Getting the right external DVD writer for my iMac

Swordylove · Jul 3, 2013

I'm trying to find a 3rd party external DVD writer for my iMac (late 2012). What bothers me is that most of them use the dual/y-shaped USB cable instead of straight forward USB cable like Apple's Superdrive. One that I like and use a single straight forward USB cable is not available in my first world country.

From what I understand the extra USB plug is for drawing more power to the drive, and it's not required to be plugged in at all time.

My question is, since Apple's Superdrive can do all its work with a single USB cable, does this mean those other drives can also do all its work without attaching the extra USB plug to my iMac? I heard somewhere that the newer computers can provide enough power with a single USB port. Is that true or it depends on the DVD drive?

I despise the Y-shaped USB cable and I wish to avoid using it (if I can't avoid buying it).

maflynn · Jul 3, 2013

Why not get apple's superdrive?

AnonMac50 · Jul 3, 2013

I have an LG drive that connects to my MacBook Pro with just one cable. Works really good and supports more discs than the the Apple drive.

Swordylove · Jul 3, 2013

maflynn said:
Why not get apple's superdrive?

Because it's too expensive, plus I heard it doesn't work on PCs and older Macs.

AnonMac50 said:
I have an LG drive that connects to my MacBook Pro with just one cable. Works really good and supports more discs than the the Apple drive.

You mean that drive comes with the Y, but you don't plug in the extra USB? Can it do all work smoothly including writing DVD like that?

Bear · Jul 3, 2013

What about an external optical drive with a power supply? Those definitely use only one USB port.

SandboxGeneral · Jul 3, 2013

I've been using an ASUS External 12X Blu-Ray Burner with USB 3.0 BW-12D1S-U/BLK/G, Black for burning DVD's and it's been very nice. I also used it to rip my Blu-ray's to iTunes as well.

KaraH · Jul 3, 2013

*lost* What is wrong with, oh, just plugging in the right cable?

Brian33 · Jul 3, 2013

I just came across this Samsung at amazon: here.

I've never used it but one of the recent comments says "it only uses one USB to connect instead of 2 like most external drives."

rtrueman · Jul 3, 2013

Brian33 said:
I just came across this Samsung at amazon: here.

I've never used it but one of the recent comments says "it only uses one USB to connect instead of 2 like most external drives."

I'm using the Samsung on a Late 2008 15" MBP. While it comes with the Y cable, I've only connected one connector and it works fine. I think I've done everything including burning blu ray. Good little drive.

Rob

Swordylove · Jul 3, 2013

Bear said:
What about an external optical drive with a power supply? Those definitely use only one USB port.

Those are worse lol. The point is I hate extra cables. And I hate to have to use 2 USB ports when I know it's possible to use only 1 as proven by Apple's Superdrive.

p/s: Btw, I like your name... Bear. Haha... so short, simple, and cute. Bear...

Brian33 said:
I just came across this Samsung at amazon: here.

I've never used it but one of the recent comments says "it only uses one USB to connect instead of 2 like most external drives."

I don't need Blu-rays. Actually this is the one I like that is not available in my fortunate country even after 1 year of release: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Portable-External-SE-218BB-RSBS/dp/B008AJLPYS/ref=sr_1_1

The reviews also say it uses only one USB.

Fishrrman · Jul 4, 2013

"The point is I hate extra cables."

It makes no difference whether you "hate" them or not.

You may have to use "an extra cable" to get things working.

I have a 2012 Mac Mini (no internal CD/DVD drive). I bought a Samsung SE-506AB/TSBD Bluray/DVD/CD burner, hooks to my Mini and runs just fine with a single USB3 cable.

Perhaps that would work for you.

KaraH · Jul 4, 2013

My external CD burner is connected via a single firewire but as far as I know the USB connection does not require two cables. What does a splitter give you? It is not like there is magically more electricity coming out of the single USB port from the computer. So I am still lost what the question even is.

KaraH · Jul 4, 2013

Brian33 said:
I've never used it but one of the recent comments says "it only uses one USB to connect instead of 2 like most external drives."

What sort of a computer are they hooking up? The only time I have ever needed to hook two usb cables to an external device was working on my dad's ancient mac that used usb 1.1 talking to a modern drive, I have never seen it on machines that use USB 2 or 3.

Devices that take more power than they can get over usb do not use another usb cable. They use a power supply.

Fatboy71 · Jul 4, 2013

I have the late 2012 iMac and I went with the Apple Superdrive. Reasons been I didn't want to have anymore cables than necessary and also the other drives I looked at on Amazon had the Y shape USB cables and there was no guarantee that I might need both USB cables connected.

Also, the other drives I looked were the draw type (some of which seemed very flimsy), whereas the Apple Superdrive is slot loaded (which I prefer).

I use my Apple Superdrive on Windows 7 (with Parallels Desktop) with no issues at all.

davidra · Jul 4, 2013

Swordylove said:
Those are worse lol. The point is I hate extra cables. And I hate to have to use 2 USB ports when I know it's possible to use only 1 as proven by Apple's Superdrive.

Yeah, I wanted one without it's own power cord too, until I realized that the maximum burn speed for a USB-powered drive was 8x. That isn't close to what I need, so I got an LG powered drive that records at 24X. Worth every penny and every inconvenience....which isn't any. It's not like it's a laptop or something.

fig · Jul 4, 2013

Swordylove said:
Because it's too expensive, plus I heard it doesn't work on PCs and older Macs.

