Pros: It works as its supposed to.

Cons: none so far but have only owned it a couple of months

Other Thoughts: I've only used to install windows and a couple of games. I haven't done any burning with it yet. So far so good though.

Pros: Price was low enough to use Blue Ray drive instead of the a better $12 DVD burners

Cons: Windows 7 Pro 64bit does not recognize this drive. It's DOA.

Other Thoughts: Now should I tear apart the SATA routing to troubleshoot a failed optical drive? These things work out of the box or the don't. At least I received the rebate. I'll take my loss and not buy Asus branded storage. Buy something else.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for your time on posting this review, we are sorry to hear your experience with the optical drive. Please allow me to assist you.

Please try the steps below to try to troubleshoot the drive's issue.

* Try different media discs, including both DVD and CD.
* Try different SATA ports or use different computer for comparison
* Confirm that the SATA cables are working.
* After all troubleshooting has been recommended, suggest

For further assistance or if you want to discuss this matter with me, please email me at customerloyalty@asus.com and put case #N160267726 in the subject line for a reference. I'm here to help you and all others with these issues, as our customer loyalty department dedicated to bringing a resolution to all issues related to our products.

If ever you want to call our representatives please check link below for the contact numbers.

http://www.asus.com/us/support/CallUs

Thank you for choosing ASUS.

Best regards,
Jerry
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Easy Install. Read/Write both worked. As a developer, I really only needed this to handle the eventuality that a client will have data on a BD and I should be able to read it. Tested the burn by archiving some useful but not important items. Nothing Special one way or another about it.

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: Final price, after rebate, was $30 - about as much as I'd pay for a technology that didn't quite make it. Got a deal on some 25GB disks (from NewEgg, of course!) for the above-noted test.

Pros: Great match with my corsair C70 case

Cons: No soft ware for playing blue ray should have had one

Other Thoughts: product should come with blue ray player soft ware

Pros: It's cheap, installs easily, and CAN read blu-ray discs

Cons: What is not made obvious via the description is if you want to use this to play bluray movies on your PC, you will have to purchase 3rd party software - and the only stuff I can find is about $50.00. I completely understand this isn't ASUS's fault - but it'd be nice to have that warning for people before they buy.

Pros: - Worked right away.
- Was really fast for Blu-Ray disks.

Cons: - After about a months, it wouldn't read Blu-Rays. Then no more DVDs. Now it just opens the tray briefly an closes it again before I can place a disk.

Pros: Trusted brand name

Cons: Only lasted two years. With all the cloud storage and large capacity usb drives available, I hardly had any use for this burner. I may have burned less than 5 BDs since owning it and now it's dead and won't recognize any disk at all. Waste of $70.

Other Thoughts: I should have read the negative reviews first before purchasing this burner.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Binod,

Thank you for your time on posting this review, we are sorry to hear your experience with the optical drive. Please allow me to assist you.

Please try the steps below to try to troubleshoot the optical drive.

• Try different media discs, including both DVD and CD.
• Try different SATA ports or use different computer for comparison
• Confirm that the SATA cables are working.

Can we also have the units serial number for me to check and verify the unit's warranty in case we need to process an RMA.

For further assistance or if you want to discuss this matter with me, please email me at customerloyalty@asus.com and put case #N151297552 in the subject line for a reference. I'm here to help you and all others with these issues, as our customer loyalty department dedicated to bringing a resolution to all issues related to our products.

If ever you want to call our representatives please check link below for the contact numbers.

http://www.asus.com/us/support/CallUs

Thank you for choosing ASUS.

Best regards,
Jerry
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Mine shipped as a "BW-12B1ST a" with 1.00 firmware. $60 w $20 rebate = $40 -- fair price.
Just hope I get the rebate next year sometime. Price is much higher at the time of this writing.
Using ImgBurn through Wine in Linux, could read a 25gb BD-R in 11 mins, and write 25gb in 12 mins. I did not install the provided bloatware. It read old BD-R media, and could write and blank my more difficult DVD+RW media. Played a Blu-ray with VLC. No special drivers required ... the way I like it.

Cons: It makes a little whirr at full speed, and gets a little warm after 35 mins of solid use, but this is expected.

Other Thoughts: When using ImgBurn for writing BD media, you must must must UNCHECK Tools / Settings / Write / BD-R Verify Not Required (*) to reliably burn. It is insane to leave this on the default (checked) setting, using ANY Blu-ray Burner.

Pros: Does what it says. Look at the specs and it delivers what it says. Great price

Cons: None

Pros: Drive was easy to install. Reads all optical media incredibly fast. Rips CDs/DVDs at nearly double the speed that my previous ASUS DVD burner did.

Cons: Not any fault of this drive but I did not realize what a pain in the tail it is to get PC playback of commercially released blu-rays (not even talking about ripping!).