[X4U] DVD burner recommendations?

[Fabian Fang]

On Nov 16, 2005, at 12:00 PM, Samantha Cornell wrote:

> After great consideration, we have decided to purchase a DVD  
> burner, and are sorting through our options.  Right now we seem to  
> be favoring the LaCie 16x Dual Layer Firewire drive, but this is  
> not my area of expertise by a long stretch and any suggestions  
> would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Basically, we will be using the drive on a G4 Ibook running Tiger,  
> and just want to use it to back up, burn home movies, etc.  iLife  
> compatibility would be nice, but not necessary since we can always  
> use a disc image and burn from there.  -RW capabilities are not  
> necessary, but wouldn't hurt.  Speed is of course an issue, but not  
> a major one by any means.
>
> It would be great if we could hook it up to our Comcast DVR and  
> burn recorded programs (my husband is a mass media teacher and  
> we're sick of VHS), but I'm not sure if that's even possible.
>
> Price is important, given the holiday season and the cost of  
> heating a 100 year old house in Michigan.  Still, we want to buy  
> something that will last a while.
>
> Any suggestions?

Since "price is important," it is hard to beat the following deal  
from Monarch Computer for a Panasonic Super Multiple-Format SW-9585  
drive at $25 with free shipping.  I paid much more for one, which  
even burns DVD-RAM discs.
<http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv? 
Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=160329&AFFIL=FRG&NR=1>

You can easily install it in an external enclosure, such as the  
following from PCMicroStore for $32, with both FireWire and USB 2.0  
connectivity,
<http://www.pcmicrostore.com/PartDetail.aspx?q=c:36232;p:10501119>