BUFFALOMediaStation Desktop 16x External Blu-ray Writer for PC with USB 3.0. TAA Compliant. Plays and Burns Blu-Rays, DVDs, and CDs.

Built like a tank. Works great.

This is a really high quality build that plays Bluray video quickly. The included Cyberlink software is very out of date, so you have to buy an upgrade, but the upgrade is cheaper than buying a retail license, so you save some money that way if you need Bluray player software.Works great over USB 3.0 -- my previous external Bluray player only supported USB 2.0, and it took ages to start buffering the video playback. This one is much snappier thanks to the greater throughput.The physical dimensions are of course quite large, but this is understandable: it takes technology a while to miniaturize. Since BDXL writing is state of the art right now, there are no slim form factor drives that can do everything this drive does, and as fast as this drive does it. If you were looking for a slim form factor device that isn't the size of a laptop and doesn't require external power, look elsewhere, but be aware that it will be slower and less capable. That is the tradeoff you must evaluate when buying an optical drive.The unit is solid and seems difficult to break, unless you dropped it out a window on concrete or something. The hard plastic shell feels like something you would expect out of a decent laptop build.You can definitely hear some noise when the disc starts spinning up and seeking, but once the drive is streaming your video or burning your disc, it's basically silent. You won't have to worry about hearing this drive over your movie, that's for sure. During playback, all you'll hear is the whirring of a small, low-speed fan -- a couple decibels at most.

I had ordered a different writer/burner last year when my pictures on my hard drive started to corrupt. I got one from a different brand after researching for days. I hated it! It spit out half of the disks as errors when some of them were perfectly fine and it took anywhere from 2-8 hours to write one disk and half the time spit it out halfway to two thirds of the way through it was infuriating! However! This year I needed to find another one due to my computer having serious issues and most likely needing to be wiped. I did more research and decided on this one! The software you have to download is a little confusing but I got through it. I've done one disk so far with no issues! It hasn't spit the disk out, completely finished the writing in less than 30 minutes (wrote about 20gb) and is more than 60% through the verification at less than 40 minutes total so far for everything! I may skip the verification next time to cut down on time but I'm honestly really impressed and will be keeping this one!!

Beware, I bought one of these two years ago and loved it. But sadly after extended use it no longer burns but still plays and rips. I bought a replacement and was sent a Pioneer bdr-209m dressed in Buffalo's clothing. Buffalo tech support told me it was a driver problem with my computer. My computer seems to have to problem correctly identifying my other Buffalo, or my LG, or my Mitsubishi or even my Memorex. Still I did as they suggested and it made no difference. I tried it on my father's PC and it shows it as a Pioneer, took it to a friends and it still shows as a Pioneer on his PC. Three strikes and you're out Buffalo, returning it for an Amazon credit and will buy a different drive. This would have been my third Buffalo drive, have always liked their quality. Maybe someday they'll again sell their own drives and I'll try them out again. In the photo posted, the top one is the older one and you can see they're a little different. The bottom one is the new one and if you compare it with one of the Pioneer bdr-209m drives they sell here on Amazon you'll see they are identical except for the Pioneer logo.Update 2/7/17I bought another Buffalo drive (40099860201915) from a different vendor. Same damn thing, a Pioneer BDR-209M on two different updated systems. It rips disc at at a third of the speed and is a much noisier unit, it just looks cheaper and is. You can buy the pioneer for just over $70 and a nice optical drive external enclosure for around $50 here at Amazon and have the same thing for less. Apparently Buffalo has found a way to save money and increase profits at the expense of their customers. I'll be contacting Amazon's purchasing dept. as they are also being ripper off and maybe even the BBB.Update 4/6/17Filed complaint with BBB. In Buffalo's reply they did admit to using a Pioneer drive now so it was never a driver problem like their tech "support" claim three different times. They also claim it has the same specs as the older unit. Not true, I still have a working older unit and it's not a noisy and it reads and rips disc much faster, They also claimed this was some other problem related to software or computer. Couldn't believe them the first time and this claim also just doesn't hold water.The truth is this drive is just a cheep knock-off of the original, it even looks cheep, nothing like on the box. Do yourself a favor and go with the LG 14X BE14NU40 or the ASUS 12X (BW-12D1S-U Lite), I have both of those models as well and they're better blu ray drives. Not to mention you're getting what you pay for, not a cheep knock-off.