Which DVD burner to buy...?

[dirtymatt]

Now that X-Mas is over and I have some spare cash I am looking to buy myself a DVD burner. I've been looking at the Sony DRX500UL (the external dvd-+/*#monkey) but it looks like it's back ordered just about everywhere until Jan 30th. The main things I like about this drive are that it's external, and that it does DVD-R and DVD+RW (from what I've seen it looks like dvd-r and dvd+r are virtually identical, but dvd+rw can actually write to any random sector on a disc while dvd-rw is basically a cd-rw).

So what does everyone here think? Is it worth getting the DRX500UL, or is there a different drive I should be looking at?

Thanks

[klona]

This question cannot really answered...
That why you get tons of answers :-)

You should better first read posts and sites about DVD-R and DVD+R and choose chich technology you prefer.

Then go again on threads and sites to find which burner you prefer, according your use and your budget.

The Sony is great as opened to all standard, but it still young, not well known yet regarding firmware upg, media & standalone compatibility, expensive and hard to find.

On DVD-R, i would recommend Pioneer, as the leader, and now we are able to choose which firmware we want on it. But other brand should be fine also, just I don't know a lot about

[TCCK]

PLEXTOR!!

enough said!

[alexnoe]

rotflmao!

You recommend a writer which is not available yet, and of which not even the true manufacturer is clear (no, plextor does not make every drive on its own, and especially because of the high licence fees for dvd+rw, it would be logical to sell ricoh clones, as every other dvd+"manufacturer" does), not to speak of any review...
:D

[gooki]

Good one alexnoe.

My personal recomendation is the Toshiba SD-R5002.

Reasons:

1) Cheap $190USD or less.
2) Reliable.
3) Fast-ish CDR/RW write speed.
4) 2x write support for Ritek G03 right out of the box.
5) Works with Primo DVD.
6) Who actually uses rewriteable discs enough to make it worth the extra expense to get the dual format burner? Personally I have used my DVD-RW twice. Not because of the lack of functionallity (i found it worked very well, formats in just over a minute), I just have little need for rewriteable discs.
7) Available in sexy black.
8) No fan, unlike the a03/a04.
9) Quiet operation.

[gooki]

If re-writeability is a must, I'd look into the Panasonic SW-9571, 2X DVD-R/2X DVD-RAM/12X CD-R $292