In a quest of trying to find the best external Blu-ray and DVD burner, I came up with the LG – 8x External USB 2.0 Blu-ray Disc Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Disc Rewriter from Best Buy. Recently, I had a project that required me to deliver DVDs to a client, and I was in-between equipment to be able to burn DVDs. I had a custom PC build that had an internal disc writer and works great, but I sold it around the time I needed to use the drive. So, that put me in a bind and long story short; I wanted to help you find a good working disc burner to save you the trouble I went through during this process.
My Experience To Learn From
After a bunch of research I ended up buying the OWC Mercury Pro 16X Blu-ray, 16X DVD, 48X CD Read/Write solution. There were some excellent reviews, and the specs looked nice too.
Everything was going well while burning a few DVDs, but then I started getting errors. I was using Wondershare DVD Creator for this go-round.
Software
In the past, I used Mediazilla’s disc burner program, but it is a subscription service that I canceled a while back because I did not need the services. The program worked like a charm, but I didn’t want to have to resubscribe to use the service. Therefore, I searched for an alternative program and decided to give Wondershare a try. It’s only $50 for a lifetime license. The program worked only when using the quick burn option. Anytime I tried to make a menu or customize the DVD; it would fail. SO, I was like as long as I can burn the film onto the DVD, it will be fine. Or so I thought…
…a few discs in, I started getting error messages. I thought it was the software so I emailed Wondershare and said there is a new version, and I downloaded it once they responded. Being that I was on a time crunch, I bit the bullet and resubbed to Mediazilla to get the software that worked for sure. Or so I thought…
Hardware
Now that I have used two software programs to burn these discs, used two types of computers, it had to be the hardware and not the software. I tried to burn the discs using both Mediazilla (by the way, was able to make a custom menu screen and looks so lovely) and Wondershare, on a gaming PC and Macbook 12. I had all the requirements as far as specs go, so I had one last troubleshooting attempt before I was going to have to give up on burning any more discs, and that was to get another drive.
I hopped on BestBuy.com to see what was in stock in my local store and saw there were a few options. Usually, I would buy online, order to pick up, but I wanted to see in person to look over my options. I chose to go with the LG drive.
To my surprise and relief, the lower specs and price worked like a charm. No issues at all. Used both Mediazilla and Wondershare to test and both worked. Mind that I am still not able to make a custom menu with Wondershare, so I am going to have to contact them again.
***PLOT TWIST***
I was talking to my friend, who happens to be my pastor, and he informs me there is a ten-disc ripper at the church… We spent a solid three days burning 63 DVDs and 6 Blu-rays before finding out the time/headache saving device.
“Live and learn.”
If you only need to burn a few discs, get this LG one HERE.
