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Samsung SE218BB DVD for Android

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After months of nothing, I have finally ordered one of these from Germany. Well, it arrived today and I've had about 2 hours to play with it.
It is very slim and finished in brushed matt black. It has a single port (mini USB) and no power socket, nor VGA/HDMI output - probably too thin for that.

In order to work with Honeycomb, it has to be set to AV mode - eject the tray and hold the eject button for 3 seconds. Plugged into the TF201, it comes up with an extra icon (as it does for SD card) and you can then browse the contents of the inserted disk. Here's what I have tried so far:-

1) a home-made dual layer DVD - contains MOV files. Works fine.
2) a data CD containing a 'saved' website - works fine in Dolphin HD browser
3) an audio CD - works fine, but from file browser I can only manage one file at a time - most of the audio players don't let me navigate to the drive!
4) A commercial (film) DVD - tries to access the drive, but gives up. Tried the drive on Win7 and the film plays fine.

It would be nice if there was a proper CD app, but I suppose it is early days yet - this unit is a first for working with Android.

I will post a photo or two soon.
 
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Thanks Nutz, I was hoping for pictures of the unit beside the tablet etc to see how the 2 look beside each other. This all sounds pretty good so far tho.

Hi JAy3001

Ok, will do a side by side photo. I have just delved into the online manual which gives a better insight than the wretched quick start guide.... it seems that in AV mode, the drive won't read commercial DVD films! Maybe a firmware upgrade in due course (I have just checked firmware, and there is no upgrade yet).
 
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Thanks Nutz, I was hoping for pictures of the unit beside the tablet etc to see how the 2 look beside each other. This all sounds pretty good so far tho.

Hi JAy3001

Ok, will do a side by side photo. I have just delved into the online manual which gives a better insight than the wretched quick start guide.... it seems that in AV mode, the drive won't read commercial DVD films! Maybe a firmware upgrade in due course (I have just checked firmware, and there is no upgrade yet).
 

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Nutz - The articles say it's a DVD writer as well. I have to presume that's not supported under Android either, right?

Does it basically show up like a write-protected flash drive as far as Android is concerned?

(Still... given a custom kernel (for the drivers), and maybe some native libraries (for the burning process), it should be possible to write DVDs with a Prime.)
 
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Nutz - The articles say it's a DVD writer as well. I have to presume that's not supported under Android either, right?

Does it basically show up like a write-protected flash drive as far as Android is concerned?

(Still... given a custom kernel (for the drivers), and maybe some native libraries (for the burning process), it should be possible to write DVDs with a Prime.)

sorceror - yes, you are correct. It comes bundled with Nero (PC) but will also write under OS X. However, at the moment, I'm not aware of any Android writing apps.
 
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Thanks Nutz. That looks pretty sweet I have to say. :)

The Prime does treat different media oddly sometimes. I do find it frustrating that I cannot view photos on a USB stick in gallery format ie swipe left to right with the default galley app. I know you can use ES File Explorers viewer, but that is terrible.. laggy as hell and it does not support auto rotate or swiping when zoomed in.
 
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Thanks Nutz. That looks pretty sweet I have to say. :)

The Prime does treat different media oddly sometimes. I do find it frustrating that I cannot view photos on a USB stick in gallery format ie swipe left to right with the default galley app. I know you can use ES File Explorers viewer, but that is terrible.. laggy as hell and it does not support auto rotate or swiping when zoomed in.

Here's my hope list for Bread & Butter Pudding - well I am British! (ETA 2015 maybe):-

It will play commercial DVDs
File browsers and media players will AUTO recognise hardware without frustrating software that can't navigate properly to SD cards or DVD hardware.
Someone will do an app for a CD player that will play ALL tracks!
A clever company will write DVD burning software for Android.

My only comfort is that poor and rightly despised iPad owners can't even get a DVD to connect to their junk. Android reigns superior!
 
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