There are many reasons to add a notebook DVD burner to you current system.  First and foremost is convenience.  By having access to notebook DVD burner you can copy and back up anything you need to on your system.  Simply drop in one of the DVDs and copy whatever files you need over to the disk, burn it off and you are done.  It really is that easy.  Second, you can also use the device to play back any DVDs that have.

While most people when they here the term DVD think of movies, the fact is that a dual layer disk can hold up to a whopping 16 gigabyte worth of data.  That is most peoples entire MP3 collection and then some.  While this is amazing, when you look at how much text it is truly mind boggling.  16 gigabyte translates to many million pages of text, more than the average human being could read in a lifetime.  All that on one silvered disk, and right at your fingertips.

A Look At Some Features You Want In Your Notebook DVD Burner

When looking at features a notebook DVD burner is slightly different from a DVD burner.  The first thing you want to look for is size.  A slim sized notebook DVD burner is desirable so that it is easy to port around.  If you can find a laptop with one installed internally that is the best way to go, however that can be an expensive option and having an external one can come in extremely handy in certain situations.   You want to make sure that the notebook DVD burner will support many different CD and DVD formats.  Most important is that it will be able to write to dual layered DVDs.  These will hold twice as much information as a single layer DVD and can store almost and endless mount of information.

You also want to check the warranty and manufacturer of the DVD player as quality will vary from one model to another.  LiteOn, Sony, and Maxtor make some of the best ones you will find and I recommend looking for those brands whenever possible.  The other thing to make sure of is that the drive will work on both Mac and PC systems, as you never know where you will need to grab data from.

Hopefully this has shown you why getting a notebook DVD burner is a great investment for today and tomorrow.

I have tried many a USB DVD writer and found some to be decent and others to be just plain bad.  Until recently I thought that I would never find one  able to compete with internal burners.   While a notebook DVD burner can be very solid, I have found that the Sony 16342  is the best external DVD writer that money can buy.  It has a rich feature set and its performance will rival any internal burner you can find.

Why The Sony Is Number One

This USB DVD writer boasts a  feature set that includes the ability to work with both Macs and PCs through Firewire and USB ports.  It also includes a multi-media software package that is completely compatible with both operating systems. It can burn, play or rewrite almost any disk type. In addition the software provided can edit all sorts of media including sound, video and photos.  The reason it is capable of this is because the USB DVD writer has a 2MB buffer that allows you to edit and work with complex files with no slow down in performance.

The Sony USB DVD writer supports any single or double layer DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, CD-R, or CD-RW media.   The software that comes with the drive allows you to convert LPs and tapes to WMA or MP3s while also being able to capture, edit, and burn music CDs.  You can also do back ups through the drag and drop features making your daily back ups very easy and secure.  With the low price of DVDs today there really is no reason not to it this way.

The best feature however is the device’s speed.  It boasts a 16x DVD writer that allows you to write single layers DVDS at 16 times speed.  You can also write dual layers at 8x which is comparable to most internal drives.  The only slow performance is when you copy a DVD to a DVD-R DL disk which it runs at 6x, still a very respectable speed.  Everything other than this functions at the maximum read, write, and rewrite speeds available.

Another great feature of this burner is its price.  It is far and away much cheaper than any other USB DVD writers that operate at its speed.  It carries a two year warranty so you know that the system will last and that you can rely on it for everyday use.  I have been using mine daily for a couple months now and have had no problems and no slow downs.