OWC Mercury Pro 16X Blu-ray, 16X DVD, 48X CD Read/Write Solutio
MERCURY PRO: The ultimate desktop optical.
Now with an updated design, Mercury Pro is the premier drive to bring optical media back to your workflow. With a sleek, durable aluminum chassis, and high-speed USB 3.0 interface, Mercury Pro delivers reliable performance that matches its good looks. It’s cooler, quieter, and better than ever.
Configured for your workflow
Now with an updated design, Mercury Pro is the premier drive to bring optical media back to your workflow. With a sleek, durable aluminum chassis, and high-speed USB 3.0 interface, Mercury Pro delivers reliable performance that matches its good looks. It’s cooler, quieter, and better than ever.
Universal USB 3.0 connectivity
The new Mercury Pro is plug-and-play compatible with both Mac and PC workflows, making it your versatile premium optical drive. With high-speed USB 3.0 connectivity, playback of optical media, data transfer, and archive all happen as fast as possible, with bandwidth to spare.
The perfect long-term archive solution
M-DISC sets the standard for long-term safe data storage, and the new Mercury Pro supports this revolutionary format, making it the ideal solution for reliable long-term backup and archiving. M-DISC is an archival-quality storage solution that protects your data from degradation and loss for 1,000 years or more.
M-DISCs use a proprietary layer made from inorganic, rock-like material for permanent data storage, protected from data rot and extremes of light, humidity and temperature change. Because the M-DISC ready Mercury Pro engraves the data into this layer, write once and read forever.
Reliability and support you can count on
Like all OWC drives, the Mercury Pro is built to the highest standards of reliability and performance. Because our goal is always 100% reliability, it’s rigorously quality tested, and backed by our 24/7 Customer Support.
- OWC Mercury Pro 16X External Blu-ray Burner
- 0.6 meter (24″) USB 3.0 (Standard-A to Standard-B)
- External power supply and power cable
- User guide
UNIVERSAL USB 3.0 CONNECTIVITY
The new Mercury Pro is plug-and-play compatible with both Mac and PC workflows, making it your versatile premium optical drive. With high-speed USB 3.0 connectivity, playback of optical media, data transfer, and archive all happen as fast as possible, with bandwidth to spare.
Mercury Pro is available in two optical media burner configurations to match your storage, transfer and archive requirements.
- 24x DVD Disc burner. Backup, share and create as fast as possible, and playback any DVD media up to 4.7 GB capacity.
- 16x Blu-ray Disc burner. For the highest quality recordings, and large project storage up to 100 GB. Playback retail
Mercury Pro Specifications:
OWC Part Number
- MR3UBDRW16
Software Requirements
- OS OS X 10.6 or later Windows XP or later
- Driver Driver not required
Hardware Requirements
- Minimum Mac or PC featuring USB 2.0 interface
- Recommended (Best Performance) Mac or PC featuring USB 3.0 interface
Interface (Chipset)
- (1) USB 3.0 (ASMedia ASM1053E)
More Specifications:
Standard Mechanism
- LG WH16NS40 16X 5.25″ Internal Blu-ray Disc Rewriter
Power Supply
- Internal UL-listed, universal auto-switching
- AC input: 100 ∼ 240V, 50-60Hz
- DC output: 12V, 3A
Dimensions
- Height: 2.0 in (5.2 cm)
- Width: 6.5 in (16.6cm)
- Length: 8.3 in (21.0 cm)
Weight
- With Drive: 5.7 lbs. (2.6 kg)
- Without Drive: 4.0 lbs. (1.8 kg)
LG Super Multi Blue Specs: Super Multi Blue Internal SATA 16x Blu-ray Disc Rewriter
Form Factor: 5.25″ Desktop
Interface: SATA
Loading Mechanism: Tray
Buffer Memory: 4MB
Performance: Access Time
BD-ROM: 180ms typ.
DVD-ROM: 160ms typ.
DVD-RAM: 180ms typ.
