Originally published at: This cheap USB powered DVD drive comes in handy | Boing Boing
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No macOS and Linux?
From the description (on Amazon, “below the fold” under About this Item):
- ❀ EASY TO USE - Plug and Play, No external drive needed. This CD DVD - RW burner allows you to watch DVD/CD movies with no lag and burn music, movies to CD or DVD
- ❀ UNIVERSAL COMPATIBILITY - WindowsXP / 2003 / Wind8 / Vita / 7 , Linux, Mac 10 OS system
- ❀ HIGH SPEED - It is compatible with USB2.0 and backwards compatible with USB1.0, efficiency more stable, applies more widely.
- ❀ WELL DESIGN - It is portable for traveling with your laptop thanks to its small size. It will be specially handy for your work if you want to give presentations to the business. Just burn the DVD to suffice everything and do not need to carry laptops everywhere.
- ❀ 2 CABLES - Come with 2 cables, one is data cable and the other is power cable that can supply power to get rid of the trouble of shortage power. When connect it to the desktop, please connect both cables or connect it with the computer’s mortherboard.
Personally I would spend the extra $ to get one that was USB 3.0 capable so as to not worry about USB speed and power budget (and not use the extra cable.)
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Universal compatibility*
*Not compatible with Windows 10 or Unix based OSs
I especially liked the similar product named ‘DO NOT buy IT!’
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The ad copy is probably out of date. It says in multiple other places it work with Windows 10 and there’s no reason for it not to.
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Dunno if there is a point to getting USB 3 unless the drive read speed exceeds 480 megabits per second, which seems unlikely.
USB-C, though can supply even more power than 3, but I don’t know if you really need either… 
If you’re going to buy a slim drive these days buy a Blu-Ray capable drive. They’re cheap and get you compatibility with almost all common optical disc media out there.
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Watch out if your ports are constrained to the 500ma USB standard, you might make some coasters if you try to burn any media. I found this out several years ago when I bought a portable (Samsung I think)for a Surface Pro 4, I had to use a powered hub with it to successfully burn a disc.
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I bought one of these no-brand drives and it lasted about a year of very occasional use before refusing to read anything. Second time around I spent a bit more for an Asus drive so fingers crossed that’ll last a bit longer.
Our family likes to do backyard movie night. We’ve streamed before, but the signal sometimes is sketchy. We have a library of DVDs/BluRays and all our newer laptops don’t have optical drives, so this was a must-have. During the recent winter solstice holiday, the family received an external BR drive so we’re in good shape again.
That would be because the Samsung couldn’t even supply the 500ma. A USB 2.0 connection, which is what this drive uses, cannot draw more than 500ma during a data connection even from a powered hub.
I use a Pioneer BDR-XD05B. It uses a USB 3.0 connection so doesn’t need a second cord to supply power. Instead of a sliding tray, it has an old-school lid that flips up to expose the disc. I prefer this after an experience with a slider that scratched my media.
I have a USB power meter, it (the Samsung) absolutely did draw more from the powered hub. Which means they’re either selling non-conforming devices or relying on it being plugged into ports with the lightening bolt symbol indicating that they can supply up to an amp (something they failed to mention) when burning.
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