I’m a Wirecutter supervising editor covering video games and technology, and I’ve edited dozens of guides to PC hardware, including storage media. I’ve also spent hundreds of hours over the past 15 years ripping files from optical media, and I own a vast collection of physical discs—a collection that has only grown as various streaming companies remove popular shows and films from their services.

Optical drives have all but disappeared from both laptops and desktop PCs since 2013, when Wirecutter began testing them. We’ve also been testing various storage media for more than a decade, including USB flash drives and memory cards, external hard drives, internal and portable SSDs, and network-attached storage.

For this guide:

• I read hundreds of reviews on dozens of highly rated and popular external optical drives on retailer sites such as Amazon, Best Buy, and Newegg.
• I spent approximately 60 hours testing seven external DVD-R and DVD/BD-R drives purchased by Wirecutter.
• Like all Wirecutter journalists, I review and test products with complete editorial independence. I’m never made aware of any business implications of my editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.

I subscribe to more streaming services than I can easily count—and maybe you do too—but for people who like to watch movies or TV shows at home, nothing is as reliable as a DVD or Blu-ray collection. If you want to watch that collection on your PC, laptop, or an Android tablet, you probably need an external optical drive. DVDs and Blu-ray discs are more stable than flash storage over the long term, but they don’t last forever, so it’s important that an external drive provide reasonable performance while copying media to a backup, a process also known as ripping.

Previously, we’ve recommended external drives for people looking to play, burn, or rip discs on their laptop or mobile device, while suggesting that desktop PC owners purchase an internal drive. However, prices for internal and external drives have become similar enough that we now generally recommend external optical drives for most situations. DVD drives can also read, rip, and burn CDs, and Blu-ray drives can also read, rip, and burn CDs and DVDs.

In addition, some Blu-ray drives, like our Blu-ray drive pick, can read and rip 4K (UHD) Blu-rays. However, the digital rights management (DRM) technology on retail 4K Blu-ray movies is more or less unsupported on most PCs as of 2024—save for a very limited number of 11th-gen Intel-based PCs and laptops, you have no legal means of watching retail 4K Blu-ray movies on Windows or Apple devices.

Thousands—possibly even tens of thousands—of external optical drives are available to buy. To narrow that list down to test the best options, we considered the following criteria.

• Read and write capability: We considered DVD drives that can read and write DVDs and CDs, and Blu-ray drives that can read and write Blu-rays, DVDs, and CDs. We didn’t require that Blu-ray drives support 4K Blu-ray discs; it’s a nice bonus, theoretically, but in 2024 most computers can’t play retail UHD discs due to DRM restrictions.
• Reliability: An external optical drive should perform as expected, when you need it. We’ve tested a number of newer, cheaper drives that fail this most basic expectation, and while our current pick is more expensive, it’s the only available drive we’ve tested that was able to rip and burn discs reliably over and over without slowing down, failing, or breaking.
• Speed: When you’re watching a DVD or Blu-ray movie, most drives should perform similarly, but when you’re ripping and burning discs, the speed at which a drive can spin and read data from a disc makes a real difference. This is the primary criterion that we used to determine our picks—a faster drive can save you hours of time if you’re ripping or burning multiple discs.
• Price: A good DVD drive shouldn’t cost more than $40, and you shouldn’t pay more than $130 for a good Blu-ray drive (though our current Blu-ray pick is available for much less).
• Noise: All optical drives make noise, but the drive shouldn’t drown out the movie or show you’re trying to watch.
• Operating system support: All the drives we tested were natively detected by Windows 11 and macOS Sequoia (15.4.1), and each operating system’s built-in reading and burning features worked without requiring any extra drivers or configuration.
• Sturdiness: Few external disc drives are pretty, but the case shouldn’t fall apart under light pressure, the connections shouldn’t be wobbly, and the buttons should work when you press them.
• Warranty: All the drives we tested came with a one-year warranty.

Using the above criteria, we gathered a list of the best-selling external optical drives across Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg, and other retailers. Then we eliminated drives with large numbers of performance and reliability complaints.

In the past, we’ve taken included software into consideration when evaluating disc drives. Both Windows 11 and macOS offer tools for burning data to DVDs and Blu-ray discs, and macOS still includes a DVD-player app for video discs. But macOS can’t play Blu-rays without extra software, Windows 11 can’t play Blu-rays or DVDs natively, and neither operating system includes software for burning video discs that you can play in DVD or Blu-ray players. Ideally, the optical drive you buy would include software for this purpose, but in recent years included software has become both less common and less recommendable. For the current version of this guide, we used Nero Burning ROM for our testing purposes, but we recommend downloading a trial and testing it out before making a purchase. You can learn more in the Playing DVDs and Blu-rays section of this guide.

In addition to confirming that each tested drive worked on both our Windows and macOS devices, I put each external optical drive through two sets of tests: ripping and burning.

For CD/DVD drives, I ripped three DVD movies using MakeMKV at least twice, and then I used the commercially available Nero Burning ROM to burn a 4.3 GB ISO file (a kind of disc image) twice. For our Blu-ray drive candidates, I ripped one DVD movie at least twice and then ripped three Blu-ray movies at least twice before finally burning both a 4.3 GB ISO and a 19.5 GB Blu-ray disc image at least twice.

