Samsung External Blu-ray Writer TSST SE-506CB/RSBD 6X USB 2.0 Slim (Black), M-Disc support

Looking for a way to rip Blu-ray discs to archive your movies to a hard drive? The Samsung SE-506CB is your ticket to success. After ripping over 600 DVDs to a 4TB hard drive I was looking for a way to rip Blu-rays so I could stream them to my home theater. Slipping a disc in and out of a Blu-ray player isn't a big deal, but the convenience of streaming movies from a local hard drive is simply awesome! The hardest part is ripping the disks ... and if they're Blu-ray and you're a Mac user like me, you have to use an external disk reader. That's where the Samsung SE-506CB comes in. It connects to your Mac via a single USB cable (no power cable needed), and the Mac detects it and shows it as an available drive. Because native Mac apps don't support Blu-ray, you'll need third-party software to rip Blu-ray disks on your Mac (Makemkv from http://www.makemkv.com works great). Once you've installed your software and hooked up your Samsung drive, slip in a disk, select "read the disk", choose the title you want to rip, hit Enter and you're off to the races. The Samsung SE-506CB drive is fast, reads both Blu-ray and conventional DVD disks and is super easy to hook up. Since this is an external drive it’s easy to move from one Mac to another ... a real asset now that Macs have done away with internal optical drives. You can pay more for a Blu-ray reader/writer that also reads DVD disks, but for around $70 you won't find one better than the Samsung SE-506CB. I’m really enjoying mine and my experience suggests it’s every bit a 5 Star product.

While Blu-ray technology has been around for years, unfortunately external Blu-ray players have gone down in price. And now the Samsung external slim Blu-ray writer (SE-506CB) is under $80. But how does it work on a Mac or PC.I will be focusing on playability of Blu-ray's for this review and later on, I will come back to this review for Blu-ray copying and how long it takes for both PC and Mac.So, let's start...I. What's inside the box?Inside the box is the slim Blu-ray external writer with a short single USB cable to power the unit. It also comes with CyberLink Media Suite and other trial software.Please note: Install the CyberLink software and update the firmware to T5001 as the version on your player may be T5000 (look under the player to find out which firmware is installed).II. Testing it on a PC for Blu-ray Playability (Using Windows 7)The good news is that the Samsung SE-506CB comes with CyberLink PowerDVD 10. But this software requires one to have a DV-I or HDMI connection, it will NOT work on VGA cables.I was able to test the CyberLinkPower DVD 10 and it works perfectly.But let's assume that you don't have DV-I or an HDMI connection on your monitor or laptop/computer, what can you do?I was able to test the SE-506CB with Nero 2014 and using their Blu-ray player. While it worked, after I updated the software, it will not work and gave me a "Media will not play error". There are multiple threads on the Nero 2014 forums about this and as of July 27, 2014, there was no resolve for it.I then tested Corel's WinDVD Pro 11 and while I was able to hear sound, I didn't get video. I'm still trying to troubleshoot this and if I am able to find a reason of why it shows a black screen or how I'm able to fix it and have it work with the Samsung SE-506CB, I will update my review.I was able to test it out with VLC Media Player (using the copy files in two locations technique) and was able to get it to work but it was not the best quality and often skipped.I tried a few free players but they took way too long just to load a disc.So, testing the hardware, the best results I had was with a DVI and HDMI connection using the accompanying CyberLink software.III. Testing on a Mac for Blu-ray playability (Using OS 10.9 Mavericks)I tested the SE-506CB with a MacMini (early 2014) and I tried the VLC technique which did not work for me.I then tested MacGo's Blu-ray player which worked perfectly. But it's not free and cost about $50. Also, it doesn't default to the menu screen like other players for the PC. So, if you want to find special features, you will need to use the title selection.But this was the best software for the Mac.JUDGMENT CALL:For those wanting an external Blu-ray player, I can easily recommend the Samsung slim Blu-ray writer (SE-506CB). But it's a player that requires you to have a PC/Laptop and monitor to work with it. For one, if you have a DVI/HDMI monitor and your PC has DVI (white) on the back of your computer, then you are good to go.I was able to get it to work with a VGA cable (blue) using Nero 2014 Blu-ray player but if you update your Blu-ray player, chances are, your software will stop working with your player. So, when you install the Nero 2014, you need to make sure that auto-update is off. It's a major caveat because Nero 2014 needs the upgrade but the Blu-ray fails to work afterward. According to the Nero forums, the majority of the people who have this "media won't play" error, are using an Intel video chipset.As for VLC, I was able to get it to work but playback was not smooth and perfect.But you do get the CyberLink Power DVD software on disc, which is a plus. But overall, for it's price at under $80, it's a low-price Blu-ray external player that works well.I will definitely come back to this review on testing of Blu-ray writing capability on PC and Mac but for those who have been wondering about the Blu-ray playing capabilities of the SE-506CB, I hope this information helps.

