Best external optical drive?

Buy the least expensive one from NewEgg. You'll hardly use it anyway.

 

Pretty much any USB DVD/CD drive will work with your Mac. I've used LG, HP and Toshiba portable DVD drives over the years. They were all marked for Windows only and they all worked flawlessly with my Macs, including Lightscribe features for the drives that supported it.

I particularly like this one, sits inconspicuously on the foot of my iMac but looks good too

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Slot-Loading-Portable-SuperMulti-PA3845U-1DV2/dp/B0040UOP20/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1341599120&sr=8-5&keywords=toshiba+portable+dvd+writer

 

Exactly. I have a Rosewill brand from Newegg that's been great. Cost $20 or so.

Read the reviews for the best sellers, you'll likely find reviews mentioning if someone's had success using it with a Mac or Macbook Air and whether it works off one USB port or requires two.

 

I bought this Toshiba drive and was disappointed when I unpacked it with a USB Y cable.

Then I was delighted to see that it worked just fine with a normal USB A-B cable.

Then I was disappointed again when I found that ANY disc (CD or DVD) burned without the Y cable did not work. Windows and OSX reported that it burned successfully, but discs either won't play or sometimes even show up as blank in whatever device I use them.

The same USB port on my HP tower works just fine to power and read/write data on my external hard drive, but if I plug in the DVD burner instead I get crap results. The Y cable works just fine, I'd be OK with it at my office, but there is NO way it would work with the MBA USB ports being on opposite sides of the computer. The Y cable is only about 2 feet long and the split part of it can only be separated to span 6-7 inches. I decided to fork out the extra money for the Superdrive and haven't looked back. Even on Windows it works well. I never pay attention to burn times though, so I can't vouch for any speed.

 

I bought this Asus model that works just fine on 1 usb port.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135256

 

SE-218BB. by Samsung. awesome.

 

Do you have an iMac? You could always air gap from the MBA to it's DVD drive.

 

I use a Toshiba slim internal SD-L802B (12 EUR used) with an external USB enclosure from Amazon (12 Eur new), so for 24 Eur I can burn the occasional DVD-R or CD-R and play my HD-DVDs on my MBA under Bootcamp in Windows 7 (with TotalMedia Theater 5).

My recommendation would be you buy just an enclosure and pick from an old Windows laptop any slim IDE drive, it'll work flawlessly. Any HD-DVD or Blu-ray player will work, too !

 

Apple Superdrive

It just works well, is inexpensive, burns CDs at 24x, writes them at the same speed, DVDs at 8X both read and write. It's rugged as well.

 

I bought the Apple Superdrive for two reasons:

1. It ONLY needs one USB cable.
2. It is guaranteed to work for Lion, Mountain Lion, etc. Apple appears to have a habit of removing non-Apple hardware support from their OS from version to version.

Luckily I was able to get a brand new in the box Superdrive off ebay for $57.

 

1. Many / Most use one USB port, as long as it was made this decade. You might find some really old ones on Amazon that require 2 USB ports, but pretty much all the ones in Newegg use only one.
2. I highly doubt Apple would remove support to external USB drives anytime soon. It's a very standard part of the USB spec.

 

Reports are that certain USB Ethernet adapters that worked in Snow Leopard stopped working in Lion. So obviously Apple did something.

I'm not saying that Appel will remove USB DVD drive support, but I could see them removing non-Apple USB DVD drives.

 

I too am in the market for an external optical drive. I'm going to be ripping my whole CD collection (about 400-500 CDs), so I need something that's rugged and well-built and won't fail after the first 50 rips. Is the SuperDrive good enough or should I go with something else? If not, what should I go for? I have no need for it to be thin nor light nor beautifully designed, I'll only need it while at home.

 

I guess anything is possible, but ethernet support is not part of the USB spec and hence is usually does require additional drivers. Pulling out USB drive support would be like like pulling out USB mouse support; they're both very much an essential function of the USB spec.

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Although I've only handled a few of the models, they're all equally durable in my opinion.

My suggestion then is to go buy one from a local store such as MicroCenter or Best Buy; that way you have someone to go to for an exchange or a refund if it breaks after 50 CDs.

For real durability, try to look for the external drives that are based off desktop hardware. They're much bigger: usually 8+ inches long and 2 inches tall; and always require a power adapter. However, because the drives are 5" drives intended for desktop use, they will certainly be more durable than the slim ones based off of laptop drives.

 

I'm not sure if it would be an issue for you, but I'm not sure that you can play DVD movies using the Apple DVD player app with a non-Apple optical drive. I think there might be some other minor limitations too with non Apple drives. I went for the Superdrive, even though I don't use it often, because I like having the "proper" matching kit, and its well-made, but its certainly not essential to get the Apple drive.

 

Hey everyone, I just wanted to suggest a method that is completely free if you have another computer with a disk drive. Here's the link: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5287?viewlocale=en_US

Credits go to GGJstudios who posted this in one of my threads.
I'm not sure if this will work for bootcamp but should be fine for installing software.

Or you can create disk images on another computer and then put those on a USB, although this method is relatively complicated and time consuming but this method should work for bootcamp.

Disclaimer: I am not encouraging the use of illegal file sharing etc. and this method should only be used for software that allows it.

 

Audio CDs aren't supported, so that's really not an option for me...

 

Amazon's "Basics" drive has to be worth a punt for twenty quid?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003M0NT1M/

 

Oh hang on.... Misread that bit the first time I read it, I thought they said they are supported what's the point of it then?

 

Problem is is that that drive is a double USB plug and that's really not practical for the MBA.

 

One of the reviewers reckons it works with just one off the Air.

 

I'm fan of the Lite-on from newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106329

I like the top-loading design, reminds me of the old sony diskman and makes it feel retro.

One USB port is all that's required. Reported working with OSX (forgot where, either elsewhere in this forum or on amazon reviews or something)

 

Anyone know of a good inexpensive blu-ray drive that works perfectly on the 2012 MBA using only 1 USB Port? I'm looking for one that I can watch my bd movies on while traveling. Thanks!