It would seem that netbooks and ultra portables are taking the same route the iPod took, as everyone seems to have one or the other.
While both netbooks and ultra portable notebooks are great all netbooks and most ultra portables lack something important to a lot of us, a DVD drive. So now there is a huge demand for portable external DVD drives and we have had the pleasure of testing the Samsung Writemaster SE-S084.
I unboxed the Writemaster SE-S084 back on February 27th, I had hoped to bring you a review sooner but I actually forgot to post it. My Bad…
The SE-S084 is a nice looking external drive that matches pretty much any netbook around, it matches my Mini 1000 and looks great next to my Asus eee PC, but it doesn’t just look good next to both it adds a new level of performance to the machines.
For example on my Mini 1000, I can watch DVD’s now and yes the Mini 1000 is powerful enough to play a DVD heck it is even powerful enough to play a Blu-Ray movie (Hint to Samsung), and with the fast read speed the SE-S084 has to offer you won’t see any hi-cups while you’re watching a movie.
Installing the SE-S084 onto any machine is simple, no drivers needed just plug it in and you’re ready to go it does come with Nero 7 Essentials though. There also isn’t a need for an external power supply like some other portable DVD drives I have seen on the market. It does come with a 2 headed plug USB cable but both plugs do not need to be plugged into your system as I said erroneously in my unboxing video.
I believe Samsung called the SE-S084 the Super Writemaster because it does it all superbly, with an up to 16x write speed you really can’t go wrong with this drive.
If you own a netbook or an ultra portable notebook, or are planning to buy one the SE-S084 is a must have accesory, and for the $79.99 price tag at most retailers you can’t go wrong.
The SE-S084 is a Must Have Product and for that we award it our 5 Star Must Have Award.
Currently available at Amazon.com.
Comments: (27)
arafat on Wed, Apr 29th, 2009 at 01:05 AM
It would be cool if mini disc survived, then they could fit them into netbooks
Terry on Wed, Apr 29th, 2009 at 05:57 PM
That mini doesn’t play video in HD though so boasting about BD playback is rather hollow
Michael on Wed, Apr 29th, 2009 at 11:17 PM
I meant to say the 2140
Terry on Thu, Apr 30th, 2009 at 10:39 AM
Yep the HD version of the 2140 can handle it
TT on Fri, Jul 10th, 2009 at 10:26 PM
We purchased the Superwriter. Out of the box it won’t play movies. Well, WMP on our Acer Inspire says that we are missing a decoder. Question is.....if I could get Nero 8 to install (which I can’t) would that take care of the problem?
Michael on Fri, Jul 10th, 2009 at 11:07 PM
You will need dvd playing software, nero won’t fix it I don’t think.
Michael on Fri, Jul 10th, 2009 at 11:07 PM
You will need something like power dvd
Diana on Tue, Sep 01st, 2009 at 07:26 PM
Hi, I just bought the samsung se-s084 dvd writer. I can’t get it to play dvds properly on my samsung netbook-I mean it plays but there is no audio. Does anyone know why this is and what I can do about it?
Michael on Thu, Sep 03rd, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Sounds like the software you are using is not working properly, I would say uninstall and reinstall the dvd playing software.
Diana on Fri, Sep 04th, 2009 at 08:01 AM
I found out my netbook was missing video codecs, perhaps because the manufacturers assumed I wouldn’t be watching dvds on it. I downloaded the kmplayer and it works fine now.
Bruce on Wed, Sep 09th, 2009 at 05:46 PM
Diana...that’s exactly the problem I’m having with my Acer Aspire netbook. Video is fine but no audio on DVD’s. (CD’s play fine though) What codecs are you talking about and may I ask where did you find them?
Diana on Wed, Sep 09th, 2009 at 07:02 PM
Hi Bruce, codecs enable you to play video and audio on the computer. As far as I understand, computers with built-in dvd drives come with them whereas netbooks don’t or don’t have all of them. You can download free codec packages off the internet but I have heard that sometimes these can clash with the software you have on your computer. the kmplayer, which I downloaded off the internet (there’s a free version and one that costs something like 3 dollars and which is guaranteed virus-free) comes with all the codecs you need to play dvds. I can’t remember which website I went to to download it but google ‘kmplayer’ and a few should come up.
Bruce on Thu, Sep 10th, 2009 at 12:03 AM
Thanks Diana!! I’ve give it a try…
Bruce Leonard on Mon, Sep 21st, 2009 at 10:25 AM
Hi Diana...I downloaded the KMplayer from CNET (I always feel safe with their stuff) and after a few minor tweaks with the units themselves...my audio problem has been corrected!! Thanks so much for your advice!!
Bruce
Diana on Mon, Sep 21st, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Glad you’re happy with it Bruce 
Michael on Wed, Sep 23rd, 2009 at 08:21 AM
A lot of companies do not ship their systems with the proper codecs, the reason being if they did they would have to pay licensing fees to the music and movie industry so they leave it up to uss to install them if we can figure out that the missing codecs are the reason we can’t watch movies.
Darrick on Wed, Sep 30th, 2009 at 03:17 AM
I recently bought a SE S084 DVD writer. I had some problems with it so I tried to take it off and reinstall it. Now I am having problems trying to install it. I’m getting that windows has successfully loaded the device driver but cannot find the hardware device. How do I fix this?
Donny on Sat, Oct 03rd, 2009 at 06:07 PM
Nice review! I bought it yesterday. Works like a charm! But I have this problem: My brother has an LG-LM40 XNOTE laptop that runs on Intel Celeron 1.5GHz and we are wondering if we can still use it there. It says in the box that it needs at least a PentiumIV 2.0Ghz or higher. Any opinion on this?
Daniel on Sat, Oct 17th, 2009 at 11:23 AM
just connected th SE8084 to my Mac (single USB), but nothing on the desktop, why does it not mount?
Rich on Sun, Oct 25th, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Just connected th SE8084 to my iMac (single USB), but nothing on the desktop, why does it not mount?
Kirkules on Wed, Nov 18th, 2009 at 11:51 AM
I just got this for my first generation MacBook which I bought with CD burn only capability. It seems to be working fine right out of the box. I burned a install DVD of Linux Fedora OS 10 and made a music CD using iTunes.
David on Mon, Dec 21st, 2009 at 07:35 AM
Ruch did you get a solution to your problem. I have similar
scott Totty on Tue, Jan 12th, 2010 at 10:28 PM
Mine did not come with an instruction manual in English. I feel really stupid but I cannot get the thing to open. What is the deal?
Ron C. on Tue, Jan 19th, 2010 at 10:05 PM
Does anyone know if the SE8084 will “plug and play” with the Windows7 starter?
Callie on Fri, Jan 22nd, 2010 at 12:48 AM
Rich and David--yes, I had the same problem, all forlorn. The drive didn’t register on my macbook at all but then I ran a routine software update--the keyboard firmware one-- that required a somewhat long, involved powering down and careful marking of dialogue boxes for installation upon restart and now the drive works GREAT. Maybe some techie out there can recommend something that’ll goose your computer the same way and get that drive going.
I still had to make itunes go fetch the album info even though that was marked as my preference from the get-go. Good luck--I think there is hope.
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