LG's Music and DVD Machine is Great

Author's Rating:

Pros: Ease of Use, Reliable, Movies and Music are awesome, Durable

Cons: Not as fast as home based burners

The Bottom Line: 
If in the market for an external DVD/CD burner, this is a good choice for a reasonable cost.

Author's Review
Several months ago, my laptop finally crashed after years of abuse, and extensive use. I took it to work everyday, where it rides with me for 12-16 hours, and I was impressed that I was able to keep it up and running for so long. After some thought, I decided to replace my laptop with a netbook, due to their small size and ease of use. I purchased a Gateway model, and have been pleased how easy it is to transport from home to car, or how it can be packed away in a suitcase for road trips. As most are aware, netbooks do have some disadvantages, including not having a built in CD/DVD Rom.

Portability

My main concern about gettting an external DVD/CD burner was size. Its amazing how smaller these have become over the years, and that was the main reason I bought the LG GP08LU11. It fits perfectly in the small netbook bag that I use, and its only two pounds. Even with the tray opened, it doesn't cause any problems with room in a car seat or in the comfort of my own home. It is easy to hook up via the provided USB cord, and it immediately powers up.

Durability

A major concern of mine, this has been a real sigh of relief. The LG has taken a licking, and kept on kicking. It's been dropped twice, which generally isn't a good idea, but shows no performance problems due to that. In addition, there are no scratches or external impact damages. While I obviously don't watch DVD's when driving, this unit will play CD's without skipping on even the bumpiest of roads. It makes working that much easier, since my work vehicle's CD player bought the farm awhile back.

Watching Movies

I just love watching DVD movies on this. Its obviously not Blu-Ray capable, but it delivers outstanding images from single or dual layer discs. As soon as you pop the disk in, the load times are mere seconds before you get the menu option. Unlike some other external DVD players, it doesn't have those annoying noises that interfere with your viewing pleasure. There's just the slight loading noise, and that's it. It can play regular DVD's, and well as burned ones, which makes for a fantastic value.

Music/Burning

I have to confess that I'm an itunes idiot. While plenty of people get music for free or cheaper than their prices, that's the program I prefer due to the audio quality and how easy it is to use. Burning CD's with this machine, while not as fast as a traditional CPU drive, is still effficient enough. I'd say from the reading and writing, you can easily load up a CD in under fifteen minutes. It copies tracks from an inserted disk a bit quicker, but I'd say its not that time consuming to use this as a CD collection burner.

Since this is my CD player at work, I'm impressed with the load times. As soon as you hit the open button, and have USB power, it starts with the first track almost instantaneously. While I do plan on purchasing extra speakers, I've noticed no drop off in audio quality from going through the USB port. Its a great device to take in my work vehicle, because while radio stations are okay, its wonderful to have my CD collection ready for when stuck in traffic.

Compatibility with Intervideo/Appearance

This is a simple looking black unit, with white underneath, and I'd say its appearance is pretty modern. It certainly looks like it fits in the year 2010, unlike my old bulky and industrial sized external DVD/CD burner from years ago. This does come with software, but I prefer Intervideo to be my cinematic window to movies and other forms of entertainment. I paid a nominal fee, and it works flawlessly with this burner. It is good to have four very small base legs at the bottom of this device, as that provides more stability.

Final Thoughts

This is a winning product, that I've used for hours, and never experienced any interruptions of movies or music. It's not had any issues with disc read errors, unlike other portable devices that have caused my blood pressure to raise. You can buy this for around $70 from brick and mortar electronic stores, or purchase it online. I fully recommend it, as its one of my favorite computer devices, and the only one I haven't sworn at...yet. If you are in the market, its low price and excellent features make it worth its weight in gold.