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Years ago I experimented with streaming DVDs wirelessly using a dedicated standalone networked drive and from a drive in a PC, as well as using ISOs or VIDEO_TS folders. It can sort of be made to work, but consumer WiFi equipment didn't particularly like it and after a few too many lost connections I gave up. And increasingly I don't want to switch a PC on or leave one on just to watch something. So although it's quite niche to use optical drives these days, let alone attach a writer to a mobile device, it's good to see current and inexpensive options to do that, and with a practical implementation that doesn't require a dedicated WiFi network, doesn't need any unusual permissions, etc. You can use an adapter to power the tablet whilst the drive is in use.

Apparently patents on DVD playback expired at the end of 2024 -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Video -- so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the LG software for this new drive (UD LINK and TrueDVD+) being on the Play store freely available. I assume the software probably checks for LG drives, of course, plus AFAIK you can't just plug any drive into an OTG connector, those that can tend to have branding like Link2TV on them and can be me made visible to a device as flash drives rather than needing drivers that Android doesn't have. I tried to access the drive with VLC, but although it identified a device labelled as OTG the link in the application only went to the Downloads folder on the tablet for some reason. Fortunately it wasn't needed.

Hitachi-LG GP96 External DVD Drive
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B08S6RPH8S

Seminer USB C OTG Adapter, 100W PD Charging
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0DCBNGXKG

The listing for the adapter says it's a splitter, but doesn't appear to be correct about that. It simply allows you to charge the tablet (and possibly use other Power Delivery functionality over USB C) whilst using another device via OTG on Android.

The drive is very lightweight and seems unlikely to stand up to much abuse. Its USB port is micro USB rather than USB C, which is basically the most fragile connector they could have picked. The OTG adapter also probably isn't very robust if knocked or under pressure, either, judging by Amazon reviews.

However, it works without drop outs. Being a commercially sold solution it does ask you to set a region on first use but, apart from that, it going haywire if you unplug a charger from the adapter whilst watching a disc is the only issue I've found. The Lenovo M10 2nd Gen tablet I'm using will charge whilst playing, using a decent phone/tablet charger. I'm also using a third party app, Volume Control: Show Native, for a floating widget to adjust the volume when the tablet is fixed in place against a hard surface.

It feels weird now that a DVD typically only contains an hour or two of video, three at a push, when something the size of your thumbnail might contain more than a thousand if the same content was encoded with better algorithms. Not so much with films, but that doesn't scale when a TV series might be half a dozen discs of MPEG-2 versus half a disc of MPEG-4.

I still like having the discs, they just haven't been a convenient format for watching. Ever, really, but more so now -- it's easier to find and stream something as background noise. A drive and a cable does take some friction out of the process, needs minimal space and works better than small portable DVD players with screens I've seen, plus acts as a complement to a device which is already being used for watching other things whilst keeping a smaller main tablet free for use. It's a cheap, modular solution that's quick to set up in place.

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