CD-ROM: 150ms typ. Supported Formats:
BD-ROM (SL/DL), BD-RE (SL/DL), BD-R (SL/DL), DVD-ROM (SL/DL), DVD-R (SL/DL), DVD-RW, DVD+R (SL/DL), DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, CD-ROM, CD-ROM, XA-Ready, CD-I, Photo-CD (Single & Multi-Session), Video-CD, CD-Audio Disc, Mixed Mode, CD-ROM (Data and Audio), CD-R, CD-RW
Data Capacity
128GB : Blu-ray Quad Layer , 50GB : Blu-ray Double Layer
25GB : Blu-ray 8.5GB : DVD General Use Double Layer , 4.6GB : DVD General Use
700MB : 79 minute CD , 650MB : 74 minute CD 550MB : 63 minute CD
M-DISC Support
Yes, M-DISC DVD / Blu-ray engraving / burning requires M-DISC specific media (available separately)Maximum Read Speeds BD-ROM: 12X , BD-R: 12X
BD-RE: 8X , BD-ROM (Dual Layer): 8X
BD-R (Dual Layer): 8X , BD-RE (Dual Layer): 6X
BD-R (Triple Layer): 6X ,BD-R (Quad Layer): 6X
DVD-RAM: 5X ,DVD-R: 16X , DVD+R: 16X
DVD-R (Dual Layer): 12X , DVD+R (Dual Layer): 12X
DVD-RW: 12X , DVD+RW: 12X
DVD-ROM: 16X , DVD-ROM (Dual Layer): 12X
CD-ROM: 48X , CD-R: 48X , CD-RW: 40X
Maximum Write Speeds
BD-R: 16X , BD-RE: 2X
BD-R (Dual Layer): 12X , BD-R (Triple Layer): 12X
BD-R (Quad Layer): 6X , BD-RE (Dual Layer): 2X
BD-RE (Triple Layer): 2X , M-DISC/+M: 4X
DVD-RAM: 5X , DVD-R: 16X
DVD+R: 16X , DVD-R (Dual Layer): 8X
DVD+R (Dual Layer): 8X , DVD-RW: 6X
DVD+RW: 8X
CD-R: 48X , CD-RW: 24X
System Requirements:
Mac
Mac OS X 10.6 or higher
Available 5.25″ drive bay and SATA connection Burning software that supports Blu-ray, such as Toast. At this time Commercial Blue-ray movie playback not supported in OS X. Minimum of 1 GB of RAM 30GB or more available hard drive space (60GB for Blu-ray Disc authoring)
| Dimensions: | 21.08 x 16.76 x 5.84 cm; 2.18 Kilograms |
| Model: | OWCMR3UBDRW16 |
| Manufacture: | Other World Computing |
| Origin: | Taiwan |
Built like a tank. Not the cheapest but it exhudes quality. Big, heavy. Worked fine on the first try.
I needed a solution for current and and future Blu-ray/Dvd/Cds access. I did my research and feel that this was the best long term solution. Yes, it is heavy and meant for desktop use but I like the vibration isolation and solid functionality. I highly recommend.
I use it almost everyday and no issues so far. Plays every bluray, dvd, cd-rom, or cd i throw at it.
Expensive but worthy the high price. Robust and handy. Works fast as claimed. Highly recommended.
I already have a thin LG disc drive that I was using to rip my 4k Blu Rays, but I added this one for one reason or another. Its exactly as advertised. Very nice enclosure with an LG WH16NS60 drive inside. I read a few reviews where people said its not the advertised drive bc it looks different than the picture. However, even though the drive has different printing on it, it is the same drive. I followed the steps online for flashing the drive with the right firmware to rip 4K blu rays, which took a minute or two and then I was ripping discs right after. Other than that there’s not much to say. It runs pretty quiet and very solidly built. I can’t speak to the longevity of it, but I’ll see how it goes. I dont need it to last 10 years but if I get a couple years out of it before it fails then I won’t complain. So, bottom line is if you do your research you can use this drive to rip 4K blu rays.
Works as advertised…pretty quick. Has been able read very old data CDs.
Easy to install, OK, it’s a bit pricey but it does what it says and plays anything I’ve put in it without complaining – A bit weird playing through GOM player but fine using VLC – job done.
Does what it is supposed to. Only complaints would be the short usb wire and no software. But it was as described.
Simple to install as Win11 did it all. Functions and works well
This is an excellent product that dies exactly what it says on the box. Sturdily built, u like most of the cheaper products but we’ll worth the money. Installed itself without any problems and was delivered as on time as promised
Just plugged in and away it went, no problems. To play Blue Ray disks you need a blue ray player(software) Download free on windows apps. Working fine and happy with 16X READ WRITE speeds.
This is a high quality heavy-duty external disk drive. Set up is plug-and-play on Windows 10. Case is aluminum. Button to Open/Close the tray is easy to access, tray action is fast and smooth. Drive doesn’t say LG on the front like the photo, but I removed the drive from the case and the manufacturer’s label says “Hitachi-LG”, so it is as advertised. Unit is expensive but I am satisfied that it is worth the extra $$.
