, so there is no drawer to pop out). There is no way to open this vacuum-sealed container.

(No screws) Disconnecting and then reconnecting the drive has worked for me to pop out a stuck disc. Pros: 1. Super easy to use. 2. Seamlessly imports music from CDs into my laptop Apple Music app. 3.

Sleek and lightweight. In summary, if all you want to do is play and import music from CDs, or for data uses for CDs, this is a good choice.

Not by any means my first SuperDrive but my first external unit. Runs quiet, connecting cable is long enough and accepts and ejects discs with authority. Judging by my personal experience with SuperDrives they run near flawlessly even with heavy use.

My first one in a Mac G4 Tower (Quicksilver) still works as does the one in my 2006 17″ MacBook Pro Those two are semi retired but I have one in my 2012 15″ MacBook Pro which has burned hundreds of discs reliably.

The new one is for my 2015 27″ iMac. If you need to have an optical drive and don’t need to read or write Blue Ray, this is your best choice. There are less expensive ones out there and I’ve tried a few and they wear out quickly and are finicky about which brand of blanks you feed it and sometimes even reject a factory replicated disc.

Form follows function in this handsome essential peripheral by Apple. The silver colored casing goes well with any colors, and with no extra knobs, levers or other items that would complicate this completely simple design.

Now that most computers come without a disk drive, the superdrive opens the world of DVDs and CDs to your computer. Play or copy discs- watch movies or other media with this unit. Plug it into your computer- no training or other devices needed- other than your computer of course.

Slip in a disc and read or watch. Controls, if you wish to use them, are already n your computer.

I have a new LG laptop, which is great, but no DVD player. Unthinkingly, I bought tax software on CD version and stupidly opened, then realized I had no player. Once opened, no returns. I ordered two plug and play brand players featured on Amazon, and neither worked.

I then found the LG player at about the same price. My only complaint is that LG, like most companies nowadays, print instructions on tiny pieces of paper in a small font. For those of us with bad eyesight and who do not respond well to minimal graphics, this is not good.

I had to call LG to find out how to open the drive door (you push on it) so I could insert the CD to load. The small paper with minimal instruction must be to cut cost, but that is so thoughtless.

When I received the DVD Writer, at a discounted price for an honest review, the LG DVD writer looks like any other player/recorder. But once it has been used, you notice that it is different in many ways.

Initially, when you connect it, it is hard to tell that it is powered on since it is so quiet. When inserting a disc, the election is almost a quiet as the reading portion of it. One thing that this unit has that others do not is the ability to record M-Disc media.

This format is supposed to allow for true permanent storage, The only drawback I have come across is the availability of the M-Disc media. The availability of it is limited, and really hard to locate.

I have found some but it took several weeks for them to be shipped from Japan. This is the only thing that prevents it from getting a 5-star review.

I purchased this a month or so ago and am very happy with it. My old laptop has Windows 7 on it, by choice, and it works fine. I did have to get the Geek Squad to check something before I could get it to work.

I had an error message at first. We found one of the ports that did work well with it. It is plug and play and I’m glad for that. I’ve only used it for playing DVD’s so far, but it has other capabilities.

The price is great.

My new computer didn’t have an optical drive. Since I have terrible internet and it was now tax time, I needed to use a tax software disk instead of online preparation. I also have a great many photos that are on CD’s that I needed to transfer, so this was a good option, with not a great expense.

It was a lot slower to use than the built-in drives that I have had in the past and actually took multiple attempts to get the software loaded completely. It is a nice, slim size so it doesn’t take up much room to use.

It would have been really helpful if this drive came with a little case of some sort to store it in, along with the cords. As it is, I have to put everything back in the much bigger box it came in when I’m not using the device.

I need it for basic tasks, like watching a DVD movie or just adding old programs (CDs) to my computer. The Asus ZenDrive works as it should be. I tried to install the Asus ZenDrive software but my device doesn’t accept it.

I have no idea if I’m losing something because I can’t install it, but so far, I bought it for the simple tasks I mentioned above and works great. I’m very happy with this purchase. Actually this is the second AsusDrive I buy from Best Buy.

