External Optical Drive

[CliveM]

Hi – Trevor was recently very helpful with a number of problems I encountered with a project following a trip to Mexico. Part of the problem was certainly with my existing pc – my Vaio is five and a half years old and I guess I’ve been pushing my luck, holding out to replace it! Anyway, it looks like it’s now starting to die on me, so, bite the bullet time and go for a replacement. However, whereas my Vaio has an internal optical drive (a Matshita BD-MLT), the Microsoft Surface I’ve chosen as its replacement will not have one, in common with most modern laptops.
Could anyone recommend a good external USB optical drive please? Needs to be able to read and write Blu-ray, DVD and CD. Looking on Amazon, entry point for high def BD seems to be the Samsung SE506 at around £70 and the LG BP55 for a few pounds more and then moving up through things like the Pawtec External USB 3.0 at around £100 and then various Digistor, Pioneer and Buffalo drives, up to around £150. I’m looking for a unit that will burn discs cleanly and reliably and would rather pay a bit more for something that will do the job really well. So, any comments/recommendations will be much appreciated. Thanks, Clive

[Terfyn]

I know this is a bit off topic but have you considered a SD card? I record all my video onto a SD card and play it back on a Panasonic Blu-Ray player which has both SD and USB input. One advantage is that solid memory has a much greater capacity than a DVD and can be easily copied for backup.

[CliveM]

Hi Terfyn - Thanks for your comments. I have put video onto SD cards before now for playing on the TV and like you, we have a Panasonic Blu-Ray player and it works very well. Problem is, a lot of people don't have a suitable machine with an SD slot. So for our recent Mexican trip for example, a bunch of us went over for our son's wedding and of course family members wanted a copy of the film I'd shot and the most practical output medium to give people is still a DVD. I guess this is changing already and within a few years I daresay discs will be as antiquated as VHS cassettes, but for now, I'd say a disc is still the most "common currency" for most people. Plus I'm going to need an external optical drive to load software onto my new machine, much of which is on disc - I could of course just buy a cheapo £20 DVD reader to do this, but while I'm about it, I might as well get something decent which will write as well as read all the way up to BD. So any recommendations on this would be very useful. Thanks, Clive

[Terfyn]

My DVD writer is built in but try Amazon, they have a decent range to look at. Try the star rating as a rough guide. LG seem to make a good range.

[Ken Berry]

I have the LG one you mentioned above, and find it very good -- or at least I have not yet made any expensive drink coasters with the still rather expensive BD blanks! My only complaint (and it's pretty minor, given the excellent performance) is that the LG casing is very bulky to my mind. Nonetheless, it connects beautifully not only with my desktop PCs, but also my laptops and my HP tablet, all of which now run Windows 10.

[CliveM]

Thanks guys, much appreciated. Clive