[ltp] recommendation on external DVD reader/writer

[Don Perley]

James McKenzie wrote:

>>   3. double layer       yes [   ]
>>       no   [   ]
> 
> 
> no.  I don't know if any DL drives are available in external cases.

I'm pretty sure I've seen them, and really no reason why not since most 
of these drives are the same as you would put in a tower case except 
mounted in an external enclosure with an IDE/USB or firewire adapter.

In this type of drive with standard size parts I don't think dual layer 
is much of a price premium at this point, but as stated dual layer media 
is still a bit scarce and pricey.. that will change eventually.

The bigger decision is whether to pop the extra money for one made from 
a laptop drive (or other ultra thin etc).  In that case you get more 
convenience in size and maybe powering from USB instead of an extra AC 
plug, but less speed and probably a greater price hike for dual layer or 
  +/- compatibility.

In my case I leave the external on a USB hub with printer, mouse, etc 
pretty much all the time, and just use it at the desk.

If your laptop only has USB 1 then an external drive can only write 
about 2x CDR.  I'm not even sure if you can do 1x DVD, so you might look 
into a USB2 or firewire PC card.