The another one is used very often as well. Buying online and in person at the store have been both very good experiences. I recommend the AsusDrive device and Best Buy store.

As computers continually become more technologically advanced it was assumed. assumed. that DVD RW would no loner be necessary. Well if that were the case why would they sell them? These are still important to store information outside of the computer proper.

Sometimes you do not want to process certain programs without the change of acquiring a virus and this is just another step to keep us safe from those whose sole purpose is to sow chaos. I needed it, I used it and still do.

The computer companies need to realize that older tech does not mean non essential tech. Many individuals do not want to email lengthy programs and details and DVD’s are still the go to even above and beyond thumb drives.

It takes very little programming and space to add these features back in Thank You.

I was expecting to have to at least let it install drivers on my computer or have to go and find them online but no, plugged straight in and played cds and dvds alike. Haven’t tried writing discs yet as I have no reason to.

Arrived promptly and has been a good experience. The only thing is that it’s a bit louder than the fans in my pc but I don’t mind at all as its a familiar background noise that I haven’t heard in a while.

This is really slimline and small, I was surprised. However it seems well built and it works well, just plug it in and away you go, very handy to have nowadays as nothing comes with a DVD player and they are still useful to have.

I am running mine on both a Mac and a Windows machine.

Preliminary review. Long-term reliability unknown. Works fine with my Windows laptop. Played music CDs, a DVD, and opened a data CD-ROM. Also works with my Raspberry Pi 4, although VLC media player seemed to run into a problem playing past the anti-piracy warnings.

It was probably a settings issue on my end, though, not a fault of the device. The materials feel decent. I might have preferred a micro-USB instead of mini-USB on the player, and I should note that my laptop does have two adjacent USB ports as required for this device.

If your laptop has an odd layout, like one port on each side, you’ll need a USB 2 type A male to type A female extension cable to ensure the drive gets enough power. This drive also came with two blank M-disc DVDs.

I have not tried the write function on this drive yet with these or standard discs. I am also not sure whether the hype for M-disc is all it’s cracked up to be. But if that feature interests you, this drive has it.

The other DVD drive I tried wouldn’t even eject or reliably play discs, so ASUS is a winner in bang-for-your-buck against it one competitor I bought.

I am submitting this review after several weeks of use. This drive is amazingly compact. As such, some protection and care should be exercised during storage and use, (I bought a hard-shell carrying Case) I own an ASUS Laptop and felt that it was best, based on reviews, to stick with a drive by the same manufacturer.

This drive is perfect for your Laptop Bag or your backpack. I have had absolutely no issues with this disc drive. The performance is pretty much as expected in a small, lightweight, external drive. It is not lightning quick and I noted seek times a little slower than my desktop unit.

By purchasing this drive, I was able to pair it with my new laptop that does not have a DVD drive. This allowed me to purchase a much thinner, lighter Laptop and also get features that would have been sacrificed by including the cost of the drive.

(more memory) I am sure that this drive will work with other manufacturers products, not just ASUS. Just be aware that it needs TWO USB connections to work properly. I rated it 5 stars for the Value, Light weight, and ease of use.

I rated it 4 stars overall because I feel it could be made just slightly more sturdy and they could have at least included a protective sleeve or case.

I love the Micro Center bargain bins. It’s like going on a quick treasure hunt that will always. I needed and external DVD/CD reader writer for an older imac. This was a refurbished unit that was a fraction of the price i was expecting to pay.

The only detail I find lacking is that it is so thin, inserting or ejecting a disc is a little more difficult when sitting on right a desk. will find a little base to mount it on.

Purchased this to play some DVD’s thru my laptop. Installed the CyberLink program following the steps/instructions. Eagerly attempted to play the particular DVD I had specifically purchased this player for.

There was no audio available. “Unsupported Audio” and the video was presented as 8 separate tiles which would only play individually – after playing thru each tile it would return to the menu to play the following tile.

