Laptop Internal DVD Burners

[SCDVD]

I am considering adding an internal notebook DVD writer to my notebook computer. Does anyone have any info on the good versus bad notebook DVD burners? There is a lot of info on standard burners but I haven't heard any reports on internal laptop burners.

[kschang]

That's because there are no such thing as "universal" internal notebook burners. You have to take whatever the manufacturer give you.

[SCDVD]

I am aware of the difference in packaging. The various manufacturers use adapters that hold the drives so they fit the laptop case. My question has to do with burner performance info - you know like "Pioneer good, Sony bad". I can handle the packaging issues.

[redwudz]

The replacement DVD burner I bought for my HP laptop was about $190US. I'm not aware of any other burner that will fit in or connect to my laptop, at least. Some now use a 'cartridge' system where you can just pull it out of a slot, but I spent about 3 hours taking mine apart and putting it back together to replace it.

But if you have a choice, I would go for a Pioneer over a Sony burner. And I haven't seen much of anything about specifications for laptop internal burners. You might check with CD Freaks as they seem to have quite a bit of DVD burner info: http://www.cdfreaks.com/

[GMaq]

SCDVD,
I have a Dell Laptop with a NEC ND 6650A Dual layer burner in it and so far I've had no issues with it, I do more MPEG-4 Video than DVD but it has probably burned 25 DVD's so far with no coasters. I have done a couple of CD projects that required multiple burns and for that I have a BenQ burner (1640?) in a cheap USB/FireWire enclosure that I use externally via the USB 2 Ports, These notebook drives seem pretty fragile and produce a lot of heat, so I try and limit my notebook burner to single discs, I think I have a little less than $100.00 CDN in the External DVD Burner and it also does faster burns. Something to think about.