LG GP57EB40 Ultra Portable Slim DVD-RW - Black

My new laptop doesn't have a CD/DVD writer which is the price you pay for portability and needed to burn some CD's so looked into a USB CD/DVD writer.The first one ordered was from a brand that I was unfamiliar with, for a reasonable price and was terrible! It never even completely wrote one CD or DVD from new, so decided to go with a more recognised brand.The good============================This drive is fantastic! It's very light and portable so easy to carry with you, should you need.Setup was easy and basically involved plugging it into the USB port, so no extra power source needed.Used it to write a number of CD/DVDs and it hasn't failed once.The speed is great.Very reasonably priced.the bad==============================The drive does get a little loud, but again more soundproofing would mean a larger size which would reduce portability somewhat.the ugly==============================Again a trade of for portability but you have to be gentle when putting in or taking out a disc and the tray does feel like it could break easily with little force.

Arrived well packaged, I have used this to burn most formats of disc media, ISO, DVD, CD-R, CD-RW it has up until now worked perfectly, every disc is written reasonably quickly, CD-R's tend to be a little loud when burning but beyond that no issues. The DVD writer itself comes with a free copy of CYBERLINK MEDIA SUITE. which is a free burning program (I haven't used it as I have no need) but it can be mounted from the writer itself. I haven't played a DVD or CD from the writer so can't comment on that.I would recommend this product, don't be fooled by cheaper models from brands you haven't heard of, ALWAYS pay extra for a reputable brand when it comes to electronics, especially temperamental electronics like DVD writers. The components used inside do not appear to be reused (as is the case with many cheaper models). Even at a little extra cost, it's still cheap enough to not worry too much. Oh and it looks smart enough (I paid a little more for the black model). To answer any other questions anyone may have, yes it is a single cable, it's a little thicker than standard data transfer cables but the writer uses it for both power and data transfer.NOTE: There is an initial driver install, it's very quick and hassle free, but if you are looking for a model to plug into a broken system and mount a file (operating system), I'm not sure this model will work without an initial driver install into your OS system, and if it's your OS you're looking to fix out of the box, it may not work so be warned on that front.Other than that, this is a fantastic DVD writer, the best you will get bar paying 6x the amount for a Samsung or industrial writer.

Very good product overall,very clean and professional looking, extremely easy to use.This is the first time I’ve ever purchased anything like this, and really have no clue when it comes to technology so was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to use. Instructions included are simple to understand, works pretty much straight out the box.Does feel very light and doesn’t feel like it would withstand a beating. Am being very careful not to drop or knock it as feels like it would break if that happened, which is hard in a family environment.Did burn my CDs and enabled me to download content from disks to my computer. Have but content into disks successfully also.Haven’t tried watched any dvds though as my hp laptop doesn’t have any software to play dvds as of yet.Overall good value and pleased with it. Would buy again and would recommend.

It works fine but it can be a bit slow to read some times.

Bought a new laptop recently and rather foolishly I'd assumed it would have a CD/DVD drive - however it didn't (a growing trend it would appear) so I went looking for something compact and inexpensive. I don't often allow myself to be swayed by branding but in this case I'm glad I did - the LG GP57EB is about as small as it gets when it comes to optical drives; I've just burned a CD in it and it works perfectly - running about as quick as the built-in drives in previous laptops and with a similar amount of noise (not that much). LG is a large and well respected manufacturer so I'm hopeful this drive will be reliable and long lasting.One thing I hadn't realised is that some TVs can apparently use this as an external drive (presumably to play content). I tried it with my Samsung Smart TV (UE43J5600) but it doesn't detect it.

This product started off OK and now after 6 months is dead. It seemed easy to use and worked without issue on both Mac and Windows. It does feel flimsy though. After 6 months however it has stopped reading discs properly. As it gets towards the end of an audio CD (so the outer edge) it errors an misreads. I'm very disappointed that there appears to be no way to return it as the "return window" has closed? What happened to 12 month warranties here? Will think twice before buying anything like this again. Off to the bin it goes.

Don't bother buying the cheap non branded or never heard of that brand before DVDs players on Amazon for £12-£19. I've gone through them all, and had to send multiple funny branded ones back that struggle to even load let alone read my DVD. A fleck of dust and they stalled.This unit is a Rolls Royce by comparison. I've paid more for it but it's miles better, easy and firm loading, nice strong motor and reads and loads every disc without wasting my time having to re-inserting it or polishing the disc and keep retrying like the cheaper crappier ones.It's amazing and I won't buy anything else in future.