Wasted several hours searching internet attempting to understand what was wrong. Operator error?? Possibly. but most likely not. I eventually downloaded a free DVD player from Microsoft store and the DVD player instantly started playing seamlessly thru all the programs without interruption and WITH audio.

Hence the 3 stars. DVD player appears to play fine – we’ll see how long – but the CyberLink software stinks. P. S. I have no idea why or when I titled myself ‘Resentful’. must have been a pretty bad day – I’m not :).

Specifications say this drive requires Windows or Mac OS X, but I find it is compatible with Linux (Linux Mint 20. 2). It will play audio CDs (with Rhythmbox), movie DVDs (with Celluloid), and burn CD-R and DVD-R (with kb3).

But be careful which software you use for burning: brasero was unacceptably slow. Like many DVD drives today, the disk drawer does not open fully enough to completely uncover the disk. The box I received says made in Malaysia.

Full review: https://vitarustica. wordpress. com/2021/12/26/review-of-lg-ultra-slim-portable-dvd-writer-gp65ns60/.

Still haven’t cracked the code of exactly when this device will decide to work. Sometimes you need to plug directly into a computer, sometimes it works through a hub. Sometimes it plays your movie, sometimes not.

Sometimes it reads your files and allows you to drag them over, sometimes not. Tried on multiple Apple machines–it seems to be more consistent now, a few weeks after purchase, but if you are in a serious time crunch, you might want to go with a different brand or price point.

Plastic construction seems a bit flimsy. Was expecting a bit more out of LG.

Didn’t work at all. Got it to burn cds but but the claim of plug and play is false tried it in my laptop and it would not show up also tried on a apple desktop and did not even register that anything was plugged it.

Save your time and money do not buy. Also when I tried to do the costumer service they responded once asking for pictures to assess it more which I sent and then never contacted me again. I am returning.

Oh and it did not come with the usb-c adapter that it says it will.

This drive is thin and very light weight. This makes it super easy to carry around with me. I plug it into a USB port and it is instantly recognized and used by my computer. No drivers or configuration required.

One cable, a USB cable, provides power and data transfer. This makes it super simple to hook up.

handy product. I still use a burner, they are more reliable that thumb drive. a thumb is much faster than a burner but I still use both for backing up data. the software that comes with the drive is out of date a newer version is available I don’t use it for that reason.

I have my own brand of burning software which I have used for years. reliable product this is my second one. it sits a little low on the desk for me, the drawer what’s to drag a bit, so I take small round plastic circles and stuck them on the bottom that helps.

comes with a split y cable which is really to short to be of practical use could be a little longer for those who don’t side ports. have usb 3 ports on my computer only use one cable. as far as the product goes I would buy it again this is my second burner same company.

I have had no issues what so ever with this product. slim, compact, reasonably priced and available.

Works great but it’s not like a “fixed” in place Reader. You will need to hold the player with one hand and load with the other. Being lite it moves about when you are trying to load a DVD. When operating it stays still, does not move around.

It has 2 USB power cables rather than one, and it will work with just one but the manufacturer recommends using both. So you need 2 USB PORTS. The cables themselves are a little short Otherwise, it works excellent and is perfect for loading programs, of yesteryear and music etc from CDs.

Cheap but will do the job- no worries.

Nothing fancy, works well. I’ve only used it once thus far, and it was easy and efficient to use. Finally replaced my 8 year old MacBook and the new ones have no CD/DVD drive; I put off dealing with it till it became crucial.

B&H salesperson was very helpful in guiding me to this product as the best one for my simple needs. Gotta LOVE B&H Customer Service – the BEST!!!.

The only issue I have had is that this drive takes considerably longer to show up on my Mac Mini M1’s desktop when a disk is inserted. Blank disks will prompt within a few seconds, but one with data can take over a minute to appear, much longer than an older, much bulkier LG external drive in an older Mini.

Otherwise, it’s fine. Inexpensive, bus-powered, sleek and compact, easy to tuck away at my audio workstation desk. Reading and writing speeds are great with the USB 3. 0 interface. Four stars just for the slow recognition.