Don't older Macs already have drives?

Personally I'm looking at spending about $10 more than the Superdrive for an external Samsung blu-ray, powered by only one USB cable. They look to have a similar DVD model for only $35 US on Amazon.

Fishrrman · Jul 5, 2013

"What does a splitter give you? It is not like there is magically more electricity coming out of the single USB port from the computer. So I am still lost what the question even is."

There often is not enough "USB power" to run the DVD/CD drive from a _single_ USB port.

The splitter cable connects to TWO USB ports, and provides "double the power", so to speak.

That's what "the question" is.

Swordylove · Jul 5, 2013

Fishrrman said:
"The point is I hate extra cables."

It makes no difference whether you "hate" them or not.

You may have to use "an extra cable" to get things working.

It makes a difference when there are options to avoid the extra cable and using extra USB port.

Fatboy71 said:
Also, the other drives I looked were the draw type (some of which seemed very flimsy), whereas the Apple Superdrive is slot loaded (which I prefer).

I prefer the slot loading type as well, but I've read horror stories about disc getting stuck inside the drive and it doesn't have the paperclip hole for emergency eject. But still, I'd buy Apple Superdrive if it were not that expensive.

fig said:
Don't older Macs already have drives?

Personally I'm looking at spending about $10 more than the Superdrive for an external Samsung blu-ray, powered by only one USB cable. They look to have a similar DVD model for only $35 US on Amazon.

Except when their drives are broken. And yeah, that's the one that I wanted but it's not available in my country.

I'm currently looking at Buffalo's: http://www.amazon.com/BUFFALO-USB-Portable-Writer-DVSM-PC58U2VB/dp/B004ZMVQRA/ref=sr_1_1

This one is has two USB cables, but they're not the Y type. If I need to use only one, the other one can stay hidden. It's also available in white (with white USB cables) so I think this is the one I'm getting.

Thrifty1 · Jul 6, 2013

I bought this drive for my new iMac this year. Works great. My son's 2009 iMac built in SuperDrive does not work all the time and this works great on that older iMac as well. About $30. I would have paid more for an Apple external SuperDrive except Apple disables it from working on many of its computers (stupid move as they forced me to buy a competitor product).

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...08db_tsb_SE_208DB_TSWS_Slim_Portable_DVD.html

I forgot to mention this only uses one USB cable.

Swordylove · Jul 7, 2013

Thrifty1 said:
I bought this drive for my new iMac this year. Works great. My son's 2009 iMac built in SuperDrive does not work all the time and this works great on that older iMac as well. About $30. I would have paid more for an Apple external SuperDrive except Apple disables it from working on many of its computers (stupid move as they forced me to buy a competitor product).

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...08db_tsb_SE_208DB_TSWS_Slim_Portable_DVD.html

I forgot to mention this only uses one USB cable.

That's the one that's most commonly available here in my country. But I've seen it uses the Y-type USB cable, though it's probably not always required to plug in both USB heads. Did you mean yours is Y-type as well? It's still technically one USB cable but with two heads.

Fatboy71 · Jul 7, 2013

Swordylove said:
I prefer the slot loading type as well, but I've read horror stories about disc getting stuck inside the drive and it doesn't have the paperclip hole for emergency eject. But still, I'd buy Apple Superdrive if it were not that expensive.

There's a few ways of getting a stuck disk out of a slot loading drive. One is getting a thick piece of card (sometimes it needs to be folded) and inserting it into the slot and keep moving the card around and pressing eject until the disk gets unbalanced and gets ejected.

A friend of mine has a tv/dvd combo. This has a slot loading drive, and he got a dvd stuck and I removed it by doing the above method.

Swordylove · Jul 11, 2013

Got the Buffalo one.

The first time I plug it in, it makes stuttering sound and the light flashes red - a sign that I needed to plug in the other (boost) USB. So I had to plug the other one in and after the light turns blue, I took it out and no problem. DVDs spin at full speed without needing a 'boost'.

But if I unplug it and plug it in again, I need to plug in both USBs again first and then I can take the boost one out. I don't know why it does that. But okay...

Lancer · Jul 12, 2013

Anyone found a good BluRay one, I'd get the Apple one as the price is not that much higher than a lot of other good DVDs on the market but I really would like BluRay.

I actually think Apple going back in time and offering DVD as an external option is a good step, some have had no end of trouble with internal DVD in their iMac's so with an external one if it breaks it's a lot easier to replace or send back to Apple.

wn1ytw · Oct 24, 2014

Broken Superdrive, downside to non-Apple USB drive?

The internal Superdrive on my mid-2011 iMac 12,1 is not usable due to some SD cards inadvertently inserted in the wrong slot and stuck rattling inside making using the drive for its intended purpose impossible.
I purchased a Samsung SE-208AB that works nicely via USB.

My question is I have a full install DVD of OS X Snow Leopard I may need to reinstall due to the Yosemite 'upgrade' borking my WIFI connection. Will I have trouble reinstalling Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.3 DVD-ROM Full Version In Retail Box on my iMac with an external non-Apple optical drive?

I realize this could have gone to several forums, sorry if I picked the wrong one. I have had this question on my mind for a couple years.

Thanks
scott

Getting the right external DVD writer for my iMac

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