I only gave it one star I wanted to be heavy not like all the others that are available you have to pick them up hold them in your hands to press the button to get the draw open where as this one doesn’t move around when you open the draw nice and heavy a good buy
IF you are going to spend time backing it up, PUT IT ON M-DISC!
You need to download the firmware to some older version, but to know exactly what version you need, you need to know what version you have and what revision of the drive you have and whatever. I can’t be bothered with that. DVDFab sells a software that does the whole firmware downgrade process for you, just steel yourself and shell out the 80 bucks for that, and save yourself an afternoon.
Once you’ve done that it works great, no complaints. And if you just wanted to read/write BDXL without caring about movies, this is an even better deal.
Don’t bother with other off-brands advertised on Amazon. This OWC Blue Ray recorder performs as it is supposed to right out of the box. The recorder is housed in an attractive aluminum housing with a slide-out tray and requires no adjustments, merely plug and record. I had immediate success recording a video that I produced directly from Final Cut Pro and my iMac. I read a review from someone whining about buying the parts separately and saving $20.00. Good grief! Purchase this unit and forget any negative reviews and whiners. This is a winner.
Wonderfully shocked at the quality of this drive. Still need to get the software to use all it’s features, but so far I love it !
plugged it in and it worked straight away -no problems so far. Havent tried it with a blu ray disc yet. will update review when I have.
Ausgepackt angesteckt und Brennt. Bis jetzt alles gebrannt Bluray 25 GB, 50 GB, DVD Dl 8,5 und 4,7, CD, CD RW, alles verschiedene Hersteller, so muss das sein. An Windows 7, 10, 11 und Linux Mint 20.2 luft, so muss das sein. Ein viertel punkt abzug fr die Laufruhe, da geht noch was.
This drive it about as fast as they get and outperforms all slim drives I’ve seen. I mostly use to rip stuff for my plex server and game iso for emulators. I don’t burn disks anymore since hardly anything has a drive in it anymore. It does get abit loud but I’ll take some noise to get the speed to get the job done faster.
This optical drive has a very nice build quality with an aluminum case. Drive is quiet and fast. Works great on my 2015 iMac running Big Sur. No problems reading anything I have thrown at it.
I create several authored DVDs per day as part of my work. The actual burning part has always been a huge bottleneck. I purchased this 16x OWC drive and it has been consistently hitting twice (or more) the average burn speed of the drive it replaced. It is quiet and I am happy with the build quality. As someone noted you can save $25 by buying the parts and putting them together yourself, but that is true of just about anything. Since I got this to save time it was well worth it to get the plug and play version.
If you are looking at this then you are probably aware that this is a well rated enclosure with one of the best Blu ray drives installed.
It arrived perfectly packed and within a day of ordering. The drive is exactly the drive they advertised – BH16NS40, and in my case this is on Firmware 1.03.
This drive is very versatile and has no problems reading all sorts of discs – including some blu rays which would not be read with other drives.
If you wish to back up data, You may use the tripple layer 100mb discs, which is a useful size.
If you are interested in archival of your media, or the ability to read 4K discs, this unit is compatible with makemkv firmware and so you can modify it to do these tasks. Be careful if you do as this is likely to invalidate your warranty!
In short, if you are in the market for a flexible top end BD, youve come to the right place and this is an excellent unit.
This Mercury Pro is great. Does what I need it to do and more. Was not happy about the condition it arrived in, shipping containment was poor. Took a chance and set it up and it works fine. Although, I know it took some abuse to get to me, I am happy it is working. Have not used tech support, so no comment there. It is good value and quite easy to use.
This is my 3rd OWC burner. The 1st was great for a couple of years, then it would not mount. OWC sent me a replacement, and after another few years, it again would not mount. I like the burner so much that I decided to try again. Hopefully the 3rd time will be ” The Charm”.
I used K3B on Manjaro Linux (KDE) for the software. The USB enclosure works perfectly as plug-n-play, out of the box, and the drive within had a success rate of 100%, with full verification, of engraving a dozen “write-once” M-Discs. (I even made ECC files for the ISOs using dvdisaster version 0.79.9)
I might update this post to see how well it works with BDXL M-Discs (100GB).
For those of us archiving irreplaceable memories for future generations, I recommend you leave extensive notes within the sleeve or jewel case of your engraved M-Disc so that whoever comes across it will have full instructions on how to read the data, while understanding the technology and history behind it.
Maybe make a time capsule and include a USB cable, type-A to type-C USB adapter, a Blu-ray burner/drive, and power cable (such as this one), and anything else that someone long into the future could use.
