Alright, checklist.
#1 - Good media. Buy Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden, find great deals on blank discs at
http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm -- burn 16x media @ 12x speed for the best and most reliable "archival quality" burns.
#2 - Good burner. Buy a full-sized 16x+ speed Samsung or Pioneer DVD burner. Don't get one of those crappy 8x "slim" jobs, as they're not very good. There's a great Pioneer external DVD burner
available from Geeks, refurbished for $40 (model DVR-X162Q, find it with a site search, or by looking up DVD burners on the site menu there). If you insist on new drives only, then
Newegg is a good place to look.
#3 - Software. Never buy hardware because of the included software. Buy hardware because it's good hardware. In almost all cases, the software is limited/crippled in some ways, and you have to buy the expensive version to get "advanced" (translation: basic) features. Forget software even comes in the box, you're often best off NOT installing it! All the software you need is listed at
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/show...1011#post11011 -- and almost all of it is free.
So you're looking at about $40-50 for a drive, $25 for a 100-pack of discs, $0 for software. Not too bad at all, all things considered. If you had just trotted into
Walmart or Best Buy, you'd probably have paid double that, and for inferior products.
Hope that helps.
