External burner detected, but "No disc"

Hi, I am using OS X 10.10.3 on the latest model Mac Mini. I have a new Samsung SE-506CB external burner, which when i plug in the USB to my Mac it is detected (appears in Finder as "Remote Disc" and in Disc Utility as "TSSTcorp BBVDW SE-506CB"). I have Roxio Toast software installed, but cannot burn to disc because it keeps telling me "no media detected". I have tried both DVD -r and blank Blu Ray disc's in it. I even tried a blank CD. When I go into System Report, under Disc Burning the drive is detected (and it says burn support = Yes) but it also says "To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose file refresh". Well it does have a disc in it, but it just won't detect it, so I am unable to burn anything.

Before I bought the Samsung burner I checked that it was OS X compatible, and it specifically says on the box that it supports OS X.

Troubleshooting steps are:

-repeatedly rebooting and reattaching USB

-trying different USB ports

-trying a different cable to that supplied

-performing a SMC reboot

-checking for any updates

-I have searched for a "com.apple.diskutility.plist" library file mentioned in the forums (but I don't seem to have it).

Have done a fair amount of searching through the forums as well as the manufactur's website (which is very windows issue focused) but unable to find a solution. To check that the burner itself wasn't damaged I connected it to an old Window PC that I only use about once a year, and the frustrating things is that straight away it burnt to disc, no problems at all. Considering that most Apple hardware these days doesn't come with an internal disc burner, i'm hoping I can get some support for this external burner.