External DVD Drive for MAC AIR

[kiteflyer]

Can someone suggest a good, but tiny and light, external drive. I would like to be able to burn dual layer disks on it, etc. If the Mac one is best I guess I could go with it but I understand it works ONLY with the Macbook Air.

I looked at several external drives in Best Buy in the PC section and non of them said anything about supporting the Mac. Isn't that weird. I have not been able to look at the Mac external drive outside of the box.

 

[jim4spam]

OWC have some external drives for the mac. check it out. I haven't used one but I bought hard drives from here.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/optical-drives/superdrives/

 

[HLdan]

Any external USB optical drive will work with the MBA. I bought an HP from Target. Said it supports Windows because of some nonsense PC software in the box. Worked without any additional drivers on my Air.

 

[plathunter]

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I use a Lenova that works fine and on the box it said nothing about supporting Mac only said windows
The most important thing you need to check for are the amount of USB drives that DVD player requires because some require 2 which makes it useless for the older air models and a pain for the newer ones

 

[nfl46]

I have the Apple Superdrive. It is pretty good. I am able to burn dual-layer DVDs with my Verbatim 8.5GB disks.

 

[Alvesang]

"Tiny and light" is a typical Superdrive description. I just got the MBA 11,6" and the external Superdrive and I am still astonished how small and *pardonmyfrench* sexy that little drive is. And of course, it works perfectly. Other and maybe most importantly cheaper drives will do the exact same thing, but not with the same style.

 

[ohwell]

Buffalo DVD burner

I picked up this Buffalo one from Fry's as an open box item for $37 and it works great.

http://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-Technology-MediaStation-Portable-DVSM-PN58U2VW/dp/B0028NNHZW

It says that it's Windows only and at first I was confused when the drive itself didn't show up. The drive will show up in Finder when you insert a DVD movie, application installer, or a blank media. It even plays DVD movies...though it's a very small screen using the DVD player.

I'm using 11" base model.

 

[kiteflyer]

Thanks

Thanks for all the suggestions. Sounds like any drive will function, just a matter of what features I can't live without.

 

[deedas]

I got the samsung external that Amazon offered around black friday. It's about as thin as a drawer style burner can get, it's super light (reaaaaally light) and it does dual layer and lightscribe. It was on sale for 40 bucks. I've only used it once but it worked just as any other Mac burner I've had. Gotta give it up to samsung they make solid stuff.

PS. it's got no open button, it's touch sensitive. Not sure if that's a pro or con.

Ooh, just went to check it out on Amazon and it looks like it's just $1 more right now than on that BF sale. Check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0044DEDBG/ref=oss_product

 

[The Samurai]

I use my Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive

Here's all the available solutions.