Remember, technology moves fast. There will come a time where it’s plausible that USB (of any form) no longer exists; Blu-ray players are no longer manufactured and it’s rare to find any in working condition; the x86 CPU architecture is no longer used in any computer systems; and so on.
Don’t believe me? How easy is it to come across a working Hi8 player without sacrificing too much cash? How easy will it be to come across working VHS players 10 or 20 years from now? How easy is it to retrieve the audio from reel-to-reel tapes? All of these things were readily accessible within the generations of people alive today in their childhood years. That’s not very far into our past as humans! So consider what 50, 100, 200 years from now will look like? Will someone be able to read what you engraved on your M-Disc? Will they have the software and hardware to do so? Just because the disc is still in pristine condition and the data exists in a perfect state of bits and bytes, there’s no guarantee that someone will be able to retrieve what’s on it. Make it as easy as possible for future generations, whatever it takes.
Good luck.
As for the drive and enclosure itself, it feels rugged and well built. The chassis is metal, feels like brushed aluminum, and the bottom side has four plastic rises to reduce vibration while it is in use. Of all the options on the market, this is very likely the best one out there.
I bought this to expressly support an older Mac laptop I have, one of the last with replaceable memory & hard drive. This is a nice quality item, but you could buy something that is equal in performance for less money.
I was going to rate this one star, because what I received was NOT what was pictured. I was under the impression this came with an LG burner, and found a no branded “Super Multi” drive instead.
I decided to try it out anyway. To the drives credit, it was completely plug and play. I had zero issues using it with my burning software or connecting it. While it has no functionality issues, and does not run the least bit hot, I am still irritated that I did not receive what was pictured. But I have burned roughly 40 discs on it so far, both single and dual layer Bluray discs without a single problem, so that is the reason for the four stars, it does exactly what I bought it for.
I will update this review periodically.
Un vrai bon lecteur. Rien voir avec les versions slim. C’est du massif ! On ne va donc pas le promener partout, mais pour un poste fixe c’est parfait. Stable, solide, rapide et fiable. Je recommande vivement.
I needed a full size external Blu-ray disk drive for my PC. The previous drive I purchased wasn’t fast enough in its read/write operations. This LG unit does what I need and does it effectively. It is reasonably quiet and has a tray onto which you drop the disk rather than one where you have to snap the disk down onto a spindle.
I waited an hour and a half for tech-support and gave up.
It is not put BD-R discs on my compute
They shipped really fast and the unit was packaged well. The drive and enclosure are great. The Enclosure is solid. It comes with a separate external power supply so it is not just relying on power through the USB cable. The drive works well too. I am mainly using it to rip music CD’s to FLAC files, and it does well. I bought this because I was looking for a good external powered drive enclosure. The fact that they had a dive to go with it made it even better for me.
By adding this player/burner to my system I can create home-made CD’s, DVD’s, and Blu-Rays of my songs to share with family or use as promotional demo’s. Have a plug-in rather than an internal unit will allow me to replace it quickly if anything does go wrong or port it to a new computer if I upgrade that part of my system.
After many years of using bus-powered writers, I spent extra this time for one with an external power supply I plug in. The difference is striking: reads and writes are much, much faster and more accurate. Highly recommended!
As a long time Mac user, I had purchased several hard drive enclosure solutions from OWC over the last 20 years. When it came time to find an external optical drive solution for my Dell XPS 15 running Windows 10, I figured I’d look to see if OWC had an offering. Sure enough, they do. And this one with the LG drive is terrific. MakeMKV works like a charm. It’s connected via USB-C to my Thunderbolt Dell Dock.
Un matriel l’esthtique un peu rude mais qui semble robuste… confirmer l’usage !
Certains pourront le trouver un peu encombrant et lui prfrer un graveur “slim” plus lger et design.
En ce qui me concerne je trouve ce format une grande qualit : l’ouverture et la fermeture de l’appareil est beaucoup plus aise et plus scurisante pour les disques utiliss. S’y ajoute une grande stabilit de l’appareil. Deux raisons qui ont guid mon choix.
Pour l’instant, les essais sur CD et DVD donnent entire satisfaction.
Copy speed is fine for me and they burn M-Discs fast. fast enough for me anyway. I think the longest a 25GB disk took was maybe 7 minutes.
With limited options for Mac users for Blu-Ray, I’d say this purchase was wise and I have gotten great use out of the drives. They can be a little noisy, but what chunky spinning disk drive’s aren’t?
I no longer get mechanical error messages when burning large files on large blu rays with this new drive
This unit is a solid desktop type unit. It is quiet while burning. It also supports high speeds, and I had no problem with the discs burned at those speeds. It’s a big improvement over the portable unit I was using previously.