Okay the only pros I have for this product are: 1. It’s an actual plug and play external drive 2. It’s good when it works. Now, the cons are way more severe here 1. Whenever I open it, it jams halfway out so I have to realign it to be straight with my hand so it can pop open the rest of the way.

It got really annoying after awhile. 2. After using it for a week, it stopped working. I thought it was my software but I bought a new different brand optical drive and it worked again perfectly so it was the drive after all.

I know these days almost everything is by streaming or digital download. However there are still guys like me who like physical copies of things or still has old physical copies of stuff like CDs to play or rip.

Maybe cuz of this, less attention is given to the stability of these things when constructing or even designing them now but that’s not fair. There are some things only playable in physical form and for this to happen on a $40 drive is yes, not too bad cuz it’s not expensive, but I am now using a $20 drive that’s blowing it out of the water right now in quality.

I’ll never buy this garbage again. Terrible, Dell….

I purchased a slim Dell computer to replace my old Dell because of the age of the old computer (10 years – which still works fine), and the fact that the old computer was not capable of updating to the new Windows 11.

Because of the slim design, to have a DVD connection an external drive was required. The external drive is powered by the USB connection and is slim in profile. There is a simple button for ejecting and a small green activity indicator light on the front, with only the cable connection port at the back.

The device was easily recognized with a few seconds delay after the cable was plugged into the computer. I tested the read and write capability of the device, and it works as intended. The sleek black housing makes the device look very high-tech and blends well with the other device at my work station.

I would highly recommend this external DVD R/W drive Dell, which is universal for any computer with a USB port.

I was thrilled with the service. I ordered it one day and it was delivered the next day. I did see some of the reviews commenting on how flimsy it was and I do agree with this. I have the most difficult time pushing the little button to get the drawer to open and have resorted to going to the drive on my computer and clicking on the eject button.

It is very lightweight. However, it does do the job! I have burned several CD’s since hooking it up and it works just great so I am very pleased with that. The unit does not come with instructions and I’m a senior so it would be nice if written instructions were included for those of us who are not so tech savvy.

Thankfully my sister was able to sign on remotely and get it all set up and working for me.

I got this drive to add occasional optical functionality (disaster recovery) to our laptops. The drive works well straight out to the box, but it does want to eat up two USB ports to do it. I know this is because it is a little power hungry and a single USB port might not have enough juice to do the job.

It is also a little slow to initialize and show up as a device on the laptop (as compared to, say, a USB memory stick). It also doesn’t read blindingly fast, but for may application it does not matter for my application.

It is also fast enough to stream audio CD’s and DVD movies, so all good in the long run. Just don’t buy it if you want to transfer a lot of data to or from data discs as you will be at it all year (This device isn’t meant to do that full time so why would you).

Device is light, but that means the door mechanism is made of very thin materials so treat it gently if you want it to last.

Surprisingly light and sturdy, this LG external CD/DVD reader/writer was just what I needed, when I had to transfer files from my old computer to my new one. Even though it comes with a disc pre-loaded with a few programs, I had no trouble using the device without it (attaches via a standard (type A) USB cable).

I have read and written text files, images, and videos, both of my own creation and from previous discs, and have checked the written ones on another computer and CD/DVD player with no issues. It is surprisingly quiet, and I appreciate the LED indicator flashing as it processes (when I watch a movie using it, I turn the unit so the LED is away from me to avoid the distraction).

FWIW, I selected it for two reasons: It was half-off during a sales period, and because of the LG brand, which I have, happily, used with numerous products over the years. When not in use, I unplug it and store it in its original box.

Love this and its easy to set up very simple to use. These days laptops don’t come with a disk drive so we have to buy one luckily for me one that still uses a cd disk that they offer a way to do this.

Its very small and very lightweight. It is a bit slow but I didn’t need anything fancy to use. This is very affordable for those on a budget and those that are just not needing anything really expensive and not all the bells and whistles.

I really only needed it to be able to get my software onto my new laptop in which I love it. Most these days everything’s in the Cloud lol. Its a bit noisy but not over noisy. Readon for saying its noisy is I have had a lot quieter disk drives.

