Customer Reviews

Samsung USB 2.0 8xDVD Writer External Optical Drive for Mac and PC SE-S084C/RSBN (Gloss Black)

5 star:		(285)
4 star:		(127)
3 star:		(40)
2 star:		(30)
1 star:		(57)

 

 

This is a great high quality drive that is Windows 7 compliant.(although the instructions don't say so) It is a compact external so it is not super fast, but it is fast enough for all my needs. Watching dvds, burning cds/dvds etc. Now onto why this Drive has gotten bad reviews.

Complaint- This drive does not come with a program to watch dvds, I had to pay extra just to do so.

Answer- This just an external drive. It will work with your current media software. The DVD industry licenses the coding to read DVDs and so it is generally not given away free with products. It does come with Nero which is a great DVD/CD Burning program. The program has a trial for DVD watching with the option to buy. There are free codecs that you can download also to accomplish this. Head on over to [...]

Complaint- The drive only opens a 1/2 inch, there is something wrong with it.

Answer- Actually this is a power saving feature and keeps it slim line. This Drive is powered completely by your computer, and is designed for netbook use. It slides open easily with your finger. When the drive is not being used, it shuts down and does not draw power.

Complaint- The drive does not open when the power is off like the description says

Answer- Actually it does. There is a small hole on the front of the drive where a paper clip can be inserted. This will pop the drive open and allow you to access your disc.

I hope this helps clear the water a bit. All in all I am much happier with the product that I thought I would be. In fact since getting it for my net book, the DVD drive on my home computer died and I have just been using this one instead.

I needed an external DVD reader/writer mainly to load software onto my Acer 1410 which does not have a drive, and this Samsung drive works perfectly for me. The drive comes with Nero 8 "Essentials", which is a basic OEM suite of utilities for use with the drive. I find it neither great nor bad. If you need any of the utilities, it does the job. The drive itself does not use external power. It uses 2 USB ports. Some people claim it also works with only 1 USB port, but I have not tried it. Installing the drive couldn't be easier. I took it out of the box, plugged it into my system, and was up and running in probably a minute. The Nero software installed without issue. I loaded several programs from DVD onto my system without problems. I tried burning a couple of DVD's, and they all completed successfully and faster than expected. Although I have no intention to watch movies on my my netbook, I did pop a movie into the DVD drive, and it played without issue using Windows Media Player. I'm happy with the drive and does exactly what I bought it for.

I bought this drive to use with my new Acer 13" 3810T which doesn't have an optical drive. I rarely use one, but I needed to have one....just in case.

The drive itself is VERY small, and I don't see how they could make one any smaller. Aesthetically it looks great. It came with one cable, with an interesting design. It has two regular USB plugs, which BOTH connect to a single mini-usb plug. You plug in both USB plugs to your laptop, and plug the other end into your laptop, and you're good to go.

Obviously this would pose a problem if you only have 1 usb port on a side, because the cord is not long enough to reach around. In the manual they show a picture of using an extension usb cord to reach the other side. I haven't tried this using only one plug, because I knew ahead of time I had two side-by-side usb ports I could use. The cord itself is quite short also, so expect to have the dvd drive less than a foot away.

I used it to burn recovery disks for my Acer, but haven't done any "speed" tests, but I didn't buy it for that purpose.

It's small, light, looks nice, and doesn't need a separate power cord!

I received my Samsung Super WriterMaster SE-S084C as scheduled but found it unable to install programs from DVD's I proceeded to have Amazon replace the defective unit, which only took a few days, and was happy to find the new unit worked perfectly. I understand that some problems will occur with any model, but based on what I have seen in these reviews this model has more problems that good QC should allow. Never the less, I have been please with the unit for its' small size and easy to use functionality. The same cannot be said for the included Nero 8 software. I got the unit to make installation of software easy and that is fine. When I installed the Nero* software to try to play back a DVD i got video but no sound. In researching the problem on the Nero site I found that the Nero 8 Essential OEM bundle will not play DVD sound, you only see the silent video. You need to buy their upgrade to the Nero 9 suite to get basic functionality. That is a crock. An "essential" software bundle implies basic functionality not this bait and switch "crud". The Amazon page states "Simply plug it into your USB port and you are ready to watch movies, install software, copy photos, play music, etc." That simply is not true. I decided the unit was worth keeping even without the software, so I avoided a second return to Amazon. I uninstalled the Nero 8 Suite and installed VLC open source free media player. It works just fine. The hard ware is fine and does a great job, however, I cannot recommend getting this product because of the deceptive software claims.

