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Top-Rated Products
Customer Reviews for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
Model: DVD557s
SKU: 9948348
UPC: 844149031125
Create customized CDs and DVDs with this double-layer DVD±RW/CD-RW drive that features up to 8x DVD+R and DVD-R write speeds for fast operation. It is LightScribe-enabled, so you can easily create personalized discs with custom-designed labels.
Average Customer Rating:
4.0
out of 5
(14 Reviews) 14
Rating Snapshot 14 reviews
5 stars
7
4 stars
4
3 stars
1
2 stars
0
1 star
2
79% of customers would recommend this product to a friend
(
11 out of
14)
Customer Reviews for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
Review 1 for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
Works great!
Customer Rating
5.0
What's great about it: Plug in and it works.
What's not so great: It uses USB power. I knew that when I bought it, but I thought I wouldn't mind as much as I do.
Easy to use, connect and go. Works with Windows and Linux with no problems.
This product has... Short connector cord
I would recommend this to a friend!
0points
0out of 0found this review helpful.
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Review 2 for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
Great add-on for the money
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: Self installation
What's not so great: Nero 9 Essentials bundle
The HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive was purchased as a replacement for a CD burner on a Toshiba lap top whose internal burner was faulty and no longer available for purchase. I was impressed by the ease of installation and operation, but no so impressed with the Nero Essentials software bundled with the burner (i.e., some of the "Essentials" are missing and you will need to pay an additional $80+ to get the full package). Operation is very quiet and I have yet to produce a disk that will not play on my home DVD player. I like the capability of being able to burn dual-layer DVD-9 disks and the light scribe capability. Overall a good external burner for the money....
This product has... Included software is not useful, Reliable/durable, Quiet, Burns fast
About me... Budget Conscious, Work with large multimedia files, Need a simple backup solution
I would recommend this to a friend!
0points
0out of 0found this review helpful.
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Review 3 for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
A very useful drive
Customer Rating
5.0
What's great about it: Very functional and slim flat profile
What's not so great: Nothing works great
I just bought one of these drives to use with my notebook PC (it doesn't have a Optical Drive). I am very happy with the drive's performance. After reading all the review complaints about the provided software i dedieded to not use it. I went on-line to Lightscribe.com and got their free driver and am using it with the Roxie program i already have. It all works great.
The labels it burns are really crisp and sharp looking. This little drive plays CDs and DVDs really well. When I am finished with it I slide it in the side compartment of the carrying sleeve I have. It is so flat it fits well with its cable coiled up by it.
Buy it at this price you can't go wrong.
The labels it burns are really crisp and sharp looking. This little drive plays CDs and DVDs really well. When I am finished with it I slide it in the side compartment of the carrying sleeve I have. It is so flat it fits well with its cable coiled up by it.
Buy it at this price you can't go wrong.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Build or modify your own PC:No
+11points
11out of 11found this review helpful.
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Review 4 for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
For Fifty Bucks and change, you can't miss
Customer Rating
5.0
What's great about it: Flawless DVD copy/burns
What's not so great: doofus design of power cord
My laptop's heavily used internal DVD burner went belly up 2 days ago. Shopped online. Found this unit. Specs sounded good, and Sale price of $20.00 off even better. Straight from the box, plugged it into the laptop, software installed automatically. Ripped my first DVD today. Unit scans quickly. Using my scanning & burning software (did NOT install the NERO included w the unit), the HP burned a DVD in about the same time as my original internal burner. Copy is flawless. Only negative: doofus design of power cord, way too short. But nice that it powers from laptop. I burn a lot of DVD's, so the long haul on this unit remains to be seen. But so far so good, excellent performance. Price can't be beat.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Build or modify your own PC:No
Level of Expertise:Average
Primary reason for building/modifying PC:Multimedia (music, movies, photos)
+8points
8out of 8found this review helpful.
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Review 5 for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
Portable but does the job
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
4.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
This product performed the way I expected. I will recommend it to friends and relatives.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Build or modify your own PC:No
+5points
5out of 5found this review helpful.
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Review 6 for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
Great deal
Customer Rating
5.0
What's great about it: dual USB cable so no external power needed
What's not so great: short USB cable
Got this on sale -- wanted it because it has Lightscribe technology. Plugged it in to a little used laptop and am using it to burn DVD copies and then flip them over to make a label. Takes 20-30 minutes to burn the label, but it does work in the background if you want to use the computer for other things. So far I've made a dozen DVDs and it's working just fine.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Build or modify your own PC:No
Level of Expertise:Average
+4points
4out of 4found this review helpful.
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Review 7 for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
Easiest drive I ever bought
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
4.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: Easy set up, very good price.