Its basically plastic but it serves it purpose. Would I buy again if I needed one well yeah I would and would I recommend it to anyone yes again I would, besides anyone on a budget or didn’t really need anything fancy its an alright machine.

This has done a fine job and is working as advertised. So far we have played back commercially released movie DVDs, burned a DVD-R of home movie recordings, and burned an audio CD. We have not tried the many other supported disc formats.

Seems to be plug and play with Mac operating system. The eject button on the front only worked when there was no disc or after “disconnecting” the drive in the Mac Finder window (but not physically disconnecting), but not while paused or stopped with an active disc in the device; however, I believe this is a quirk of the Mac OS and not the burner.

Would have liked the eject button on the DCD drive to also be an independent manual override any time, but there is the usual pinhole for that, if needed. And it may behave differently with other operating systems.

Honestly this is one of the best Bestbuy purchases I have ever made. I had been looking for an alternative method instead of spending thousands of dollars to buy a computer/desktop combo like an all in one of something similar to play older style computer games since most modern laptops don’t come with them anymore.

I’m happy to find this product and I bought it during the recent Black Friday sale though it’s current price ($59. 99) is worth it and has exceeded all of my expectations. For example: I own an HP laptop with Windows 11 and I was able to install and play an older style game (Black and White released 2001) which was only supposed to be for Windows 95/98 perfectly without issues.

I highly recommend this product if anyone is looking for decent way to play games on your laptop.

I really like this Apple SuperDrive and have lots of good things to say about it. I already own one, so I knew exactly what to expect. It’s basically just plug & play. This model handles most disc media, so it’s very convenient.

Since Apple and several other laptop manufacturers are doing away with internal disc drives, I wanted to purchase Apple to go with my growing Apple office. It’s pretty darn fast, small & light as a feather, and super easy to use.

My only negative comment (more for the Apple engineering side of things), would be to include an eject button on the darn thing. There are absolutely no buttons on this device, which is fine most of the time, but if your computer gets stuck while transferring from the drive, you can’t just push an eject button.

Doesn’t happen very often, but it would be nice to have one. Anyway, love this little drive and both of my units have been very reliable.

Using with a USB connected older 2012 Mac Mini. Not sure if you can attach an adapter to make other newer type connections. After a month it’s working great, just as expected. What I like about the drive the most is that there isn’t a mechanical slide-out tray that can sometimes get stuck as has happened with other external disc drives that I’ve owned.

So that’s a plus. The drive works like an internal drive on a computer or laptop. But because there is no slide-out tray, there is no physical eject button. And an eject button is great to have if a disk is stuck and won’t eject normally using on screen commands.

So that’s a minus. I guess you have to decide which is more important: no slide-out tray and no mechanical problems or a slide out tray with the added great feature of an eject button. Note: as mentioned up top, be aware it connects using USB so it might not work for everyone.

I bought this CD & DVD reader/writer because my iMac doesn’t have a CD Player and, as a musician I have hundreds of CD’s which I like to download onto an iPod. (I was, of course, annoyed with Apple for producing a computer without this feature but they must have done it for reasons only known to themselves.

!) This does the trick. It’s easy to set up and instinctive to use. I put the John Lewis vouchers that I’d saved towards buying it so it’s a win win! I always try to buy from John Lewis because the customer service and product guarantees are second to none.

The additional peace of mind is always worthwhile.

Nice to have this provide functionality that is missing from most modern computers, and the latest Apple computers which no longer have built in CD/DVD drives. Allowed me to burn CDs to my Apple Music library.

Looks sleek and well designed. If you have the latest Apple computers make sure you buy the USB-C to USB-A dongle as this CD/DVD drive only comes with the older USB-A socket. I already had the dongle so no worries for me.

I purchased the Apple Superdrive primarily to store my photos and home videos to gain storage space on my Macbook Pro. After a great deal of head scratching and frustration it became apparent that this device works as expected with CD disks but not with DVD disks.

