Why I buy this one ?
- What's in the box? - External dvd1040e drive with DVD+-R/+-RW with DVD+-R up to 20x, double layer recording, DVD-RAM, and LightScribe direct disc labeling, Software CD including electronic user's guide,? Quick-Start placemat, Getting Help guide, USB 2.0 cable, Power supply
- Record to all major formats (+-R/+-RW, DVD-RAM, CD-R/RW), plus use LightScribe, on a single drive
- Record double-layer DVDs at up to 8x, recordable DVDs at up to 20x, rewritable DVDs at up to 8x, and DVD-RAMs at up to 12x
- Transfer hours of video onto DVD with your PC, then show on your TV
- Get excellent playback compatibility on DVD drives and players, thanks to HP's testing standards

What our customer's say!

"Great Multi burner", The HP 20x External Multiformat DVD Writer is a simple to use burner. The multiformat is perfect for any cd you buy. The ability to have "LightScribe" lets you etch designs on the cd/dvd itself (with the proper "LightScribe" cd). Just make sure you flip/put the disc "upside down" before the burner etches the disc (there is only one lens). Other than that, the only problem with "LightScribe" is finding it in many local stores and most of the stores who do carry it, carry only the cd-r/rw version (not the dvd). As for the "Nero 7 Essentials" program, that to is easy to navigate. Large icons with highlited hints generally explain each function on the options you chose. What I found annoying was the constant "upgrade" pop up when you first use each format option. Also, the "Nero 7 Essentials" repeat certain functions that you won't need to download to make the burner work. The basic functions are:
1. Data transfer
2. Creating music cd
3. Video transfer
4. Copy disc
The "Nero Express Essentials" does all that so you don't need to install all those desktop short cuts and quick launch for each function (just uncheck them). Unfortunately, you must install everything. During installation, make sure you don't just click next on everything or the "Nero" program will convert your entire computer to run on its program (videos, pictures, etc). Follow the installation carefully and click on all the options (that opens another window) so you may "uncheck" the functions that will make the "Nero" program the default on your computer. Over all, I had no problems installing the program because in anticipation of this product, I uninstalled my former burner.

"Light-Scribe is not all you expect.", The HP 20x is a low price external drive that works great as a CD/DVD burner. The Light-Scribe on the other hand was a let down. To get the Light-Scribe to work I had to download an updated driver from Light-Scribe's website. I had to set the program to burn at Top Quality and the darkest setting but, still you can barely see the images. I can burn 3 CD's in the time it takes to make one Light-Scribe label.

It is still a cheap answer to CD labels just not a quality answer.

"Excellent!", I read the posted reviews and picked this one. I am not sorry. It works well nearly "right out of the box" with my desktop computer and I archived 50G of podcasts and used the litescribe feature. I am looking forward to doing the same on my laptop. As with everything, there are some upgrades to deal with, but they are free and worth it. Plan on devoting an hour on broadband, and don't be frustrated. When have you ever bought something that didn't want to go to the internet and upgrade itself. Just be glad you can drive a car off the lot without a firmware and software upgrade (for now).

"Convenient and Works With Ubuntu Linux", I bought this to go with the MSI Microstar WindBook U100-286MY 10" Notebook - Black, which doesn't have a built in dvd drive. I haven't experienced any problems so far with this dvd drive. No improperly burned disks etc. Ubuntu recognizes this just fine.

"External was never so good", I was pleseantly suprised at how quick and easy this burner installed and how easy it is to use. The lightscribe is a great addition. It is really fast and quiet too.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"can't get it to work", I don't know what I am doing wrong but I cannot figure out how to get video from my computer to the dvd drive. So far this is useless. I wouldn't consider myself "technical" or a computer wiz, but I did manage to install my own wireless router, so you would think I could burn a DVD. I am either missing some software, completely ignorant or this is not a user friendly product.

"Works with PC and Mac -- No Problems", This HP burner has been simple and uncomplicated to use. It was made for PCs but works fine with both my Macs and PCs with no complications.
I haven't tried the software, just used the burner programs that I already had in my computers.
My needs are uncomplicated, just data backup, and this burner reads and writes without a hitch. My Macs and PCs read the data without a problem.


"Great Burner, Crappy Software", This burner is very easy to use, just plug it in and go. I had to get a USB card because I didn't have USB 2.0. The burner will work without, but it will take two hours to burn a dvd. After the USB upgrade it took only minutes to burn a dvd. The only thing I would recommend is to not use the burning software that is included (Nero). It lagged my computer and would abort the burning process at times. I tried the online free 21 day trial of CloneDVD 2 and then decided to purchase it because it works so well. Overall this is an excellent burner, good price, and the lightscribe feature is nice.

"Good Writer, Lousy Nero Software Bundle", Thought I would follow the instructions included with the writer. Installation went fine, the pc recognized the player. The install of the Nero software was a mess. It conflicted with the already existing burner software on my pc.
The Nero software has limitations, the player as-is will burn to DVD-R. With the Nero software you lose that functionality, due to some sort of licensing conflict.
What's the point of owning a writer, if the third party software doesn't allow you to write? I uninstalled the Nero bundle, but evidently it had made a change to my pc that would still not let the DVD writer to write.
Had to perform a system restore, and now the writer writes to DVD-R. Yay! Thats what I wanted.
Unfortunately the added feature of the software was going to be Lightscribe. But Nero bundled it into their all-in-one (all Seven-in-one!) executable, and doesn't allow for installing JUST the Lightscribe software.
It's not that important a feature. If I want it so bad, I'll just buy a copy online, or just use a magic marker.
Also, the Nero software wants you to associate all media files so that they run on it's software. Thats all your video files MOV, AVI, MPEG..., all your audio files mp3, wmv, wav..., all your image files BMP, JPG...(you have to deselect, to stop it from doing that)
The HP writer seems to work fine, HP (IMO) made an error in selecting the Nero bundle to include with the writer.

"Relatively easy to burn data and audio CDs, not most advanced", Regarding CD burners, I am an amateur reviewer.The last CD burner I purchased was back in 2002, and it had clunky usability at best. So this HP seemed like a really easy tool. I was able to install the drivers and Nero burning software quickly and burning data and audio CDs takes about 30 seconds of set up and burning only takes a few minutes at most.

Other users in my household find Nero's burning software unintuitive and wish they could just drag and drop data to be burned. That may be an option, but I just use Nero for them.

The sense I got from visiting HP's site for updated drivers and documentation (none) and then reading some reviews is that the technology for this model came out in 2004. My box said it was manufactured in 2007, but my guess is that there are more advanced burners and software available today. For basic needs, this the HP dvd1040e has been working fine for the last six months and was very inexpensive. No problems.