This is a very fast drive… just be gentle with the tray when loading.
The drive is easy to use, just plug and go. It seems great for what I wanted – to burn M-Discs. I am still trying to figure out if I can add additional files as long as capacity remains. Supposedly it can be done, but I haven’t found a way to do it with my Mac Air. This is a Mac Air issue rather than the drive.
Once I figured out that the two blank disc that came with the unit, we NOT M-Disc then I was ok with it. But having spent many hours trying to figure out why it would not recognize the disc was very frustrating. The disc had no markings of any sort, naturally one would assume that since I bought an M-disc writer the disc would be M-Disc, but not. The extra M-Disc I ordered came in a few days later and it does work fine with those.
This DVD/CD reader/writer replaces an older LG unit of similar size and USB 2.0 native connections. That unit was also ruggedly built and performed flawlessly until the last few months. Since I was looking for a business quality, non-portable unit, the OWC Mercury Pro satisfies those requirements and a bonus of it also being LG based. The unit writes/reads all DVD/CD media required for my tasks, and the USB 3.0 performance is a significant plus. Though this seems contradictory, I would have preferred that the unit be more compact which shouldn’t be a big challenge given the advances in strong, lighter weight metallic and non-metallic materials. Since .5 Stars aren’t available, 1 star is deducted for excessive bulk resulting in a solid 4 Stars rating. Excepting size, this product is highly recommended.
I needed to down load thousands of CD’s into iTunes and this drive handled the task with ease. Download times vary depending on the CD, but I’ve seen well over 32X which makes my task a heck of a lot easier and quicker than using my older DVD (non-Blu-Ray) external burner. This also seems better at error correction than many other drives. Well built and dependable. Highly recommended!
This is a great drive and my wish list is OWC would make a 4K drive.
Only downgrade the fimrware to the version 1.02 and all set. I do highlight recommend to use the Dvdfab suite. Is unmatchable at the hour to make what ever you want to do. Decrypting.. copying… make iso, burn it, or downgrade using recoding software to fit to particular BD blank disc.
I couldn’t be more impressed by this drive. Connected to my Mac… had to use third party software… of course as expected… works like a dream. Better than a SuperDrive. Can make Blu-rays all day long, this thing is a work horse.
I tried to copy a disc this morning and the player did something strange inside and tore the CD to pieces. The door won’t open and the whole thing is ruined.
$130 is a lot of money to spend on a product that only lasted 10 months.
UPDATE
I raised my rating from two stars to four stars because OWC did replace the unit. It took two or three months and LOTS of hassle, but it finally got resolved.
Arrived three days earlier than promised from Amazon and the shipper (even with free standard shipping before COVID-19,) built like a tank, and immediately recognized by Windows 10 (version 1909) and I immediately burned 10 productions, using Nero Platinum 2020 with no problems and they worked on all my BD players, even older models. The only caveat is that the included USB 3.1 cable is only about 18 inches long so you’ll need to place the drive close to your PC. I would recommend this product and shipper to everyone!
Does what it is supposed to do, burn M-Disk archival media disks. Very reasonably priced. I use the NCH disk burner software with it to archive my computer files, especially photo and video files. I have both this external drive for my laptop, and an internal drive for my desktop.
So far it’s done everything perfectly. M-discs, DVDs, standard blu-ray, CDs. Don’t know about tech support since I haven’t had an issue yet.
Needed a replacement unit. The old one died. This unit has a different chip set as a controller. Seems to have a little trouble with the new encryption on blu-ray discs. But it worked after a reload of the disc.
It rips Blu-rays like a turbo charged wood chipper and has metal housing that of Fort Knox. I accidentally dropped it 3 feet from the floor and it still is a monster! I was overjoyed to find out that I was able to rip region-free (I ignore the mac region chooser on start up.) I was unable to RIP a true 4K encrypted disc, but not bothered. At this price, the Mercury Pro is worth every penny!
I am very pleased with this disc writer. I bought it specifically to write 100 G M-discs. I have over 200,000 photos on my hard drives. Hard drives fail. I bought this to write archival M-discs. The device works fine with my Mac PRO. Be certain you understand how your computer handles files so this works for you. On the Mac you can make a selection right-click and it will give you the option to burn.
M-discs are supposed to last 100yrs
Top Notch external drive, best I have ever owned. I have used LG products since I first entered the computer game. (2000) I still have my first LG dvd/lightscribe drive still functions. The QWC Mercury Pro is quite heavy. Meaning it is made with quality parts. Not a bunch of cheap plastic. Tested using Verbatim M-Disc Blu-ray. 5 discs were used wrote as data files Canon Raw/jpg using Ashampoo Burning Studio 2019. Never skipped a beat. much faster then either of my other drives (both LG) You won’t be disappointed.