MAC users ! Don't ever hesitate to buy this wonderful inexpensive little creature ! The CD involved is only for PC users, but you don't have to worry if you already have a software program to burn CDs/DVDs like Toast Titanium etc..

Installation wasn't an issue at all, why??? Because it is a MAC !!! ;) I've just plugged the USB cables (2 of them give a better performance, not a big deal for me to use 2 USB ports on my MacbookPro) and it started working in seconds !

I can read and write CDs and DVDs perfectly. (or copy stuff from internal drive to this external drive or vice-versa at the same time.) It automatically chooses to read DVDs by using DVD player software already installed in all MACs. Briefly you do not need any single thing to achieve what you want from an external CD/DVD drive. I didn't even have to show my Toast Titanium burner software that there's is a new external drive connected. It recognized it immediately !

My intention was to be able to use both Region 1 DVDs (for US) and Region 2 DVDs (for Europe) without worrying to change the region of my actual MAC's drive. Because it was only going to allow me 2 more times (out of 5) to change the drive's region. I'm a grad student in US, but my home country is in Europe, so this solution definitely worked for me perfect. The coolest thing is of course its price ! It is really an affordable piece of creature if we think about its abilities..

One more thing, it is really so small that you can put it in your laptop bag and enjoy it everywhere you go..

Thanks to Samsung & Amazon !

The drive works perfectly connected to only one usb port on three laptops to which I have access. I have tried reading and writing DVDs with no problems. If you have an older computer with a lower powered usb port, you may need to use two ports.

first of all the this looks really good, but its not metal its plastic all around. Its very light which is good but im not sure if it will survive drop impacts. it comes with a usb chord and a software disk and thats it. the chord is about 2ft long and i use both usb ports on my rite to power it. you need 2 usb ports on the same side for this thing to work safely but im sure others may have had success with just one. works great, just burned some recovery disks for my hp 311 netbook with win 7.

Now for the bad part, this thing would not be recognized on my hp 311 netbook with windows 7. plugged it in and nothing at all, just dead. then i plugged it in to my hp pavillion a1700n desktop with vista, same thing, it would not be recognized. getting worried i tried another computer our hp pavillion dv4-1123us notebook with vista, i hit pay dirt and it recognized. i then used the manual on the disk to find the samsung firmware update website. i installed samsung auto update firware program. i recommend using the auto update firmware program cause searching for the exact model is not easy. updated my firmware for the drive and now it works in all computers. so ya it works great now but if i didn't have a computer to setup the firmware i would be out of luck. just a warning for you guys out there. other than that, i really do recommend it.

I recently purchased a HP dm3-1030US laptopHP Pavilion DM3-1030US 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop - Up to 6 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium). I love everything about the laptop. It's much more powerful and capable than a typical netbook but like a netbook, lacks a DVD drive. This was going to take some getting used to so I decided to purchase an external DVD drive otherwise I did not know how I would be able to rip CD's, burn CD's and DVD's or install software. I guess I hadn't quite realized that, for me, a DVD drive is still a vitally important feature.

I was happy to discover this Samsung DVD slim writer drive. It was priced very reasonably and for under 50 bucks, I now have a solution to my lack of DVD drive problem.

The drive is well packaged and easily set up. Once it's out of the box, you simply attach the included USB cord to your computer and to the drive. The cord is a "Y" cord with two plugs that go to the computer and a mini-plug attaches to the drive. The full-sized plugs are not going to work for you if you only have one USB port on each side of your laptop since the cable is too short to make the reach. In that scenario you'll need an extention cable to reach to the other USB port. And yes, you will most likely need both cables plugged in to enable the drive to work reliably. I was able to get it to play CD's using just one USB connection to the laptop, but it wouldn't always work. Not sure why, but I don't fret about it because the unit won't be hooked up all the time and I've got 3 USB ports on my laptop anyway. Two ports on the right side and one port on the left side. Another question you may have is whether you can use an external powered USB hub for this device. I didn't try it because there was a disclaimer on the box which read, "Normal operation is not guaranteed when using a USB HUB or unspecified cables." Furthermore, use of a USB hub may void the warranty as stated on the box, "We do not guarantee any damage caused by using inappropriate USB cables or USB HUB"

As soon as I hooked the drive to my laptop, Windows 7 recognized the device and installed the necessary drivers. I didn't have to intervene at all. The drive itself has a nice sized button on the tray door to enable you to open the tray. A gentle push is all it takes to cause the tray to quietly pop open. I inserted the software CD and discovered NERO disc burning software and a firmware live update program. I chose not to install NERO but did install the live update software. It was a little quirky in operation and I honestly don't know whether it actually updated my firmware or not. But what I do know is that I have the latest firmware on the DVD writer. In the future the live update program will alert me if there is new firmware available and will install it. That's cool.

