Pioneer Electronics BDR-XD07B 6x Slim Portable USB 3.0 BD/DVD/CD Burner Supports BDXL & M-Disc Format with CyberLink Software, Black

I have a Dell XPS with Windows 10 and no Optical Drive. I bought this item so that I could have an optical drive, as well as be able to burn CD/DVD's. I used the provided USB 3.0 type C cord that came with the drive and attached the drive with double sided tape to the top of my computer. I did not have to download, or buy any additional software to use this drive. I plugged it in, my computer recognized it and I just started using it. I have been able to use this drive to watch video files, view photos and various other documents. I have also burned CD's and DVD's as USB drives with no issues. The drive has burned to files to disk quickly and without issues. I cannot watch DVD/BluRay movies with it. I believe this would take some secondary program, which I do not have and I do not know if it would be fast enough to smoothly watch a movie. I was concerned about it sounding like I would have to either buy, or subscribe to some third party software to use this drive. I have been able to use this drive for everything I have described, without using any third party software. I would recommend trying this drive if you are looking to add an optical drive to your PC. I have not tried swapping this drive between PC's and do not know if there would be any problem doing this.

This is a fantastic drive. It reads and writes everything and you can boot from it as well. When connected to a USB 3 port, it's fast and requires no other power source. The included product key for the Cyberlink Media Suite is a huge selling point as well. Many other external drives don't come with any software at all. The software downloads and installs easily and then functions flawlessly. I burned a Windows 10 installation DVD with Power2Go and it works fine. Power DVD plays all my discs as well. The only thing you have to make sure of during software installation is to have the drive plugged in to USB. The software will not install if it doesn't detect a Pioneer drive connected to the system.

Before I purchased this, I went through a lot of reviews of external Blu-Ray drives. Originally I was going to go with an LG drive, as I used an internal LG drive in my previous desktop. However, after reading some reviews where users reported their discs being scratched, I decided to go with Pioneer instead. Years ago, I had Pioneer head units in my vehicles, so I knew them for their quality back then.I purchased this drive primarily for reading a bunch of my existing Blu-Rays and DVDs. In total, I've probably had it read over 100 various discs so far, and I've only had it not work once on a DVD that had a lot of scratches. To be fair, I also tried that same disk in another drive, which also failed to read it successfully. However, interestingly enough, the Pioneer drive was able to play discs that the other drive wasn't able to play successfully, so I'll chalk that up to a win for the Pioneer drive.This drive is incredibly slim and lightweight. It's fully powered over USB 3.0, which was a selling point for me as I didn't want to use two USB ports to power the device. The version from Amazon comes with the latest firmware already installed (as of today that's 1.03). When I first received the drive, I was using it on a shaky table, and despite the table being bumped multiple times the drive didn't falter or slow down. All in all, I've been really impressed with it. My only concern is its portability, as it does seem a bit fragile. I'm not travelling with this drive though, so portability isn't as important to me (other than it moving from my desk to a shelf).A couple words to the wise though:1. The drive comes with Quiet Mode enabled by default, which limits the read speed to 2.0x maximum. You'll need to download the Pioneer Drive Utility to switch it to Performance Mode to unlock it's ability to read discs up to 6.0x. Pioneer (strangely) doesn't list the Drive Utility as a download on their US website when you look up the drive. You can find a link to the Drive Utility (as well as firmware updates) here: https://pioneer.jp/device_e/product-e/ibs/device_e/dev00001r_e.html#DriveUtility When I first started using the drive, I thought I had received a faulty one when the drive speed wouldn't exceed 2.0x, only to find that it's firmware had to be modified. Once you change this setting, you won't need to change it every time you disconnect and reconnect the drive.2. There are two variants of this drive. This particular drive (BDR-XD07B) does NOT play UHD disks. Pioneer does sell a version of this drive that does play UHD disks, which is the BDR-XD07UHD. You can find that drive here: https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-BDR-XD07UHD-Slim-Portable-Burner/dp/B081R7HGV4/ Pioneer's marketing doesn't do the best job at highlighting the differences between their own drives. I meant to purchase a drive with UHD support, but ended up with this one. In either case, I'm still happy with the drive and it's my own fault for not reading the description closely enough, so my rating remains at 5 stars.

I had the old version of this drive, and it worked perfectly with Ashampoo Studio 23. Then it got shoved off the side of my desk and the interface for the USB cable broke.And then. And then I received this new one and it cannot write a disc to save its previously excellent reputation. The new drive has a slide on the side of the holder, which I do not think is a brake to stop a disc from rotating, yet it is new. I predict that's not the problem, but the hardware itself.I wasted 140 bucks for something that is junk. Everything gets worse, as this drive proves. I wish I would have hooked it up sooner, before the return window expired. For you, I tell you, AVOID THIS DRIVE. It is Chinese junk.The old one was great, but this one is a failure. Now, out of all that money, I have to look for another drive to archive my files. I cannot believe, yet in my 50 years I see where everything is going, that nothing new is better, but gets worse. We see this in software on Android and what ever that other eco-system for the soy-boys (Peach, Apple, Pear or something).I am very disappointed with this purchase.

It is a small footprint. Records at pretty awesome speeds. Plays UHD disks. The CyberLink software included does not install because it won't believe there is a Pioneer BD Burner attached to the system so that's useless. There are many free programs out there to burn and read Blu-Ray. The supplied cord is 6 inches so it is also pretty useless. Luckily I had a USB 3 cord laying around. Burned two disks so far and it is doing great work.