I bought this to archive client data and video files, not to make Blu-ray movies. I was using DVD's but since I shoot videos the file sizes can get pretty big (I have a 160GB folder for one client), so I was using external hard drives and docks to archive (backup). Blu-ray seemed a cheaper and more permanent solution. Plus, I'll now be able to free up some of those drives for other uses.When I got the drive there was a hassle as my software (Toast for Mac) wasn't seeing the drive as a Blu-ray drive. Did some searching and found out there's a firmware update (Mac and Windows - link on bottom). Once I did that all was well and now I'm happily backing up my files.The drive is small, lightweight, came with a short USB cable (no power brink) but no issues with it. The only "downside" is that it takes time to archive that much data. With my software it takes 45+ minutes to back up 25GB and another 40+ minutes to verify it. Round it up to 2-hours per 25GB to be prepared. 68GB took just less than 6-hours, but I was working at the same time, so no hardship.So far, I like the drive and would buy it again. From some reviews I read you don't gain much buying the more expensive drives, so I went with this one.This link is for the SE-506BB but type "SE-506CB" in the search at the top to get to the one for this drive -- link for the 506CB drive took up three lines and I wasn't sure it would work here.:http://www.tsstodd.com/eng/firmware/fwdownload/?functionvalue=view&no=786

Excelente articulo

a little flimsy but works great

El producto me llegó en buen estado, muy bien empaquetado para que no se dañe el contenido, el quemador slim es muy bueno, lo he probado hasta el momento solo con mi laptop, la verdad funciona de maravilla, es muy buen producto y para aquellos que no tienen un lector de blu ray es muy recomendable este producto.

Al di la del prezzo molto conveniente, il pregio maggiore è la capacità di masterizzare su tutti i supporti ed è compatibile con la maggior parte dei software da me utilizzati. Anche se leggero è ben costruito, molto veloce e affidabile molto bello anche nella sua estetica. E' autoalimentato, quindi non serve nessuna alimentazione esterna. Viene riconosciuto subito da windows. Qualche difetto... non ha il cassetto motorizzato ma a scatto (come quello dei portatili) e quindi i dischi subiscono delle flessioni, sia in caricamento che in estrazione e la Robustezza: pare di una plastica un po' povera. Magari non si romperà mai ma non da' l'impressione di essere robusto

Estuve mi dudoso a la hora de comprar esta grabadora de Blu-ray ya que el uso principal que le quería dar era para utilizarla en Mac, pero después de probarla un rato y ver que podía leer y borrar perfectamente algunos blu-rays que tenía hacía tiempo grabados con copias de respaldo de datos grabados hacía años con otra grabadora desde un PC y que desde el Finder de Mac no había problemas para que se comportara como cualquier unidad de almacenamiento, he quedado satisfecho, por lo tanto, si se quiere utilizar la unidad para grabar y borrar archivos desde Mac no se necesita ningún software especial ya que el propio sistema operativo OS-X detecta bien la función.En cuanto a la reproducción de Blu-rays de películas simplemente bajándose desde AppStore el programa "Leawo Blu-ray Player" se puede reproducir cualquier Blu-ray de cualquier región, además el programa en cuestión es gratis por lo tanto no hay desembolsar ningún otro pago.Si que es verdad, que si se quiere compilar o crear una película propia en DVD o Blu-ray con menús, se tiene que hace uso de un software especial de creación de DVD o Blu-ray y esos programas si que son de pago.Para terminar, decir, que el precio es muy competitivo ya que esta unidad en tiendas (si es que se encuentra), ronda el precio de casi 100 euros y aquí en Amazon se encuentra muy por debajo del precio oficial que tiene la unidad en tiendas físicas.Resumiendo: un compra muy acertada antes de que este tipo de unidades lectoras-grabadoras de Blu-ray pasen a mejor vida y desaparezcan del mercado por el auge del almacenamiento en unidades solidas o en la nube.

good