Which DVD±RW drive to get?

[hydrogen]

Congratulations on your purchase. I hope you enjoy your new drive

[ETP]

Good choice. Now you need to look for a second drive. The LG is lonely and needs a first class 109/nec3530/new BQ coming out soon=you get the picture.

[dolphinius_rex]

I ended up buying the LG GSA-4163B. This is a great drive! Super-fast and the bitsetting option works great. I was torn between this drive and the BenQ DW1620 which was a little cheaper but settled on the LG drive for their superior DVD-R support. Currently BenQ's drive has better firmware (with +RW bitsetting as well) but hopefully LG will work towards at least adding DVD-R DL when the media becomes a reality. Everything I've read says the LG is one of the most forgiving drives on the market as far as media goes and will write to pretty much anything you put in it. As well the fact that it was a "two sheep" burner helped the decision. Thanks for all the input and I really appreciate your taking the time to give me your two cents worth.

As long as you don't mind having to buy another burner in 8-12 months when LG discontinues all support for it in favour of their newer models

[eric93se]

I ended up buying the LG GSA-4163B. This is a great drive! Super-fast and the bitsetting option works great. I was torn between this drive and the BenQ DW1620 which was a little cheaper but settled on the LG drive for their superior DVD-R support. Currently BenQ's drive has better firmware (with +RW bitsetting as well) but hopefully LG will work towards at least adding DVD-R DL when the media becomes a reality. Everything I've read says the LG is one of the most forgiving drives on the market as far as media goes and will write to pretty much anything you put in it. As well the fact that it was a "two sheep" burner helped the decision. Thanks for all the input and I really appreciate your taking the time to give me your two cents worth.

As long as you don't mind having to buy another burner in 8-12 months when LG discontinues all support for it in favour of their newer models

The same goes for NEC, but fortunatly people like Herrie are around keeping NEC drives alive.