Travel Technology - External DVD Burner

Any advice on which external DVD burner to buy?

Any warnings to keep away from paricular products?

Am finally switching to DVDs from CDs to provide copies of lectures as more and more of my students have DVD drives. Saves time, postage, etc.

So, I am looking for something medium duty rather than heavy duty. Runs of about 30 - 50 copies. Speed is important to some degree - i.e. don't want to spend a lot more for a very fast drive.

Thanks in advance for any help!

At this point, fast DVD drives (16x) are commodity items. If you shop by price, you can't go wrong. The cheapest way to go may be to buy a raw, internal drive and pick up a full-size USB, Firewire/1394 or eSata (if your computer supports it) case.

An external drive like this LiteOn (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106248) costs about the same as the bare drive plus external enclosure. Retail stores like Staples and Best Buy usually sells them for about $100.

On average, a 20x burner will burn a full DVD in about 4-5 minutes. Less than full discs will take less time, but 30 to 50 copies at a time will take about 120 to 250 minutes.

If you are looking for something that works in parallel, DVD duplicators (http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=R&Category_Code=DP) are about $100 per drive. In a duplicator setup, one drive will read the master disc and the rest will write a copy.

An external drive like this LiteOn (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106248) costs about the same as the bare drive plus external enclosure. Retail stores like Staples and Best Buy usually sells them for about $100.

I was actually looking on Newegg and am trying to find out if the Phillips Black USB 2.0 External 20X DVD±R DVD Drive - Retail will be stocked again. It got better reviews than the LiteOn. Oddly, the Phillips is their daily pick, but has been out of stock for a few weeks. :confused:

Do you know the LiteOn software? From the reviews I have read, the software seems a part of these packages that can disappoint people. The Phillips includes Nero.


If you are looking for something that works in parallel, DVD duplicators (http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=R&Category_Code=DP) are about $100 per drive. In a duplicator setup, one drive will read the master disc and the rest will write a copy.

Wish I could justify that. Looks quick and easy!

Thanks for the info! I will wait to hear from Phillips.

The product images show they all have Nero 7 essential edition. I buy bare oem drives so I have no experience with other bundled software. FWIW, the hardware is identical. Philips are rebadged LiteOns in the current generation of 20x DVD writers.

Looks like OfficeMax has a LiteOn external unit for $59.99 this week if you prefer getting it from a local store.

The product images show they all have Nero 7 essential edition. I buy bare oem drives so I have no experience with other bundled software. FWIW, the hardware is identical. Philips are rebadged LiteOns in the current generation of 20x DVD writers.

Looks like OfficeMax has a LiteOn external unit for $59.99 this week if you prefer getting it from a local store.

Thanks for this! I will go ahead with a LiteOn!

Do you know the LiteOn software? From the reviews I have read, the software seems a part of these packages that can disappoint people. The Phillips includes Nero.


I'm sure that's the relatively weak "essentials" edition of Nero; the full version is a good investment, if you're going to do more than basic authoring with it.

If you've got authoring software you like already, and just want to copy disks and burn images, I highly recommend Imgburn, which is freeware: http://www.imgburn.com/ (I actually usually use Nero to create image files, and then burn them with DVD Decrypter or Imgburn)

I'm in need of a portable (or failing that, a simple non-portable) DVD for my MacBook Air - once I eventually get it back.

Any more links for fairly generic, widely available models that might be available in Sydney?

Thanks.

External DVD writers are pretty generic these days. I would just get whichever is the least expensive. Shopbot (http://www.shopbot.com.au/c-137-0-0-1.html) shows Apple's SuperDrive for MBA is the least expensive of the portable type at around $139 AUD. I would go for that. It may be most widely available being an Apple accessory.

The other portable units from LaCie, LG, Lite-On, Sony, et al, cost quite a bit more.

External DVD writers are pretty generic these days. I would just get whichever is the least expensive. Shopbot (http://www.shopbot.com.au/c-137-0-0-1.html) shows Apple's SuperDrive for MBA is the least expensive of the portable type at around $139 AUD. I would go for that. It may be most widely available being an Apple accessory.

The other portable units from LaCie, LG, Lite-On, Sony, et al, cost quite a bit more.

With VAT and the AU$ still just marginally ahead of the US$, AU$139 for a portable one sounds pretty good. I'd expect to pay a bit over US$100 for a portable over here.

Non-portable externals are a good bit cheaper over here (probably there as well), but quite chunking to carry around.

Just got this and it is SWEET! Not the speediest in the world, but the LightScribe feature is real nice. Speaking as one who has had CDs with printed labels gum up drives. Really small footprint, fits into tiny space in my laptop case. ^^^

My Memorex external DVD died and the TSST that came with my HP didn't like to write on DVD+Rs so I ended up with an internal Samsung S-203 which works flawlessly. Though TSST is Toshiba-Samsung, the drive seems to be rather different from the Samsun S-203. You might want to do some research on the internet. Some drives are more problematic than others.