I bought a USB-powered Samsung blu ray burner in 2014. I started having issues with 50 gb blu ray discs burning to the 2nd layer (>22 gb). Occasional failures were replaced by constant failure. At first I blamed the discs. Bought OWC Mercury Pro, and all problems solved. Burned four 50 gb discs with no issues at 4x speed. Compared to the USB-powered drive, another notable difference is, once burned, files on disc are quick for review and file transfer on the OWC. If I get 5 years out of this one (at relatively light use), I’ll be happy.
Bought a new laptop that doesn’t have a DVD or Blueray drive and wanted something high quality to supplement with. This is really quite nice. So far all I’ve done is make system recovery disks, but in doing so I’ve found it to be a very solid build with excellent performance. And it’s virtually silent when running. Kind of a small detail, but I especially like the fact that the power adapter separates the brick and plug so it doesn’t take extra space in my surge protector. The only “complaint” I could make is that the cord could be a bit longer… but I can live with that.
It was an exact replacement for the unit I Had before…..I am very pleased with it!
Great speed. Mine has an LG Burner in it, but honestly I didn’t want to bother with trying to purchase a blu-ray burner setup. This came with everything I needed, and honestly I enjoy that it fits my aesthetic. Well worth the purchase.
I have had the Mercury Pro now for about 4 months. Everything is working great. Was easy to set up.
The aluminum case is beautifully executed, and gives the drive a hearty, hefty feel. The supplied usb cable and power supply are nice quality pieces. The drive is a standard LG 16X BD-Writer (the non-Ultra HD version). Like another reviewer said, you could technically order the enclosure for about $50, and the drive separately for about $65 (currently), and you would save about $15. In my case, while I certainly could have done that, my time is more valuable, so spending $15 to have the drive already installed was a fair trade off. I haven’t tried the burning functions yet, but I was able to spin up and rip a blu-ray without any issue, and with good speed. One thing to be clear about, this set up does not come with any software at all, so be aware that you’re on your own for that. On the other hand, as a bonus, 2 25GB BD-Rs with jewel cases were included within the package.
My dell desktop doesn’t have an internal dvd/blu ray player. This unit provides exactly what I needed to play dvd’s.
One of the best built Blu-Ray Player/Writers I have ever bought. Worth the Money
I played DVD, CD, and DATA discs on this product and it’s great!!!!
Nice drive, nice enclosure. The ac adapter isn’t optimal but it works. It would be nice if the power supply could be in the case instead of on the floor. Bottom line. Solid drive. Buy it, you will be happy.
Dislike not enough information on the operation
Like design and performance
I bought this optical drive as a replacement for a blu-ray optical drive that over time had failed due to age. I wanted another drive with a metal case, with very fast writing speeds, and that had its own power supply, not one running off USB. This drive satisfied all my requirements. I read all the reviews for this drive before buying. I have had no troubles at all. The drive was recognized by my Mac desk top computer instantly. No additional software to download and install. Yes, it has an LG drive inside. Why is that a problem? How many different manufacturers’ parts are there in a modern automobile? My other blu-ray optical drive was supplied by a company that choses the best components and then combined them for a great high quality item. I have a small and thin LG optical drive, with its own power supply, that I use with my Mac laptop and it has worked flawlessly. The writing speeds of the Mercury Pro are amazing! Sure, it does make a little noise and that is amplified by my desk but I can always put a piece of dense foam insulation underneath if a wanted less noise, but personally, I like the sound of POWER! My purchase was overkill given the features, but who knows about what I might need in the future? If you burn CD’s and DVD’s, especially home movies (I am the official family Wedding Videographer), then you need this drive today! My Apple authorized service tech recommended OWC and I am glad that he did!
The drive worked perfectly as soon as I plugged it in. It is much faster, quieter, and more reliable than my brand A unit. The metal housing looks good and should help with heat dissipation. I have only burned about a dozen disks so far, but all have been perfect with no “coasters” (i.e., no bad copies).
Yeah, you could buy the same optical case for $49 and then install your own LG WH16NS40 drive for $76.99 Amazon bucks. And save yourself $3.89. Why bother, unless you like putting things together. Not sure where you can buy a new LG WH16NS40 that sells for $55.89…
Got tech questions… read the “Product Description” section… its all there.
