Please suggest a simple portable USB DVD burner to purchase in the US

[suirauqa]

I need to buy a portable USB DVD burner to complement my Toshiba Netbook. May I request the members of this forum to share with me their suggestions? I don't need anything fancy, such as lightscribe. Just plain support for reading and writing various CD and DVD formats would be good. Dual layer DVD support would be a plus, but not absolutely essential.

The only criterion is that it should be available for purchase in the US.

Can you please help?

[b66pak]

i suggest Pioneer or LG (the quality is very good) but only FAT models (SLIM = poor quality)...

http://www.lg.com/us/computer-products/optical-media/LG-external-dvd-burner-GE20LU11.jsp
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[suirauqa]

Thank you, b66pak. Unfortunately, the page from your link did not load properly. I looked at the current offerings at the LG US website, and most of the simple external ones seem to be SLIM only...

One additional criterion that would be very helpful is that presence of a proper firmware update that can render the drive region free. RPC1.org used to work marvellously for me before, but sadly not anymore somehow!

[b66pak]

link works for me...

google: LG GE20LU11 Optical Media
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[suirauqa]

The link somehow didn't load for me the first time, but it did now. Looks interesting. Could you please comment on the OS compatibility? The information at the LG website is very sparse. Do you use it with an external power adapter? Does it come with one?

[budz]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106338&cm_re=external_cd%2fdv...-338-_-Product

[suirauqa]

Thank you for the link. I appreciate it. However, despite what b66pk said above, I find myself leaning more and more towards the SLIM models... In my particular situation, I would not need to burn stuff with the computer while it is unplugged and running on battery... The SLIM models have a better form-factor, I think. But thank you all for the suggestions. Very kind of you.

[lordsmurf]

The slim models burn lots of coasters.

[suirauqa]

That may be true, Lordsmurf... Although, in different forums, people have given different impressions (good and bad) about SLIM ones in general, and in particular the Samsung SE-S048C that I ended up buying.

I was not very keen on a SLIM burner myself, but it seemed to be the best option given my requirements. I am gifting it to someone who will mainly use it as a DVD and CD reader, and perhaps very occasionally a CD-R writer. The device absolutely had to be portable, without the trouble of having to lug around additional power adapters and stuff.

Will quality and portability never merge? Sigh!