Home > Consumer Reviews > PIONEER DVR-SK12D External Slim DVD Writer - Blue

This thing is sweet. I've got a Dell Latitude laptop and this thing has been the perfect addition to my system. It's got both USB2 and Firewire connections and it burns in DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW formats. I've gone through a 25-spindle of DVDs and have yet to have any problems or standalone player compatibility issues. It's also really thin and light--very portable.

I work onsite at client often and this baby saves me time when a client's machine doesn't have any dvd capacity. I don't use it with a laptop, but to add dvd abilities to a desktop machine.
By, the way, even though it isn't advertised as mac compatible, it is, if you have OSX 10.2.8 or greater. There's nothing to install, Just plug it in (and turn it on, like I didn't do).
There's only two issues I've got. There's no pouch to store all the stuff it comes with (power cord, power brick, USB and firewire cables, driver install disk), and the fire wire cord is 4 pin on both ends. It would have been nice if they included a 4 pin to 6 pin adapter.

This product is totally dead on my Win98SE and WinME machines.

For Win98SE, the buyer is admonished with a large bright piece of paper in the package saying that if the buyer wants USB2 support, then go to their web site and download the driver. However, if you go to their web site http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/article/0,,2076_4251_51968,00.html and look at the driver, it's a PDF file that, guess what, admonishes the buyer to download the driver from their website! I've already notified them months ago that they have a bad machine and useless links, but they refuse to fix either, and instead keep putting up more glowing press releases on their website about this piece of junk.

On the WinME Sony Vaio laptop that I have, it is non-functional on *both* the USB and Firewire connectors.

My advice is to stay away from this rather poorly supported and dubious piece of equipment.