Thanks Billyboy,

You confirm my suspicions. I guess one of the main reasons people on this forum talk about the externals quite often is the use of laptops. Off to order the internal.

TomG

Don't get the Sony, too many bugs. IF you need one now get the Pioneer A-05, if you can wait a month, get the new Pioneer A-06.

Here's my two cents: get any burner you want, they're all fine. +R, -R are both compatible with most players. It's not a Betamax vs. VHS battle, it's more of a "this burner needs + media, and that burner uses - media" kind of thing.

Go for price. I bought my 05 burner for just $150, and that was four months ago. Check the ads for your local stores, and check out www.techbargains.com.

Oh, if you buy an internal drive and decide you really wanted an external one, you can convert it for just $100 by buying a "Pyro" firewire box and mounting it in that. Works great.

Finally, you can get DVD-R media for just $1 a disk, but it will take an hour to burn a full disk. You can buy 4X (15 minutes) media for about $2 (Ritek G04).

Well, I sure may consider the Pioneer A05 (or 06) but I find it really hard to find one. I've looked at all the reatail places and a few on-line places. Where did you get the $150 price?

Thanks,

TomG

I know tigerdirect usually has them in stock, not for $150 though. I just checked and they have them for $249 in stock.

I would tend to disagree with the assertion there's no difference in compatibility between +R and -R. In my experience, DVD players and even computer DVD-ROM drives seem to have more trouble with the +R than the -R. On the other hand, the +R format seems to be more robust for data (i.e., backups to +RW media), but this difference is marginal. +R media seems to have come down in price to compete or even beat -R.

Another interesting thing that I've found (I've got the Sony 500 external) is that in my Honda Odyssey, the DVD entertainment system specifically states it will not play recordable media such as CD-R, DVDxR. As I tested this within the first days of having my new burner, indeed it seemed to be true. I was using Memorex, Verbatim, and Maxell (+R, -R, +RW, -RW) - all failed as documented. This past weekend, I bought some "Optimum" DVD-R's at Staples for a buck apiece, burned one and, on a lark, tried it in the Odyssey's player - sure enough, it worked like a charm. I burned two more and they also work fine.

So add not only the burner flavor, the media flavor, but the media's manufacturer to the dizzying equation of what will work with what.

Bob.

Well, what I'd do is go with the internal drive since, anyway, if you get a laptop and need more portability in the future, you can buy a firewire enclosure and put it inside for less than 100 bucks. Actually, for around half the price. And my guess is that prices will continue to drop as more and more people are using FiWire.

As for which brand to chose, I don't know: I don't have one. But reading the posts, I'd probably wait to see what Pioneer will come up with in response to Sony 500-510. After all, I read a few more positive comments about Pioneer than Sony. Some will say it's normal since Pioneer were there first (or at least imposed themselves first in that field). Just in that last sentence, you got part of an answer... ;)
I've been reading a few posts since a few months concerning burning DVDs and I must admit that it still seems a little bit hard to find a very good and safe "combination" of all the factors. Just read this preceeding post just above and you get the idea, lol!

Part of it is personal choice and price is always part of that kind of decision too!

Hmmm, what a mess. Think I'm gonna wait a few more months - again... hahaha!