Yes, the unit I got has a LG WH16NS40 installed and I am perfectly happy with it. I’ve had the previous iteration, the LG BH14NS40, in my Mac Pro (Mid 2010) since 2011 and I have ripped several thousands of CD, DVD and BD disks, without a single problem. I’ve also used it to burn CD, DVD, and BDR disks and never had a failure. I still have the LG BH14NS40 internally installed in my Mac Pro. I expect similar performance from this unit. AND with this unit, I can move it back and forth between the Mac Pro, the Mac Mini and the MacBook Pro.
The cable I got is a bit too short at 24″. I bought the “Cable Matters USB 3.0 Cable”, in the 6 foot length. I recommend the “Cable Matters USB 3.0 Cable” over the “C2G 54174 USB Cable” cable… for both quality of construction and actual, demonstrated speed.
The case looks good, and it is solid. The BD reader/burner has been perfect for both burning and ripping. No problems at all!
I just wish the wall wart wasn’t part of the equation. Technically, its not a wall wart. Still, having to keep track of an external power brick is annoying.
Got questions the Product Description doesn’t answer? Go to the OWC/macsales web site and then call their customer support. Very good company to work with and they will answer your questions on the phone. No, I do not work for OWC or MacSales. I bought a lot stuff directly from them, over the years. Before Amazon was Amazon.
Good buy! With Amazon’s purchase convenience.
OWC Mercury Pro 16X Blu-ray, 16X DVD, 48X CD Read/Write solution
I just received this drive and already I am very impressed. Not only is it very fast but it also read a disc that a Pioneer and a Samsung external blu-ray drive could not read. It is a hefty, sturdy machine and you won’t be carrying it around with your laptop but I was looking for a desktop drive so that is not an issue for me. It has the performance that I was looking for and that is what is most important to me.
Worked excellent. Recognized immediately. On off button is great addition along with the separate power supply
Rapid delivery. Plug and play on my Mac Pro // 10.6.8. So far have written to DVD, Blu-ray, and M-Disk. Reads and writes perfectly.
In love. I hated having a Blu-Ray and cheap DVD burner on my desk. I love the fact that this machine can take any disk media and burn it, including M disks. So convenient.
Fast and very easy to set up -Plug and play. hope this one lasts more than a year.
Heavy duty case and a quiet and very fast drive. Excellent buy for the price. It’s basically an LG drive and I have always liked LG.
Excellent player for Blu-Ray. Super quick read speed….heads above the slim-style players that run on USB power.
It works well enough, but I can’t really judge it fairly because I’m still having issues with the software.
I have four OWC RAID drives and all work well. The included SoftRaid driver is fabulous.
I also tried this with my MacBook Pro and it worked just as well as when it was connected to my PC.
The drive came with two blank BD-R discs in DVD cases. It also came with a link to download two pieces of software: DiscLabel from Smile Software (for creating, printing, and sharing CD and DVD labels, jewel case inserts, and DVD covers) and Data Backup 3 from Prosoft Engineering (utility that allows you to backup, restore, and synchronize your data). I have not yet downloaded or tried either piece of software.
I’m using this burner with a 2013 iMac running macOS Sierra and Apple’s built-in software for burning data discs. I have burned 20 Verbatim M DISC BD-R discs (single layer 25 GB capacity) with one failed burn (verification failure). The successful burns were done with minimal software running (Activity Monitor and Finder only). The failed burn was done with additional software running (Firefox with lots of tabs and windows open). I suspect that the failed burn was due to the additional system load from running Firefox. Ensure that you have minimal software running, and you should get reliable results. This can be a bit annoying, especially if you have many discs to burn, but it’s more of an issue with the computer keeping the data flowing to the drive than an issue with the drive itself. I have not yet tried burning any DVDs or multi-layer BD-R discs.
Pros: Solid build, reliable performance, burns M DISC BD-R discs, includes some software for macOS and Windows, product description on Amazon is accurate
Cons: Reliable burns require minimal software running on computer, physically much larger than Apple USB SuperDrive (which only handles CDs and DVDs), does not include software for burning DVD or Blu-ray video discs
Plug and Play. Works great for the Blu-Ray that I record.
I’m using this Blu-Ray disc burner on a Mac using Toast Titanium 11 software and works great.
I was “tempted” somewhat to pursue the Silver Colored competitor (made by LG), but many of the reviews noted that it many times had a “issues/problem” with Mac’s (even though this Mercury Pro also has LG inners). The price of this being around $20 bucks higher didn’t help
But overall, I was JAZZED by the three (3) main things with this drive:
1) That it was TRUELY 100% plug & play (with Mac AND PC.)
