But unlike the LG drive, it doesnt support UHD Blu-ray discs; it was slower to rip Blu-ray discs in our tests, too, and it was louder than the LG drive while ripping and burning.

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Your guide Andrew Cunningham Share this review Modern laptops rarely include optical drives for CDs, DVDs, or Blu-rays, and music and video streaming services make it so you never need to play a disc if you dont want to.

But if you have decades worth of CDs, DVDs, or Blu-rays to watch, or home movies to archive, the Asus ZenDrive U9M is the best USB DVD burner, and LGs BP60NB10 is the best Blu-ray burner.

Both drives are quick to rip data from discs to your computer or to burn new discs with your own data, and both work with PCs and Macs and are reasonably priced.

Our pick Asus ZenDrive U9M The best USB DVD drive This drive ripped DVDs faster than the other DVD-only drives we tested, and it includes a USB Type-C cable for newer laptops.

Buying Options 33 from Amazon May be out of stock The Asus ZenDrive U9M ripped DVDs faster than any of the other drives we tested, with only slightly slower burn speeds than other drives offered.

Asus includes both a Mini-USBtoType-A cable and a Mini-USBtoType-C cable, so you can plug it into almost any computer without buying extra cables.

And it feels more solidly built than the other DVD drives we tested, though it was slightly louder than competitors when we were burning or ripping a disc.

Advertisement Our pick LG BP60NB10 Best for Blu-rays Quiet, fast, and relatively inexpensive, the BP60NB10 is one of the few Blu-ray drives we tested that can handle 4K UHD Blu-ray discs.

Buying Options 113 from CDW 112 from Amazon If you need an external optical drive that works with Blu-rays as well as DVDs, LGs BP60NB10 can handle just about any disc in your library, including newer Ultra HD discs with 4K video.

Its considerably slower at ripping DVDs than either the Asus ZenDrive U9M or the Pioneer BDR-XD07B, but it rips Blu-ray discs more quickly than the Pioneer drive.

Runner-up LG GP65NB60 A cheap and capable DVD drive This DVD-only drive is slow when ripping discs, but its quieter and less expensive than other options if you plan to watch, rip, or burn only DVDs, not Blu-rays.

Buying Options 24 from Amazon 31 from Staples At the time of publishing, the price was 27.

If the ZenDrive U9M isnt available or you just need the cheapest good DVD drive you can buy, the LG GP65NB60 is the best option.

It usually costs about 10 less than the ZenDrive, its quieter when burning or ripping discs, and it comes in multiple colors that (unlike the ZenDrive) are all readily available from retail sites.

The GP65NB60 was slower at ripping DVDs in our testing, though, and it includes only a Mini-USBtoType-A cable in the box.

If your computer has only USB Type-C ports, youll need either an adapter or a separate cable.

Runner-up Pioneer BDR-XD07B Faster at DVDs, slower at Blu-ray The BDR-XD07B is a more compact drive thats best at ripping DVDs.

Buying Options 105 from Amazon The Pioneer BDR-XD07B is a top-loading Blu-ray drive with a footprint smaller than that of our other picks.

Aside from that, its main draw is that its faster at ripping DVDs than the LG BP60NB10, which makes it a logical choice if you sometimes need a Blu-ray drive but will be working primarily with DVDs.

Optical Drive For Mac