I decided to do a quick test burn to make a Windows 7 64-bit system recovery DVD. Popped in the DVD-R, the drive and computer recognized it right away and Windows 7 had the appropriate programs to allow me to make the system restore disc that I wanted to make. Burning was quiet and quick. I was happy.

I'm not sure how this drive could be any better. It is small, barely larger than the CD/DVD that goes into it. And it's less than 1" thick. The case is a really attractive shiny black... shiny for now anyway. I'm sure it will get scuffed and scratched in short order. But for now it's pretty slick looking.

With only a USB cable port and a button on the door, operation is as easy as it's going to get. The drive seems relatively "solid" for its size and weight. I wouldn't recklessly toss this thing into a bag or suitcase, but given reasonable care it feels sturdy enough to last quite a while.

I think this is just about perfect. It is quiet, compact and works with a variety of media at reasonable speeds: 8X DVD+R, 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD+R DL, 8X DVD-R, 6X DVD-RW, 5X DVD-RAM, 8X DVD-ROM, 24X CD-R, 24X CD-RW, 24X CD-ROM.

I feel pretty good about Samsung products and with the experience I've had so far with this DVD writer, give it a 5 star rating.

When the superdrive in my MacBookPro was replaced with a hard drive (so I have 1TB installed internally), I needed an external drive that I could use from time to time. While I have other machines with DVD drives, there are still times it would be nice (or even necessarry) to have a drive hooked up to the machine.

While you can find just such a drive from MCE tech on-line, it's way over priced. That's where this drive comes in.

It is priced right, it's a great form factor and size, and it is compatiable with the mac. Mostly.

One thing to be aware of is that for it to work reliably, you need to be sure that you have two USB ports powering this unit. This is not possible with what's in the box unless you add a USB cable extender (female on one end, male on the other). While I was able to get the drive to work with just one usb port plugged into it, I kept losing contact with the drive. It would just stop responding.

Normally in this case you would add an external power supply to the drive to make sure it had sufficient power, but not only is there not one included, there's no place to plug external power into this unit! So that got me thinking that the next best thing would be to give it two USB power ports. So I found an extra USB extender cable that I had laying around, plugged it in and the problem went away.

The downside is that on a laptop like the MBP you've just used up all of your USB ports. Not a problem for me generally, but if you like using other USB devices you're going to need a powered hub. This is something I did not test.

With two USB ports plugged in, I was able to do the following without issue.

Burn CD's with iTunes
Burn DVD's with DVDSP and iDVD
Burn anything using Toast
Use RipIt to rip DVD's
Use FairMount to mount DVDs
Install Windows XP and Windows 7 with VMware Fusion
Install software

What I was not able to do...

Watch Movies in apple DVD player. This is a limitation of the Apple software, and there is a simple terminal hack to get around this. It's not really a problem for me though since I never really use DVD's in this way. I would tend to rip them first and watch them later off the hard drive.

Boot from a Windows CD to install Windows7 on a BootCamp partition. However... this was before I added the second USB cable. It would boot to the DVD and get part way into the install, but then it would suddenly not recognize the DVD drive and ask me to install drivers in order to use it, even though it had already been using it. This could have been related to the power issue, but I have not gone back to test this since I ended up going with VMware Fusion instead.

By the way, all of this was done using Snow Leopard, so it's safe to say that the results should be the same if you have Leopard.

So overall I'm pleased. For the money, it's probably the best thing out there for a Mac. The only low mark is the fact that it needs two USB ports, and that they really don't make that clear to you, nor do they provide a way to plug in external power as an alternative.

After a long search, reading a lot of reviews. And price comparison; I got this drive, mainly to use with my Acer Netbook which has no optical drive. It installs in no time, real plug and play. As noted by other reviewers, It has two regular USB plugs, both are connect to a single mini-USB plug, it did work fine with a single USB connected when reading CD's or playing DVD's, however, it needed the two when writing, it seems it draws more power when writing, and one USB does not supply enough power for the task.
The drive is very thin and small, very easy to carry. It is very well built and looks good too.
I use it mainly to burn DVD's. So far I did almost 40 or so with no problem. The speed is comparable with any other burner I've used, did not notice any difference. Same goes with the noise level (very Low).
I give 4 stars for the short UBS cable; Samsung could have added another foot of cable to make it more practical. Otherwise, it is a very well made and very practical portable burner.