For our DVD burn tests, I used 16X 4.7 GB Verbatim DVD-R discs, and for our Blu-ray burn tests, I used 16X 25 GB Verbatim BD-R discs. I also tested DVD and Blu-ray playback on each drive and tested the burned discs to confirm that the burned files functioned properly. And I tested each disc on both Windows 11 and macOS Sonoma to see whether the drives supported playback on both.

Over the course of our testing, I noted the build quality of each drive, as well as how easily it opened and closed. I also noted the software included with each drive, though no drive we tested came with a software package I could recommend. Increasingly, manufacturers are including only trial or limited-function versions of applications that gate functionality behind additional fees. Almost all of this software is similar to the kinds of bloatware that bog down cheap laptops, and I recommend avoiding it if you can.

CD/DVD drive test results

Results are average times, expressed in minutes:seconds.

Blu-ray/DVD drive test results

Results are average times, expressed in hours:minutes:seconds.
* Results with a single asterisk failed at least one pass of this test during our three-pass test run.
** These drives are identical, and in our testing posted functionally the same results.

Although one pick was a clear winner in DVD rip times, our Blu-ray testing painted a much more chaotic picture. This is largely attributable to how much more complicated Blu-ray discs tend to be than DVDs, as they have many more chapters, folders, and scripts to determine more sophisticated menus and audio/subtitle options. Some drives seemed to need to work harder with some discs and not others. In this case, we had to make a decision while taking all of the numbers into consideration.

If you have a collection of DVDs that you’re looking to watch or back up and don’t plan on buying any Blu-rays in the future, get Verbatim’s External Slimline CD/DVD Writer. In our DVD-ripping tests, it was twice as fast as any other drive we tested, and while its lead in our disc-burning tests was less dramatic, it was still noticeably faster than competitors. It’s a bit louder than some other drives we tested, but its speed means literal hours saved for anyone who has a lot of discs to deal with—and usually it’s a little cheaper than the other models we tested.

If you want to watch or rip Blu-ray discs as well, grab our Blu-ray pick instead, even if it’s much slower at ripping DVDs.

It’s very fast. The Slimline CD/DVD drive was twice as fast as the competition in our disc-ripping tests. In our three DVD-ripping samples, the other drives we tested took just under 20 minutes for the first test disc, under 30 for the second, and over 35 for the third; Verbatim’s drive took under 10 minutes, under 15, and under 18, respectively. Practically speaking, testing the disc-ripping speeds of the other CD/DVD drives under consideration for this guide took me around three hours, whereas testing the Slimline CD/DVD drive took me less than 90 minutes. If you have a ton of DVDs to rip, this drive will save you a lot of time.

It also burns discs quickly. Although the Slimline CD/DVD drive didn’t lap the competition in burn speeds as it did in our rip tests, it was still consistently faster, even if only by a minute or less.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It doesn’t come with a USB-C cable. The Verbatim External Slimline CD/DVD Writer is about as no-frills as a drive can get, and it comes only with a Mini-USB–to–USB-A cable. If your laptop or PC is limited to USB-C ports, you need a dongle.

It feels a little flimsy. The drive doesn’t feel like it will break with normal use, but its plastic housing feels thin and will flex if you press too hard on it. Be sure to operate it on a flat surface that allows it to properly support itself; we also recommend trying not to drop it or knock it off a desk.

It’s louder than the other drives we tested. None of the CD/DVD drives we tested in the latest round were distractingly noisy, thankfully, but this Verbatim drive was the loudest of them. The Asus ZenDrive was the quietest model we tested (though it wasn’t silent), so if hearing noise while you’re watching movies is your biggest concern, that drive might be a better choice.

The Archgon MD-8107 External UHD Blu-ray Optical Drive posted the most consistently good Blu-ray ripping speeds of any of the drives we tested. Its Blu-ray and DVD burn speeds also ranked among the faster results we saw, and during Blu-ray playback it was quieter than the other drives we tested. Its main drawback is its price; on top of that, it produced only middling performance in ripping DVD movies. However, it performed reliably across dozens of hours of ripping and burning DVD and Blu-ray discs.

It consistently ripped Blu-ray discs quickly. The Archgon drive consistently ranked among the best performers in Blu-ray disc rip time. This was especially evident with our second Blu-ray test disc: Whereas two other drives took around an hour to rip that disc, the Archgon drive took about 26 minutes. It also posted the second-fastest burn times of the pack, running behind the leader by just 20 seconds or so.

It has a detachable cable and supports USB-C. Because this Archgon Blu-ray drive has both detachable USB-C and USB-A cables, laptop owners don’t have to splurge on dongles or a different cable.

