Archgon Stream UHD External 4K Ultra HD BD Player, External Blu-ray BDXL Burner for PC Laptop USB 3.0 / -C, M-Disc, Protective Box, External UHD BluRay Drive, External Blue-Ray Drive, Aluminum Black

Used for ripping my Blu-ray to a NAS that then streams to my home cinema. Reads everything so far, good gear.

============Background:============With Apple trying to persuade people that optical media is a legacy concept, it is difficult to find Bluray writers that work with the Mac, at a reasonable price, and more difficult still, to find one that isn't matt black, and that complements the Mac's aluminium look, so I spent some time, hunting around to find a suitable device. I am only intending on reviewing this product for use with a Mac as I have internal Bluray devices on my Windows based PC's/Laptops.============Packaging:============The drive is supplied in a very "Applesque" styled box, this is deliberate I suspect and intended to give you the feeling that the device is a premium product. There are the bare minimum of instructions with the drive, although for most people that will not matter as they will just plug the drive in and work away.===============Build quality:===============The Archgon Bluray drive is a Panasonic UJ-260 drive, fitted into a brushed aluminium enclosure. The drive, being a Panasonic, is of decent quality and the brushed aluminium enclosure is also of decent quality, being made of 1.5mm thick aluminium. It is worth noting the enclosure finish is a brushed aluminium finish rather than the matt, satin aluminium finish of Apple's laptops, so it's not an exact match.The device is supplied with a decent quality USB-Sata cable with twin USB connectors on it for those devices that cannot supply sufficient power to it from one USB port.=======================In Operation:=======================The drive is fast and works reliably (so far) and I have no complaints. There is some drive noise as there is from all USB optical drives, but this tends to be during spinup and spindown operations. During normal operation such as watching a Bluray movie, the drive is quiet and unobtrusive. It was powered adequately from just one of the USB 3 sockets on my Macbook Air (June 2013 model)It is worth noting, you will need to purchase separately, software to play Bluray movies on the Mac, as Apple do not provide a way to play Bluray themselves and there is no Mac suitable software supplied with the drive. There are several software options available, I chose the MacGo Bluray player, which is not free, but there are free options about too, albeit they are a little convoluted to install and use.=======================Summary :=======================[+] Good quality drive in a decent quality enclosure[+] Powered by one USB port on a June 2013 Macbook Air[+] One of the few Bluray writers available in an aluminium enclosure that will look OK with your Mac[+] Relatively inexpensive compared to some of its (few) rivals[-] Aluminium enclosure is not an exact match for Apple's aluminium laptops[-] No software supplied for Mac's, you will have to obtain software separately

worst bluray player ever. my old lite-on extrenal drive which is over 8 years old that i might add never let me down in that time and still plays anything i put into the drive but is starting to get a little loud so i thought it was time for an upgradei settled on the archgon due to reviews and my personal searching and the fact lite-on are not doing drives any more at least on amazon.buying the archgon has been a huge let down as its rubbish at everything.my 8 year old external bluray play performs better than this archgon in every way that you can imagine.firstly the archgon takes forever to load a disc cd bluray and dvd to my various playback software and thats if it will even load at all, half the time it stops doing anything and i need to unplug it and plug it back in, just when i think its going to play or load all lights go off and it stops doing anything.it is so noisy constantly ramping up at high and down to distraction playing a movie is annyoning as it loud and ramping up and down.its almost like someone is switching a angle grinder on and off....its laser must be so weak as even the faintest finger of print will stop it working freeze and skip when my old liteon will play through almost anything even light scratches, the archgon will not tolerate even the smallest barely noticeable mark on the disc.i feel the buffer on-board memory or whatever it has, has an issue as it is constantly ramping up and down at high speed and the MOST ANNOYING THING EVER IS every couple of seconds during playback and no matter what disc i put in it constantly freezes every 10-20 or so seconds like clockwork even if the disc is brand new,IT MAKES MOVIE WATCHING A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCEi updated graphics drivers, codecs and even purchased the latest power dvd playback software and it did not help, i am running a very powerful gaming laptop by asus approx 1 year old so its not a laptop issue, as soon as i put my old liteon drive back in every playback issue goes away and i can watch a movie jerk freeze free.the fact is this drive is useless i will never buy a archgon product ever again ..i even bought a external power supply and latest highest quality usb cable which did not fix the freezing and read issues.i have returned this junk and i do not recommend that you buy archgon products especially bluray players,i paid just a few pounds extra and got a new asus drive and it is working like a dream, almost totally silent and plays even badly scratched discs flawlessly,my other half's Toshiba drive that i got for her birthday is also totally amazing drive but a little pricy but even better than the asus which i bought to replace this useless archgon drive.if you are looking for a dvd/bluray drive i recommend you look at toshiba or asus and walk away from archgon....

