Should I use an internal burner with an enclosure? Or an external burner?

[darthpotato94]

I have a LITE ON eNAU708 external burner. I don't know what chipset it uses but it has produced some good burns after I tested them with Nero Disc Speed. No dips. However, I just noticed that there dark spots on the dvds I burned. It's more common in some dvds than others. It could be because I left some of the dvds outside of their case, facing upwards! Or it could be because of the external optical drive because I saw one or two dark spots on other dvds. Those spots haven't caused any problems, since I have tested them with Nero Disc Speed. I know it is recommended to avoid the slim type burners, so my main concern is whether I should buy an internal burner with an enclosure or keep using the external drive for the absolute best and reliable burners?

[lordsmurf]

Just so this post doesn't appear unanswered, the issue was addressed in darthpotato94's other post: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/medi...m-optical.html

To add some more comments addressed in this thread, and not the other...

And an "external" burner is really the same thing as an "internal burned in an enclosure", for the sake of semantics.

Dark spots can be storage/handling damage -- or more likely just bad media. I have a stack of cheap BD-R here that need to be photographed for our upcoming "Blank Blu-ray Quality Guide", and each of the discs has massive blotches or spots where the disc either did not burn, or did not burn well. The TFT tests look "fine", but the disc is obviously damaged in some way. It will cause the Blu-ray player to "burp" at that spot, too. (So remember that "scans" on computers are not always 100% infallible as some sites/people online would lead you to believe!) A good "test" is actually a whole battery of tests, and under controlled conditions.

Either way, always use the best burners and discs.