Bought this external drive a month ago, since I wanted to keep my current internal DVD drive. This LG BE08LU20 has worked flawlessly and produced perfect BD discs. I've burned and erased about 10 times with BD-RE discs and have burned 3 BD-R discs. Each one turned out perfectly - no coasters.I've used quality blank discs - Verbatim BD-R and BD-RE. I can't speak for other brands, but reviews I've read indicate Verbatim has fewer problems.The USB connect is great if you have no ESATA external outlet. But it's much slower than using ESATA. USB burns at 480 mb/s. ESATA burns at 1.5 gb/s -- around 3 times faster. Significantly, LG includes an external ESATA bracket, with a cable, so you can easily create an external ESATA outlet (assuming your computer has an open ESATA connect on the motherboard and an available slot in the back). The bracket is the typical large size, so if you have a smaller computer, like the Dell Inspiron, you'll need to order a "low profile" ESATA bracket.It's a beautiful device and looks good, sitting next to your computer. It's easily set up. I had it up and running in about 5 minutes, and it's worked perfectly, from the beginning.