Recommend me an external DVD drive

[Stonker]

I have a nice notebook and need to get an external DVD drive for it. Can somebody make a recommendation? I would like to be able to watch Bluray discs. As far as writing, it would be great if it does everything but I have only ever used a DVD writer when I've had a problem with a computer. Price isn't a real issue but no point in paying too much for latest features that I wouldn't use.

 

[Fanum]

They're pretty much standard and reliable things these days........the only 'choice' you really have to make is whether you want to be able to WRITE to Blu-ray as well as READ them........a bog standard USB3 DVD writer/re writer that reads Blu-ray discs will cost you under 50 quid, but a Blu-Ray writer (which will also be backwards compatible with DVD writing) will be around twice that.


Other than that, even the branding doesn't make much difference, as they will all ultimately be made in one of a few places and re-branded for the market.

That said, Pioneer, Sony and Samsung stuff do seem to have better QC and you can't go too far wrong if you buy from a reputable place.

You have the choice of USB external (USB 3 is now the standard, which it'll be worth getting even if your current PC doesn't support it so you can move it over to your next machine or put a card in the current one to accept the data rates of USB3) or an internal drive.....personally, I'd go external so it's more flexible in use, as long as you have the desk space.

JMHO.....I use DVD still and only download Blu ray stuff, so I've not even got BR reading capability

 

[Stonker]

I found this one on HUKD but not sure it's from a reputable seller:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271413633753?clk_rvr_id=616725675469

I'm not so sure that BR writing is necessary...what would I use it for?

I do have USB3 on my laptop....er, well,I have a blue USB socket

 

[Fanum]

I found this one on HUKD but not sure it's from a reputable seller:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271413633753?clk_rvr_id=616725675469

I'm not so sure that BR writing is necessary...what would I use it for?

I do have USB3 on my laptop....er, well,I have a blue USB socket

Sorry, I missed the fact that it was a laptop entirely

That Panasonic looks fine......Again, good enough brand rather than no-name rip off import, and it does more than I expected for that price

They (the seller) have nearly 10k sales on Ebay, and still have a feedback of 99.7% which I'd be happy with, given that some complaints will have been generated by Postman Pat kicking the parcel around in his van.

In your shoes, I'd be quite happy to go ahead and order that I think....at £40, it's not the end of the world if it lets the smoke genies out the day after the warranty expires

EDIT....as for the writing aspect, it has it, but look at it as future proofing even if you can't see a need for it now
I've bought 1TB Hard drives before now where I could have spent 25% more and gone for a 2tb drive......."I'll never need more than a bloody terrabyte!" I thought........

Even my porn collection runs to nearly half a terrabyte now, and I've had to go and spend more over the tears on drives for my films and music........Go as big/fast as you can afford to (until yoou get into the 'bleeding edge' price hike area) and you won't regret it, IYSWIM.

 

[Stonker]

OK maybe I'll go for that one then.

The other reason I was looking is that my son is having issues with one of his game discs on his desktop. His drive won't read it but is fine with others but other machines read the disc fine. I thought if I buy one then he can try using it to play his game

 

[Fanum]

OK maybe I'll go for that one then.

The other reason I was looking is that my son is having issues with one of his game discs on his desktop. His drive won't read it but is fine with others but other machines read the disc fine. I thought if I buy one then he can try using it to play his game

Have a look at "Daemon tools lite"......

Rumour has it *ahem* that it's what most people use to 'mount' an image of a DVD/Bluray as a virtual drive so that the PC sees it as if it was a physical disc in a physical drive......the advantage being that it works at the bus speed of the PC and Motherboard rather than at the speed of the PC-DVD or Blu ray drive, IE it's a lot faster.

All you'd have to do is to save an image (.ISO file) of the dvd or blu-ray to a hard drive *then 'mount it' as a virtual DVD/disc, then you'd not have to swap the physical drive back and forwards each time he wanted to access whatever disc he needs

That probably sounds a lot more complicated that it really is BTW......in reality, it's a three clicks of the mouse process to 'insert' a dvd and use it......I would be lost without it TBH

 

[Stonker]

OK so effectively you back the disc up on the c drive and then the PC sees it as a DVD drive

 

[Fanum]

OK so effectively you back the disc up on the c drive and then the PC sees it as a DVD drive

Yup

You can have as many 'discs' as you can fit onto a hard drive (I run mine from an external one, 'cos I like to keep my "C"drive clean and easy to backup/reinstall, but that's another story)
then you can just 'load' a disc with a few clicks, and it's as if the physical disc was in the machine.

The operating system keeps track of everything, so if you normally have a "C" drive as your only hard drive and a "D" drive as your normal, genuinely physical DVD drive, the next 'virtual' one will be labelled up as "E" and so on.....

That's not a problem usually, but it's bloody useful when you have a "C" drive, another 4 internal hard drives and four more externals, plus 4 'virtual' drives and any number of memory dongles.......You don't have to keep track of them and a prog will still run if it was installed on your "F" drive, even if that then changes to another designation

I have an "M" drive showing at the moment

 

[Stonker]

OK but if the drive thinks there's no disc in it, will I be able to create the ISO image?

 

[Fanum]

OK but if the drive thinks there's no disc in it, will I be able to create the ISO image?

No, you'll need to plug in this new one first, then use something like Daemon tool Lite or Roxio to make an ".iso" image of it.

Alternatively, you can use one of these other PCs that you say WILL read the disc, and make a copy of it as an .iso image on to a DVD, then copy that ISO file to whatever physical hard drive your son uses....No idea why your son's machine isn't 'seeing' this disc, but it is likely that it's some form of copy protection.

If you can network his machine and yours, then that's the other way of doing it.......he can copy the disc as a full directory or as an ISO image file, then run from that rather than trying to use the physical disc that his machine won't talk to.

 

[Stonker]

I have an external disc connected to our router. I guess we can use the mrs's laptop to create the virtual drive on that and then configure my son's machine to use it.

He's actually having tis problem with 2 game discs. One of them is brand new

 

[Fanum]

I have an external disc connected to our router. I guess we can use the mrs's laptop to create the virtual drive on that and then configure my son's machine to use it.

He's actually having tis problem with 2 game discs. One of them is brand new

Are the discs from the UK, and are they by the same publishing house or different ones?

'Copy protection' has been a pain in the arse, even for those who quite legitimately simply want to use a disc on more than one machine or who want to make a personal copy for backup purposes only.

 

[Stonker]

I think they're from the UK yes. One of them he only bought at the weekend in Game.

I don't know the bublishing house but can look on the boxes if I need to.

I put the disc into a good machine and used Daemon Tools Lite. I now have an mpx file on my external drive. Is that correct?