COOLEAD- Black Slim USB External Blu-Ray Player External USB DVD RW Laptop Burner Drive + Free Microfiber Cloth

Just remember what your getting here. Its a USB 2.0 DVD writer and Bluray reader. There is no software included so its up to you to find the software to play DVDs and Blurays. I am running Win 8.1 pro with media center on a Dell desktop I use as my HTPC and it plays DVDs just fine. If you have plain vanilla 8.1 or 10 then you need to find codecs to play DVDs. For bluray I use DVDFab passkey lite for decryption and Kodi or VLC for playing and it plays just fine. No menus though. Leawo Blu-ray Player works also with menus. Also remember that it reads blurays at 2x speed. So its not the fastest for ripping using makemkv. About 45 minutes to an hour for a bluray. Faster of course for DVDs.I find it to be attractive and very quiet. I havent tried writing to disk because who writes to optical disks these days?I've only had it for a day so if I have problems with it I'll update this review. All in all I'm quite pleased with it for $40. Good deal.Edit: I've had it for two months now and its still working perfectly. Has never given me a problem with playing blu-rays or rips. The hardware's good. The software and knowing what you're doing is up to you.

Not sure what to do…Tried this in 4 different laptops; each with the right software.None play a Blu-Ray disk. I have the right software. Tried PowerDVD and WinDVD Pro (Trials on all of them). Also tried VLC-Blu-Ray (this was the last resort as this is open source.)Nothing works. Either get the media is corrupt or ACSS errors. I thought this was due to the software/encryption problems.My son has a HP laptop with a Blu-Ray player integrated. We have PowerDVD (full License). Plays Blu-Ray’s just fine. (Has PowerDVD 14 installed)Attached this drive to his laptop to see what would happen. The drive is recognized just fine. Put a Blu-Ray into the drive and PowerDVD can see the drive.Go to play the Blu-Ray and get the same errors and cannot play the disk.Since the laptop with an integrated player with the right software can play the disk AND the USB attached drive can’t play the disk leads me to believe there is something with the drive that is amiss.BTW… It plays DVDs just fine. Only Blu-Ray’s seem to be jacked.Thoughts?I WOULD NOT BUY THIS TO PLAY BLU-RAYS UNTIL THIS IS RESOLVED.

I've been using this for about a month with no problems. It's worked reliably on Mac, Windows 10, and Linux, using both VLC and MakeMKV for various purposes. As far as the reviews I'm seeing dinging this for not including software or for having outdated software, I *don't want* a drive that comes with Windows software, and appreciate that this is exactly what it claims -- an inexpensive drive that will work with whatever software or system one wishes to use. I've looked at other drives and had put off getting one because of price; particularly frustrating when the extra cost of those other drives is with software I couldn't use (no Mac or Linux support) even if I wanted to (and I don't). If you want the whole ready to go package and are on Windows, feel free to look at other products. If you would rather do it yourself, get this drive and save the software licensing fees.

Works great, but you will need software-player, for different-types of blu-ray-formates. Great product for the price-point, but if you can get a Sony player for your TV and connect it to you computer to watch the special-disks as in: any of the special-edition disks with wi-fi, then do it. This is why I am interested in the product, I was hoping it to work. The A / V-quality with my old laptop is great. All you need is the software. The driver-pack comes with the unit, "plug and play," but the need for playing any blu-ray-disk will need software. I bought this and did not work, unless, I did something wrong, the last Batman would not play.Corel WinDVD Pro 11http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HTIWF4?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

I'm using one connected to a raspberry pi and was eventually able to get it to work without issue. When I first got this device I could not get it to work reliably to save my life. I tried connecting it to several different systems and found that on any of them I could detect it, I could put a disc in and it would see it, but when I tried to read it the drive would stop working. After playing around with no luck I pulled it open and started looking more at the physical drive. I was shocked to see the power usage printed on it was over 1 amp. This may not seem like a big deal but the USB protocol allocates 0.5 amp (500ma) to each port. The device has two ports for the extra current however it will still needs over the 1 amp that both ports can provide. To be fair many USB ports on computers will provide more current then this but not all. When I discovered this I changed tactics and plugged the power port into a 2amp tablet charger and the data cable into an 8amp powered hub. After that things worked just like they should.

I have had this for several months. Still working good. Used it a few days ago to boot a windows 7 OEM CD for a clean install.FYI, this is NOT the drive, but I found if you plug it into a USB 3.0 trying to install windows 7 it will stop working as it starts loading. Also at the same time USB keyboard, mouse plugged in USB 3.0 stopped. This is because the windows 7 setup does not support USB 3. Not a fault with the drive. Once windows 7 installed, it then worked on the 3.0 USB port. I even found a reference to this issue at TOMS HARDWARE concerning devices on those ports stop working until windows 7 is installed.