So happy I bought this drive for such a cheap price. I was in the market looking for a new external drive to use with my new Gateway Netbook I purchased last month. Went to my local best buy and looked around and decided to pick up this HP drive because of the price and lightscribe feature. Came home plugged it in and it automatically installed itself, no extra steps whatsoever. I did not know how to use the lightscribe feature so I contacted Technical support which was very helpful and recommended I install nero to use the lightscribe functionality. everything worked so smoothly on my netbook. drive is perfect if you are on the go because its USB powered!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Build or modify your own PC:No
Level of Expertise:Average
Primary reason for building/modifying PC:Multimedia (music, movies, photos)
+5points
5out of 5found this review helpful.
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Review 8 for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
nero 9 Essentials software
Customer Rating
1.0
Posted by: Michael3
from Crofton, MD
on 06/08/2011
Value for Price
4.0
Ease of Use
1.0
Performance
1.0
Ease of Installation
4.0
What's not so great: Associated software application
My PC for some unknown reason would not automatically recognize the USB device. I ended up installing the "nero 9 Essentials" software and the external drive was then recognized. Unfortunately, the nero application subsequently inserted itself into every CD or DVD that I opened, even when my default settings clearly were checked for a specific application, Microsoft MediaPlayer, etc. No matter what I did the nero applications would dominate a file opening. This necessitated removing nero 9 from my PC, which was also a pain in the a**!
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Build or modify your own PC:No
-7points
2out of 11found this review helpful.
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Review 9 for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
Great product but with a design issue
Customer Rating
3.0
Value for Price
3.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
4.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
Am not sure if I got a defective unit, but using different discs, I would hear a scraping noise. Upon inspection, something with the plastic housing was causing it to scrape the top of the disc. The only way to get it to go away was to push on the sides towards the front really hard. It had no problem reading my discs, just the screeching noise was pretty bad. Returned.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Build or modify your own PC:Yes
Level of Expertise:Expert
Primary reason for building/modifying PC:Upgrader
+4points
4out of 4found this review helpful.
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Review 10 for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
Simple and Fast
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
4.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
4.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: Ease of use
What's not so great: Short cord
The product does what it says it will do. Short connecting cord but other than that, it's a great investment.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Build or modify your own PC:Yes
Level of Expertise:Average
Primary reason for building/modifying PC:Upgrader
+9points
9out of 9found this review helpful.
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Review 11 for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
user interface too complicated
Customer Rating
1.0
Value for Price
1.0
Ease of Use
1.0
Performance
3.0
Ease of Installation
1.0
What's great about it: not much
What's not so great: USB too short, software interface difficult
The software for this program is far more complex than it needs to be, and the user manuals are broken out into 8 separate documents, making it extremely difficult to learn how to use this. This product might be fine for someone with a lot of experience in creating and burning DVDs, but for the average at-home user, it's terrible.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Build or modify your own PC:No
-6points
7out of 20found this review helpful.
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Review 12 for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
easy to install great replacement drive
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
4.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: ease of installion and size
What's not so great: uses a dual usb cable set up price
Picked up HP's 8x external dvd/cd writer (11/19/2010) as my original internal PC dvd/cd writer burner quite working after 7 years. This was easy to install no ac adapter but uses 2 usb plugs so took the precaution of getting a usb hub along with my purchase.
The device works as expected my old internal cd/dvd burner/writer/player had problems with play back of dvd so was more then happy with the playback results. 5 stars to HP for a great product slim light and a breeze to install and use.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Build or modify your own PC:Yes
Level of Expertise:Average
Primary reason for building/modifying PC:Upgrader
+14points
15out of 16found this review helpful.
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Review 13 for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
Works as promised
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
4.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: lightweight and thin
What's not so great: two usb connections
I have a new laptop and didn't want to overwork the internal drive, so I purchased this one to watch dvd's primarily. It is thin and light as the other review stated; I did unfortunately have to use two usb connections, but that is tolerable...and yes, it has a short cable. Quiet operation. I did not install Nero, probably won't. Nice product.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Build or modify your own PC:No
Level of Expertise:Average
+23points
24out of 25found this review helpful.
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Review 14 for HP 8x External USB 2.0 Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive
it works as it should- excellent for notebooks
Customer Rating
4.0
What's great about it: small and good for netbook
What's not so great: slower than powerhouse burners- good for light duty only
bought this for a net book backup and dvd read and burn device- the net book did not come with one.... its small, light and works fine for light duty use... perfect for a netbook... not perfect for your primary dvd burner for large scale burning or large volume tasks. I wouldn't install the nero essentials software it comes with- too much bloat and unnecessary stuff
I would recommend this to a friend!
Build or modify your own PC:No
+106points
114out of 122found this review helpful.
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