> Plus, it worked flawlessly even using [and connected to] a USB3 hub…..then to my laptop…
2) The INCREDIBLE speed! (With Playing, Burning AND ripping!!)
3) That it can/does indeed burn the newest [recent] Disc formats (***Read On***).
With the first item (#1), my first rip I was ECSTATIC by the raw unadulterated SPEED!! (Where my SuperDrive would rip a 7GB DVD in about 30 to 50 min, and the [this] Mercury Pro would rip it in HALF the time). I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, considering that the SuperDrive is listed as times Four (X4) but the Mercury Pro as X16 (WOW! was/is it RIGHT ON!!).
So if you want [MORE] Speed then this Mercury Pro is indeed the way to go.
I initially purchased the standard [DVD] unit, but I sent it back and re-purchased this one due to the Blu-Ray capabilities.
The standard is “cheaper” (at around $70 bucks, here at Amazon), BUT, who uses standard DVD’s anymore?!? – as most computer “experts” predict that DVD/Blu-Rays will be DEAD in the next few years ( I hope not, as I am “Old School”) – but it does indeed look like “streaming” (from Netflix, etc.) is winning out
Anyway, back to this product!
Besides the speed, I also like that it records to the new M-DISC (which supposedly uses new tech, that supposed to last OVER one THOUSAND (1,000) years!!! [like any of us will last that long – LOL ).
But the new M-DISC have HUGE capacity! (Up to 128GB!!!! – Wow Is right!) – and these new disc look NO DIFFERENT than a standard DVD or Blu-Ray platter!
Amazon only has the new Verbatim discs (called BDXL – stands for Blu-Ray Extra Large), that are rated at 100GB capacity!! – and as you may know, you can store a TON of stuff on 100GB!!
WARNING (Heads-Up) – These Verbatim are presently VERY expensive!! (At around $20 bucks, PER disc!!! – Yikes!!) – so I hope the price of these will eventually go down.
I only bring up these particular discs because another reviewer mentioned that this [Mercury Pro] drive might not be able to use this BDXL tech (since it supposedly uses a “special” frequency laser to write to the BDXL discs), BUT…..
….. I called the OWC tech support (the makers of this drive) and the Tech ASSURED me that this drive SHOULD burn to the Verbatim BDXL discs..
…..He said primarily because BDXL are no different than the standard BD-R Discs (except that the BDXL’s just have an added “layer” [3 total]), PLUS, this drive SHOULD burn to [up to] the higher 4 layers anyway.
So hope I didn’t “babble” too much –
In summary, all should be able to burn to the new 100GB M-DISC platters – Enjoy!!
UPDATE (July 2, 2019):
So I’ve had this drive for a while now, so here is an Update.
I absolutely LOVE This OWC burner drive!!! (5 hearts [stars]).
Primarily because I recently found out it will read 4K Blu-Ray disks (That’s RIGHT – the ones also called UHD [Ultra High Definition]).
In fact, if you get the MakeMKV program (Google this) then you will be able to even “rip” movies [you heard right!!! ] with THIS [OWC] drive).
You, of course, will want to do this “legally”, right?!? (via your own purchased collection).
Anyway, the “key” to doing this is to be sure you have the RIGHT firmware when you buy this drive (go to [again] the MakeMKV website to see which firmware will allow you to do this). They have a forum there that is awesomely informational! (And you, of course, have to buy the MakeMKV software – but it is always on “free trial” [beta] so you can freely check it out, before purchase).
So as of now, I can rip/copy: 1) CD’s, 2) DVD’s, 3) Blu-Rays, and NOW…. 4) 4K [UHD] Blu-Ray Disks…
(And did I say [again] that this thing is FAST!?!…)
Overall, all I can say is that I’m now in “Tech HEAVEN….!!!” ).
So GET THIS DRIVE…, if you wish to “digitize” [Backup] your music , Movies , etc., etc. (best done to a home NAS/RAID).
See my review, for/on the Synology DS1817+ if you’d like to see/build an AWESOME storage place (for all your data – as your will NEED this [a NAS] if you start digitizing Movies [they are HUGE]).
I just recently updated to 20TB and I COULDN’T BE HAPPIER!!! (this “SPEED” of this thing (the NAS) is INCREDIBLE!!!)
With the addition of this OWC drive, you will have your own “personal” [at Home] Netflix.
So there you go – Enjoy
M-Disc is the only way to go if you want your optical media to last more than 5 or 7 years.
This unit is rock solid and built like a tank. In hundreds of projects, zero failures.
Another excellent OWC product and highly recommended.