You buy the Blu-ray drive to play Blu-ray disc, I assume, only buying the drive is only half the story, it doesn't come with any software, true, the PC will recognize the drive but it can't play Blu-ray disc, for this you need software, the documentation recommends Cyberlink 19 Pro at £60 a pop!The drive physically looks fine, solid and connects straight off, so 2-stars - the fact that you have to purchase additional software looses it 3-stars

Should have been weary. This item does not function properly. Yes it was cheap, it didn't advise that it was broken. Going to return.

A few issues-noisy,tray sometimes difficult to close but otherwise ok.No software supplied?

While I haven’t exhaustively tested this in all modes yet, compared to my previous Pioneer optical drive, its more robust, and for mobile users comes with a carrying case and appropriate cables. Its a very good drive.

Appeared to be an elegant piece of German engineering but the manual could have written on a postage stamp and the item could not have been checked prior to shipment as it was well and truly faulty.

Produit reçu parfaitement emballé avec bel étui de protection, câbles et mode d'emploi. Je l'ai installé et mon PC portable l'a de suite reconnu. Fonctionnement optimal pour ma part, même si je ne l'ai pas encore sollicité pour graver des Blu-ray.

Excelente producto, me funciona muy bien. He grabado discos blu-ray BDXL (100 GB) sin problemas, aunque le costó unas 3 h. Viene con una funda muy cuidada y práctica, en la que cabe el cable USB-c y que protege la unidad perfectamente. El embalaje original también es correcto y cuidado. Excelente grabadora.

Also soweit ist es ein gutes Gerät und auch das brennen und erkennen von CD's, DVD's und Blu Rays läuft unter meinen IMAC 2017 mit USB-C Anschluß ohne Probleme. USB-3 hab ich nicht probiert, denke aber mal dass es auch laufen wird.-Zur Qualität und Lebensdauer des Gerätes kann ich natürlich noch nichts sagen. Ich hoffe er hält auch lange und geht nicht gleich kaputt. (Obwohl man bei Bewertungen von Anderen auch immer sehr vorsichtig sein muss. Man weiss heutzutage nicht mehr was Wahrheit oder Lüge (Fake) usw. ist. Viele machen auch einfach nur das Produkt schlecht, obwohl es garnicht stimmt.- Blu Ray Filme kann man mit den kostenlosen Player abspielen im App Store. Ist leider auch schon etwas alt aber funktioniert noch under Mojave.- Alle meine alten DVD's werden problemlos erkannt und auch Blu-Ray's.- Ich denke Blu Ray's erstellen ist auch nicht so schwer. Mann muss halt nur eine vernünftige Software für MAC finden und dies ist leider nicht so einfach. Bei Windows ist das halt kein Problem.- Leider war es auch erstmal eine "Qual" unter Mojave die richtige Brennersoftware zu finden. Vieles ist total veraltet aber z.B. Toast Burn hat sofort funktioniert (hat aber komischerweise schlechte Bewertungen) und mir eine M-Disk ohne Probleme gebrannt. Der Mangel an Software für den Mac ist aber nicht Schuld des Verkäufers. Der kann ja nichts dafür :-)

Appena arrivato l'ho messo subito sotto senza fare nessun rodaggio, gli ho già fatto masterizzare parecchi cd \ dvd \ bluray con foto e video della mia famiglia che avevo sul pc da anni. Funziona perfettamente io lo uso con Windows 10.L'unica cosa che mi da fastidio è che ha bisogno di 2 porte USB una 2.0 e l'altra 3.0 che devono essere vicine altrimenti tocca comprare cavi prolunga. Il vantaggio però è che così facendo non devo attaccarlo alla corrente.Per quanto riguarda la masterizzazione è preciso e probabilmente riesce a correggere gli errori meglio di altri, che a parità di cd\dvd leggermente rovinati si bloccavano. Per quanto riguarda la lettura di bluray in 4k francamente non sono riuscito, ma presumo che occorra una scheda grafica apposita ed un programma ad hock perché il masterizzatore apre e visualizza i files di bluray 4k a differenza dell'altro che avevo quindi non credo sia un problema dello stesso. Lo consiglio, il prezzo però è un po' alto.

E' uno strumento perfetto che mantiene le promesse e, con il software di MKV, va oltre ogni aspettativa