Good morning Peter,

Is this the external drive you said worked only with DVDs? It is a blyu ray drive -- I have one very similar.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SE-506BB-TSBD-External-Blu-ray/dp/B00AO1XFM0

What are you trying to play? If you run the 3D and blu ray advisor, what does it tell you?

Advisor: http://www.cyberlink.com/stat/bd-support/enu/index.jsp .
.
BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Thank you Stevek
I ran the advisor and both BD/Basic, BD/Advanced, True Theatre 3D and Blu-ray 3D taps said "Pass" except for Software: PowerDVD 15 trail version, where it said "Upgrade".
As I understand, the trail version should be able to play non-3d Blu-rays, but none of those I have does play.
The drive i recognised as "Blu-ray Disc-RE-Drive*" by the OS.
I checked the logfile as well, and here it said Operating System: Windows 8: Pass.
However I am using Windows 10, 64-bit. Can that be the problem?
Peter

You said: I checked the logfile as well, and here it said Operating System: Windows 8: Pass. However I am using Windows 10, 64-bit. Can that be the problem?

I doubt it, if I remember I got that on my W10 computer also.

My suggestion is to buy the fulll version; you have 30 days to return it no questions asked

By the way, you cannot change the trial version to the full version. You will have to delete the trial version and install the full version.

Here are the limations for the trial version: (Do any of these apply to you?)

Limitations30-day trial version. -

VC-1/H.264/Blu-ray format playback in the trial version is limited to systems with hardware acceleration.

Does not support the playback of HEVC/H.265/Blu-ray 3D content.

Does not support the playback of CPRM/DTCP-IP protected content.

Does not support USB Sync and Home Media Server.

Does not support audio extraction from video files.

Does not support CD audio ripping.

A CyberLink account is required to access CyberLink Cloud features. 2GB of free storage in CyberLink Cloud is provided during the trial period .

Media content in CyberLink Drive may be deleted when the trial expires.

CyberLink Cloud for Power Media Player is not supported in the trial version.

Transcoding media before uploading to CyberLink Cloud is not supported in the trial version. .
.
BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Hello again.
I removed the trail version, downloaded and installed the registred version of PowerDVD Ultra, but unfortunately it does not work.
The software recognizes the drive immediately, and it plays a DVD perfect. But when I load a Blu-ray or a 3D Blu-ray the diode on the drive blinks for about one minute and the software says “No disc in drive D:”.
I have tried several different discs with same result.
The drive is two years old, but has hardly been used. I bought the drive I order to project some special 3D Blu-rays, but the laptop was not powerful enough (eg. The picture and sound were not in sync.).
Therefore the drive has not been used until now with a new Lenovo ThinkPad T550 with i7 CPU, 16GB ram and a SSD. I expect the drive to be in order; the problem must be a software issue.
I will appreciate any suggestions, I will hate to give up.

Double check that external drive. Mine needs two USB ports to get it full power. Does yours? Mine came with a USB "Y" cable so that it plugs inot the burner and into 2 USB ports on the computer.

If you are using a desktop, use a USB connection on the BACK of your computer The ones in front don't have enough power. If you are using a desktop, then all the USB ports should give full power.

Have you tried to play a disc using the drive and the free VLC player? .
.
BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

I tried the ”Y” cable once again, its connected to two USB 2 ports on the Lenovo docking station, which is supposed to have plenty of power. However – no difference.
After installing VLC player, I get same result: DVDs play, Blu-rays don’t.
I get following message (translated from Danish):

Input cannot be opened.
VLC cannot open MRL ‘bluray:///D:/’.
Check the log for details.

It was a little tricky to find the log, but it said almost the same:

Core error: open of ‘blyray:///D:/’ failed
Peter

Just to note that VLC is an unsilenced player and will not play Blu-rays, unless there is some sort of decrypting software running in the back ground.

At least it is recognizing the drive as containing a blu ray.

Before you got a message about no disc in drive. Do you still get that with PowerDVD? What version did you buy.

The standard does not support blu ray. The Pro does not support 3D blu ray. See this comparison.
http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdvd-deluxe/compare-versions_en_US.html

If you don;t want the program, you have 30 days from purchase to return it. .
.
BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Quote: At least it is recognizing the drive as containing a blu ray.

But the OP doesn't need VLC to determine that, Windows will show the title of the movie with out any sofware, licensed or unlisenced.

He should also be able to right click on the drive and open the Blu-ray to look at the files on the disc.

You may be on to something there, maybe the OP simply bought the wrong version, but that still doesn't explain why the trial didn't work.

Thanks again for dealing with my problem.
According to the receipt from CyberLink it is the PowerDVD 15 Ultra I have downloaded.
The laptop recognizes the drive, but not the Blu-ray disc.
PowerDVD recognizes the drive as Blu-ray Disc-RE-drive, but if I hit the Play button is says “no disc in drive D:”
If I try Windows Pathfinder to open the disc (right click – open) the disc is ejected.
I have a data Blu-ray disc, which I cannot open either.
As DVDs work fine, can it be a missing Blu-ray driver?
I have searched Samsung.com for a possible firmware update, but obviously they don’t support the SE-506BB external drive.
The drive has hardly been used, but can it be a hardware defect of the Blu-ray part anyway?
Peter

PROBLEM SOLVED!
In my search for a solution I also contacted “support” at http://www.tsstodd.com/eng/. They just sent me a RMS form, which I returned with the drive.
In the meantime I borrowed a drive from a friend. It turned out to be exactly the same as mine (SE-506AA), and it worked perfectly.
Today a new drive (SE-506CB) arrived TssT and after messing a little with “HDCP could not be initiated” (a HDMI cable was removed) the drive worked just fine. Excellent service.
Peter