Samsung SE-S204S TruDirect 20X, this USB 2.0 external drive from Samsung is a full-featured DVD burner. It’s compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Vista and all types of DVDs and CDs.
The key part of the package is TruDirect, which is included software that can turn incoming video directly into DVDs in real time. That is, when it works. TruDirect generated frequent and varied errors for me in both WinXP and Vista. Some of the errors only showed up after transferring an hour’s worth of video, wasting that much of my time here on earth.
Forget the version 1.0 on the included CD—download the latest version of TruDirect from the Software Download page of www.samsungodd.com/eng. After you connect the drive to your computer, install TruDirect. After a reboot or two, connect your camcorder to your PC.
TruDirect has a simple but decent DVD menu maker. It also can make movie discs using existing video clips on your hard drive, as well as slideshow DVDs using photo files. The latter are extremely basic, as TruDirect won’t let you choose your photo order, let alone add background music or transitions.
With a bit more debugging from Samsung, SE-S204S TruDirect could make this drive a compelling buy. The drive does also come with Nero Express 7 and other applications, which make up for the things TruDirect lacks. Then again, so does almost any $35 internal DVD burner.
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