ASUS BW-16D1HT - ultra-fast 16X Blu-ray burner with M-DISC support, black

This drive works flawlessly. Installation was very easy. I am using it to rip my DVD collection for Plex Media only, so I can only attest to that capability. FYI: I am using it with the external enclosure NexStar DX2 by Vantec, which was also incredibly easy to assemble and install; they go well together.This drive is also almost silent.It is also very fast when loading a disc.The "rip rate" is about 7.4 MB/sec (5.6x) for regular discs and 20.0 MB/sec (4.6x) for Blu-Ray; the rate starts slower but climbs as it copies. This is faster than the terrible USB external drive I was using and it does not cause my computer to shut down randomly and it actually reads Blu-Ray discs, unlike the (Blu-Ray) USB drive which was defective in several ways.It is more expensive than the USB drive, but well worth it.

Great performance and well built. Have not tried the high capacity discs yet, but the 25GB size work well so far.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:You can flash with LibreDrive and get full functionality. I used this to backup my UHD BD collection.

I bought this drive June of 2019 for the sole purpose of ripping my purchased Blu-Ray & 4K movies for personal use on my Windows 10 rig. It's worked great in that regard. You need some software to rip the disc's but you can find that via Google (the one I use is free to try and can purchased for a small donation). Yes, this drive is not advertised to read 4K movies, but it can, with a tweak of the firmware. The problem is, with the pre-loaded firmware already installed, you cannot rip 4K movies right out of the box. Google "asus bw-16d1ht firmware 4K" and you will find the necessary instructions to downgrade to the older, 4K firmware. Be sure to follow the instructions to the letter if you attempt this. I did it on the first try.The included software does not allow you to read 4K movies, but you can purchase that separately on your own as well. The drive reads Blu-Ray's just fine as well as DVD's and CD's. I have also burned a few CD-R's, DVD-R's, and BD-R's with no issues. I haven't tried M-Discs yet but I plan on buying some and trying to burn them soon.I love this drive. For the price, you can't beat it. Especially if you are looking to rip your personal 4K collection.Edit: I just moved to a new rig and will install Windows 11 soon. My new case has no disc bay so I got an external drive case. I’ll post if the drive works under Windows 11.

Works as expected. Fast data transfers. No major issues with the model I recieved. No software needed. Drivers works out of box on Linux Mint.For contexts, I ordered this disc drive as a replacement to a 2011 LG model, where suddenly the drive had issues with a door opening (jammed or broken). Barely used the drive after like 2016, but I do probably once a year now. After trying to get the drive working, I decided to go for this Asus model. Since using this one within 24 hours, I experienced a minor issue with the reads on a couple of discs, probably the reason why this was resold. I works for the most part, just seems some blu-ray r's and rw's takes longer to load or needs reloading. The discs are in nearly excellent condition. Also the Asus drive I recieved is not the same as shown in the description.I suppose the only thing I have to test now is, can it burn data on discs!?

Great Blu-ray Disc burner drive. You are able to flash firmware to make it able to play 4K discs - just do your research and note risks involved.

I like it. The laser in my old dvd drive got weak and wasn't recording music on one brand of blank cdr discs but it would on another brand of blank cdr discs; And it wouldn't read some of my backup dvd's [It read some but not all]. This new drive reads and writes on everything perfectly and more quickly. At first I thought there was a problem with this drive and I almost sent it back; But when I opened the computer I noticed the SATA power-cable from the power-supply wasn't plugged into the back of the drive, only the SATA cable was; So the blue light would flash constantly but it would never open. I did plug both SATA cables into the back of the drive but I put black electric tape over the ends of the power supply cables that weren't connected to anything and when I pulled on some of those wires it must have unplugged the SATA power-cable from the back of the drive. Make sure both the power-cable from the power-supply and the SATA data cable that goes to the motherboard are plugged into the back of the drive before closing your computer case. I like this ASUS BW-16D1HT blu ray drive.

Packaging is a little damaged, but not more damaged than something that's been sitting in your close. It's a little louder than my LG drive when reading but beggers can't be choosers nowadays. I'm buying 2 more as a backups for when my LG and Verbatim slim drive kick the dust. As right now I can recommend buying these used if you're looking to future proof your media collection. I'll update this review when I get the other 2 and see their condition.4/25/2025I bought 3 more used and 1 new. The new one was fine but you have a 75% chance of getting a working used one from the sold by Amazon used - like new condition. If you see these used I recommend getting them.I technically bought 5 used but only 4 were what I would consider like new. The 5th I had to return because it was DOA and the power port on the back of it was chipped off. SATA ports can be delicate so makes sense, but also had a visible amount of wear around the casing so I would inspect and test these with a known working disc before putting in storage.I would do this with "new" drives as well cause you need to be certain you aren't stuck with a pile of duds