Need a recomendation on a DVD burner.

[PunkRawk911]

Alright, I'm doing some research for my friend who is looking to buy a DVD burner. Basically he needs an external DVD burner than can burn all formats, and is firewire compatible. I'm pretty sure he's gonna be using it on a Mac, but I'm not sure if that really makes a difference. As of right now, price isn't an option, so can someone give me some good suggestions please?

[The Wrench]

From what I have read , the dual layer burners are supposed to be coming out this spring/summer. "They" are saying that it will make the current burners obsolite. I don't know what the price will be on their debut but... Some people think that it might be a good idea to wait a little while to buy a DVD burner if you can. Just some input.

[wquiles]

I would get a LiteON 4x (dual format) for $90-100 or an 8x version for about $120-130. If you try to get the new double layer ones, they will be VERY expensive when they come out, and the recording media will be expensive and hard to find. 4X media can be found everywhere and it keeps coming down in price as it has been out for a while.

I would not look at dual layer units until at least 4-6 months after they come out and become more affordable as more vendors start ofering such units (competition will drive prices down!).

Just my 2 cents :)

[The Wrench]

Good point.

[tom10167]

Dual layer would be AMAZING, though.

[FuzzyBallz]

Hold your horses on the dual layer burners. Even if they're available, the media will be very expensive. And note, only the 1st layer will be burned at full speed, 2nd layer will be done in 2.4x. Read the news at cdfreaks from 2 days ago.

Your best bet is NEC's 2500A 8x DVD+R AND 8x DVD-R. NEC just dropped the price on it. Newegg.com just did a sale on it for $109. But if you wait some more, it'll probably drop below $100.

Lite-On will come out w/ a 8x DVD+R/8x DVD-R to replace their current 811S/851S model, which does 8x DVD+R/4x DVD-R.

[tom10167]

That's something I never thought about. How many layers can these dvds go up to, at least potentially?

[FuzzyBallz]

2 will be the limit on current DVD w/ red laser, for capacity of up to 9GB on a single sided disc. Blu-ray laser (http://www.matsu****a.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/en020219-4/en020219-4.html) has already been introduced, and is available in Japan (where else) but is excessively expensive. It holds 27GB on a single side, single layer disc.

[PunkRawk911]

I was reading through my phsics book yesterday and it was talking about the potential for something like 17Gb storage DVD's made with two double sided storage layers.