Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this (Esky® External USB Region Free DVD Burner CD DVD ROM CDRW Drive...) for one reason and one reason only: it claims to be region free. As you can see, it says it right there in the title. A region free drive can play a dvd from any region: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. Most importantly, it is not locked into a region. So I can play region 1 AND 2 AND 3 AND 4, etc. Otherwise, IT IS A NORMAL REGION LOCKED DRIVE. So the test for a region free optical drive is straight forward: play two different region discs, one after the other. A region free optical drive will do so without any prompts or changes or problems. It will operate precisely as you would expect an optical drive would: it will simply play the discs. This does not. I put in a region 1 movie. It played. I put in a region 3 movie. I am informed that the optical drive is set to region 1 and the cannot play the disc because the disc is region 3. In order to play the disc, i have to change my region lock to region3 - which i am allowed to do only 4 times before it becomes permanent. This is the very definition of region lock, and the very opposite of region free. As such, this device is NOT what it is listed and advertised to be. The device comes snuggly secured by hard foam in a nondescript, OEM-style cardboard box, the ubiquitous variety you typically find once a product box is actually opened. There is no documentation supplied. A mini-cd is supplied - all the files are in chinese and thus do not display properly. It does not auto run. It seems to contain drivers for usb 1.1, 2.0, and a version of Nero for burning. That is it. What remains is a bulky, inconvenient external optical drive. It requires TWO (2) usb ports - in contrast to my other, lighter, quieter, external optical that only requires ONE (1). If the power usb cord is not connected to your laptop first, it will short and immediately shutdown your laptop - very dangerous. Of course, THERE IS NO DOCUMENTATION TO INDICATE THIS (and you will have to rely on your own tech level of know-how to recognize which connection is power); normally if a device which requires power is plugged in without power, nothing happens - rather than crash your laptop. So in summary: it does NOT do the thing ONLY thing that makes it worth buying: region free playback. The device is SUBPAR. I do NOT RECOMMEND this device to anyone. It is the very definition of both buyer's remorse and lemon. Update: I have read and attempted the vendor's work around region setting posted in the comments, and responded there accordingly. In short, it does not work - regional setting requires you to select a geographic location, not input a number. The product remains, as it was since the beginning, a falsely advertised, low quality device. Purchase at your own remorse.