Internet research confirms that this is a known Apple software problem and not a problem unique to me. A major disappointment as I need DVD capacity for home movies, the search continues.

Easy to use and good replacement for older laptop with DVD/CD-RW that is having a harder time reading discs whether it’s new or few scratches, you can always hear it seeking data and takes a long time for it to finally work.

Once i installed the new LG 8x External USB 2. 0, Windows recognized it and I installed the DVD game disc and it installed flawlessly, no more constant seek time. Bought two more for my other older laptops I use for local gaming.

The name LG signifies quality. Unfortunately, this item doesn’t measure up. I needed a disk reader/writer for a new laptop. Mechanically, it works fine and the slender build makes it portable. However, the accompanying software is old and not user friendly.

It is basically a way to throw advertising in your face and ask you to store your music on their platform and buy their movies. I think it is 2015 software and just not a good fit. The disk drive works alone for reading data and playing media but you’ll need other software (unless you wrangle with the supplied software) for writing DVD’s or CD’s.

Shame on LG for not doing better. Oh, and did I mention that there IS an update but you have to buy it. Yeah. I later found that HP makes a similar product that is probably better just based on the brand.

Keep it in my drawer until I need it. Works just fine after a years use/storage – no issues with it since. Works with a brand new computer as well (if youre assembling your own) without needing drivers.

So if you are needing to install a windows cd on a computer without an OS – this will work for that. You can watch and rip movies as well. I havnt tried burning anything though, its a bit redundant with $3 16gb usb’s everywhere.

The cable is really short though, and it uses usb-usb B mini which was never popular for anything (but this i guess) so you would have to be a new cable if you wanted more length.

When I needed to buy a new laptop, the ones that had n internal CD ROM drive were all so outrageously expensive. So instead I bought a laptop without one. Before long, I came to regret that since I could no longer add music to my iTunes library without one.

I still like to own CDs. Ultimately I decided on this purchase of the LG external drive, and I am very satisfied with it. It is also small and sleek looking, so it looks nice on my desk. When not in use, I just tuck it away.

I hate that my new laptop does not have an optical drive. I also hate that my new car does not have a CD player. You know why? Because I’m old skool and I still buy music from iTunes and burn my own CD’s.

But, this seems to be a very good unit. Simply plug it into your laptop or PC and it’s ready to go. I’ve only used it once so far, but it work great! I just wish it was a little more “solid”. I want to be able to press the eject button without having to hold the unit down so it doesn’t move when doing so.

But that is being very critical and it would make it less portable (and maybe even more expensive) and that is one of the selling points to this device.

I purchased this item some time ago. I noticed that a lot of products that I purchase from Microcenter are listed as New but in my experience are used. I have not received a link to do a review on a home security system that I purchased.

What I find disturbing is that the people on the floor who put stickers on the product will fabricate stories of what a product will do to make a sale. The information the floor reps give isn’t honest.

I have a Samsung 21S, A WD Ready View Security System and they all are glitchy with problems and I am not happy. I will only use Microcenter for buying simple stuff like blank dvd’s, paper and maybe software.

anything else beyond that is a hit or miss. I will say the best purchase that I made from Microcenter was in February 2015 I purchased 3 55″ 4K Tv’s. Those were very nice. My experience may not be the experience of others.

I would still recommend others to try them out. Do not buy anything that they say that you can’t return. one last turn off. They no longer bag your items after purchase. If you drive that maybe fine but if you rely on public transportation that maybe a problem.

Got this drive as a workaround while troubleshooting an desktop internal dvd drive. It reads and does what it needs to do, not great but not terrible, just right in the middle. I would have given it higher stars, but the construction feels a bit cheap, like it is going to break while handling it, (-1 star).

Additionally, the provided usb cord is too short (-1 star). The length might be fine if used with a laptop or tablet and want it nearby, but it is way too short for placing it nicely with a desktop unless using some sort of usb extension.

However, since this device requires 2 usb ports for data transfer & power, I couldn’t just use a longer, regular usb cable. I did not use any of the provided software, didn’t need it; so my review does not take the software into account.