It supports 4K/UHD Blu-ray discs. If you have the patience, the proper hardware, and the software to watch 4K discs, this Archgon Blu-ray drive can theoretically play them. However, due to DRM technology exclusively tied to 11th-gen Intel processors, playback of such discs is so complicated, it might as well be out of reach for most people, at least legally.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It’s expensive. This Archgon Blu-ray drive isn’t the priciest model we tested, but it comes close. Unfortunately, we’ve encountered some serious reliability issues with currently available cheaper Blu-ray drives — if you need reliable Blu-ray ripping and/or burning, in 2025, you’ll have to pay more for it than we’d like.

Although popular media programs such as the open-source VLC media player work for watching DVDs on Windows and Macs without a lot of additional configuration, Blu-ray movies aren’t natively supported in Windows 10 or 11. You can configure VLC to play Blu-ray discs, but this process can be finicky and complicated, not to mention questionably legal. Apple, meanwhile, allows for native DVD movie playback in macOS but does not officially support Blu-rays.

If you want to legally watch a Blu-ray disc on your PC or Mac, you need to purchase software for that purpose. We’re going to be honest here: Most of this software is terrible. But most offer trial versions, so you can test them out before committing to one. Some drives advertise the inclusion of playback software, but we’ve found that these offerings are more or less bloatware that you voluntarily install—either they’re trial versions that expire after a limited amount of time, or they constantly attempt to upsell you on upgraded, more expensive versions. To quote Andrew Cunningham, the previous writer of this guide: “[N]obody has an incentive to make Blu-ray playback software that isn’t a dumpster fire, which could explain why nobody does.” CyberLink’s PowerDVD is one of the least terrible options for Windows.

For Mac owners, things are a little more difficult still. In our testing, we had success watching Blu-ray discs on a Mac running macOS Sonoma using Macgo Mac Blu-ray Player Pro, which is available both from the company’s website and via the Mac App Store. But reviews are mixed, and some discs took some time to open on our M3-based MacBook Pro.

A quick note regarding copy protection and DVD and Blu-ray discs: In the United States, using programs that bypass DRM protection on commercial discs is illegal under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The Library of Congress reviews existing and proposed exemptions to the DMCA every three years.

We eliminated from consideration any DVD drives that cost more than $40 and any Blu-ray drives that cost more than $140, as well as any models that didn’t both read and write discs and any that had poor or few reviews on Amazon.

The Wbacon 5 in 1 External Blu-ray Drive, and the Juowoi External Blu-ray Drive are cheap Blu-ray drives popular on Amazon, but are in fact the same drive — they come in identical packaging with different stickers affixed over the barcode. Both drives posted extremely slow rip times in our tests, and their retention assemblies (the pressure-activated plates that hold optical discs in place when you close their disc trays) came unscrewed and unmounted during regular use, which could seriously damage your discs.

The Alphami External Blu-ray Drive and the Aelrsoch External Compatible Blu-ray Drive Burner are also cheap, popular drives on Amazon, and both failed our disc-ripping tests when connected to a Windows 11 PC or a M3 MacBook Pro.

The Asus BW-16D1X-U is a fairly popular drive that gets good reviews, and it supports both CDs/DVDs and Blu-rays. But it’s bulky—almost three times as thick as our picks—and upgrading the firmware is limited to Windows, which leaves Mac users out in the cold.

The Asus ZenDrive is our previous CD/DVD pick and was the quietest drive we tested, but our current pick, the Verbatim External Slimline CD/DVD Writer, handily lapped it in our rip tests. The Verbatim drive also costs less.

The Dell DW316 USB DVD Drive has more than 14,000 reviews on Amazon with an overall rating of 4.6 out of five stars, but this CD/DVD burner has a suggested retail price of $40, considerably more than our pick and the other options we tested.

The Gotega External CD/DVD Drive is an extremely popular DVD burner with a high percentage of negative reviews, largely due to reliability issues, and we’ve seen multiple reports of Amazon being unhelpful with returns.

The LG GP65NB60 Ultra Slim Portable DVD Writer was louder than the Asus ZenDrive and much slower than the Verbatim External Slimline CD/DVD Writer.

The LG SP80NB80 was a runner-up DVD drive in an older version of this guide, and it performed about the same as other LG DVD drives such as the GP65NB60. It’s a fine drive if you can find it for less than $30, but it’s usually more expensive than that, and it isn’t always available on retail sites.

LG’s WP50NB40 BD/DVD burner was a previous Blu-ray drive pick. It posted competitive results in all of our tests, but it wasn’t the best at any of them. It was also the loudest Blu-ray drive we tested, especially while we watched a Blu-ray movie. It was finicky about having two available USB ports for power, and it’s the only drive we tested that resulted in a failed burn.

Of all the drives we tested, Pioneer’s BDR-XD08UMB-S external BD/DVD drive posted the worst Blu-ray rip times. On the flip side, it was the fastest by a nose at burning both DVDs and Blu-ray discs, and was the fastest BD/DVD drive at ripping DVDs.

The Roofull USB-C External CD/DVD Drive is very popular and boasts a high number of positive buyer reviews, but it doesn’t cost much less than our DVD pick, and it doesn’t have a detachable cable.

Andrew Cunningham contributed additional reporting to this guide.

This guide was edited by Caitlin McGarry and Signe Brewster.