External CD/DVD drive???

[timmer50]

Hi, new to the board and just bought a AO533, with Windows 7 Starter. I want to buy an external CD/DVD drive to create restore discs, install/run software, etc. Question is which drive to buy. Seems to be a million of them, all ranges of price too. Any advice? Are they all pretty much the same or do I need one that matches the AO533?
Thanks,
timmer50

 

[Swarvey]

They're pretty much all the same. Some people have preferences over brands, but the only real difference between the models is whether or not they need external power.

Some can run simply from the power provided by the USB port (not recommended for the AAO series) so your best bet is to look for a drive that comes with it's own power supply.

I have an LG external DVD-RW with it's own power source, it's still going strong after about 4 years.

 

[timmer50]

Thanks Swarvey.

I finally ordered one. Got one on the way that is CD/DVD RW with external power source.

Thanks for the help. I needed to know that most are the same and that the AO didn't need something special. I guess I have seen too may combo packs that make the external disc drive sound special.

Thanks again.

 

[ChrisJBrady]

BEWARE OF EXTRA SOFTWARE REQUIRED.

I found the Samsung SE-S084C External 8X DVD Writer Slimline USB 2.0 - Black in Maplin.

They have these as £39.99 marked down from £79. I bought one from Maplin in High Holborn, London. Then I checked and found this review:

Quote: "Bought this to use with a netbook to upload software, play dvds. The bundled software is the ironically named 'Nero Essentials' - it will play a dvd but not with sound! If you want sound you have to pay GBP50-60 to upgrade to the full Nero package or GBP10 to download a windows media player dvd decoder. Hardware does what it says on the tin but beware the hidden extra software costs." Unquote.

So I took it back and they checked and said they'd sold 14 and no-one else had complained. But I don't buy these 'make the customer feel guilty' tactics. Anyway they then phoned their tech. support and he said that the unit came with Nero Trial s/w and that - yes- I would have to pay for a full package of s/w to fully use the unit. Anyway I got my money back.

AND NOW I FIND OUT THAT THE UNIT DOES NOT EVEN SUPPORT WINDOWS 7!!!

Anyway see:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews ... Descending

So always check with Amazon before parting with hard-earned cash.

 

[Forone]

The software warning is a good one - some of the promotional "suites" that ship with drives are either useless / crippled, hard to figure out, or huge and resource gummy on a little unit. The better ones will allow partial installs so you can decide about using the drive for RW backup, lightscribing disks, or whatever specific features without the whole monster.

I prefer lightweight free third party ImgBurn for making DVDs and CDs.

 

[ChrisJBrady]

Question is which drive to buy. Seems to be a million of them, all ranges of price too. Any advice? Are they all pretty much the same or do I need one that matches the AO533?

Millions?? Well no actually. All the ones I've researched and considered buying that are referenced on Amazon.co.uk do NOT support Windows 7. One lists Win 7 in its spec. but does not actually have the drivers yet online (LG GP08NU20 Slimline External DVD Drive).

See the comments on Amazon for these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0026NANH4/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-Gp08nu20-Sli ... B0029MNNZ6
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-SE-S084 ... B002GNTDFM

It seems that the commonly provided s/w is Nero Essentials Trial. However this does NOT include codecs to play the sound from DVDs, esp. dolby sound, and a full Nero package has to be purchased at an additional expense of £50-60. Also the Windows Media Player codec costs extra.

This necessity to have to purchase extra s/w to allow full use of these devices is a major rip-off. It is also unacceptable for LG to list in its spec. support for Win 7 yet then not even have the drivers available online.

So what we need here is recommendations for a dvd/cd read/writer that works with Win 7 (and other modern o/s's).

In particular for myself I need one that supports Win 7, all the dvd and cd r/w formats and including dvd-ram.

Incidentally I have found stores less than knowledgeable or honest about the above issues when trying to sell me a dvd/cd writer including Maplin, John Lewis and PC World. A common lack of knowledge is that few (none?) of these devices support Windows 7 &/or require extra s/w to be purchased.

 

[Swarvey]

Just a quick note here, you shouldn't have to install ANY third party software for ANY optical drives.

Firstly, Nero for example is a suite of tools used for authoring disks. It's not aimed solely at enabling DVD playback. So the heads up probably isn't as warranted as stated.

Secondly, if your computer doesn't already support DVD playback, it's actually very easy and free to achieve. Just download and install a CoDec pack. I personally use the K-Lite Mega CoDec pack. It's a free pack of audio, video, encoding and decoding codecs. It's also very, very customizable. Simply installing it, following the prompts and using some logic to determine what you intend to use it for is all you need. You will be able to play back and create media files in virtually all formats. It also allows WMP to playback most, if not all formats (including apple quicktime vids).

So long story short, you can buy virtually any USB DVD/CD drive, without having to install any third party software at all. So long as the optial drive itself doesn't need a particular driver, it's basically plug, wait a few seconds, then play.

 

[ChrisJBrady]

I agree that such a device *should* work out of the box sans extra s/w. But the reported issue is that DVDs play OK - but reportedly without sound, esp. dolby encoded sound. It is apparently in order to enable such sound that extra third party s/w (or Nero Essentials full package) is needed. Why else would at least two complainants mention the additional cost for this of £50-60? And reportedly for Windows Media Player an extra codec is required also at cost. And it is also reported that the driver s/w for many (most?/all?) devices still do not run under Windows 7.

I'm sure that the complainants in their reviews on Amazon.co.uk have experienced the requirement to pay for extra s/w; why else would they feel the need to warn about this? And the tech. support guy in Maplin did state that for the Samsung Slim DVD-R it would be necessary to upgrade from the provided Nero Essentials Trial to a full subscription. Interestingly John Lewis have now withdrawn the LG version - the only one they ever sold. That's the one that has been specifically reported by LG as not having any drivers that run under Windows 7.

 

[Swarvey]

I agree that such a device *should* work out of the box sans extra s/w. But the reported issue is that DVDs play OK - but reportedly without sound, esp. dolby encoded sound. It is apparently in order to enable such sound that extra third party s/w (or Nero Essentials full package) is needed. Why else would at least two complainants mention the additional cost for this of £50-60? And reportedly for Windows Media Player an extra codec is required also at cost. And it is also reported that the driver s/w for many (most?/all?) devices still do not run under Windows 7.

I'm sure that the complainants in their reviews on Amazon.co.uk have experienced the requirement to pay for extra s/w; why else would they feel the need to warn about this? And the tech. support guy in Maplin did state that for the Samsung Slim DVD-R it would be necessary to upgrade from the provided Nero Essentials Trial to a full subscription. Interestingly John Lewis have now withdrawn the LG version - the only one they ever sold. That's the one that has been specifically reported by LG as not having any drivers that run under Windows 7.

You're missing the point though. Nero Essentials is a trimmed down version of Nero Burning ROM. While it may install Nero's DVD reading codec, it is NOT REQUIRED. This is exactly what we call bloatware.

You do NOT need to purchase ANY software with, or after the purchase of any optical storage device.

If you instal Nero essentials and it screws with your system (as can a lot of CD / DVD authoring tools), then that is up to you. It is not a pre-requisite of purchasing a CD/DVD-RW that you install the accompaning software. Otherwise, just buy a USB CD/DVD-RW, install the proper codec's from the proper sources and you won't have a problem.