I'm looking for an external burner for my laptop that can burn dual layer discs. I have found some for really cheap but I have never heard of the companies. I was looking on tigerdirect and I'm going to look on newegg as well. I was just wondering if name brand really made a difference or will the cheap ones do the trick.

12/2/2005 1:00:16 AM

stay away from tigerdirect

12/2/2005 1:06:42 AM

i'm sure people will disagree with me, but i don't think brand matters AT ALL...i've had 3 dvd burners so far (and no, they never quit working, but i'd upgrade from dvd+r to 16x dvd+-r to dvd+-r DL with lightscribe)...my first one was khypermedia (i think that's officemax's brand), my second was a benQ (i think i've heard of them before, though) and this one is an HP (though made by sony, i believe)...my parents have a plextor...they all perform(ed) without any problems

your best bet is to get a good deal (don't go super low end, but no need to spend big bucks on "name brand") and get decent media

12/2/2005 1:12:37 AM

since when is 40 bucks too much for name brand?

12/2/2005 1:14:39 AM

the external dual layer ones aren't 40 bucks

12/2/2005 1:16:03 AM

^^^hey does the lightscribe work on the dual layer discs too or do they only sell single layer discs that can do that.

[Edited on December 2, 2005 at 1:17 AM. Reason : ]

12/2/2005 1:16:34 AM

i've only seen single-layer discs, myself

12/2/2005 1:18:13 AM

that's what I thought. I like the lightscribe thing just because it's cool but I really want a burner that can do dual layer.

12/2/2005 1:19:06 AM

I've never had a problem with any of the media I've purchased. I've only used -R, but have never tried a +R

12/2/2005 1:22:20 AM

mine does lightscribe and dl...having one doesn't mean you can't have the other, too...seriously, i wouldn't worry about it too much, i've yet to hear of any optical drives being truly crappy (it's kind of standardized technology now)

12/2/2005 1:22:52 AM

cheapest i've ever seen dual layer was 1.25 a disk and that was about a month and a half ago, i'm sure they will dip under a dollar after rebates on slickdeals by like january

12/2/2005 1:27:01 AM

^^yeh I just meant I wanted one that could do a lightscribe on a dual layer not that one machine cant do both of them

12/2/2005 1:35:20 AM

shouldn't matter...with lightscribe, you have to flip the dvd over anyway...what makes a lightscribe disc different than a regular disc is that it has a special coating that can be "burned" to create an image...if they don't already have dual-layer lightscribe discs (which they might), then when they do, you won't need a different burner...does that make sense?

12/2/2005 1:51:48 AM

yeh i got ya, thanks

12/2/2005 2:11:15 AM

I have an Pacific Digital external USB 2.0 DVD+-R/RW single layer that I got from Tiger Direct on Capital about 5 months ago. Still works great and I've never had any problems with compatibility. Heck, it does better reading DVD+R's burned on my consumer deck than the DVD-RO drive that came in my Dell.

12/2/2005 8:40:04 AM

Are there DL RW discs/burners yet? For me, I think that would be the most useful.

12/2/2005 9:10:06 AM

man if i had a dual layer rw disk, i'd pay like 100 bucks for a 10 pack and never buy a dvd again

ok not really but almost

12/2/2005 9:14:42 AM

^^ i wish...that'd rock

12/2/2005 9:32:55 AM

I'm playing with getting a DVD burner for data backup on an old Imac instead of an external hard drive. Good call?

12/2/2005 9:58:57 AM