Also refer to this recent post:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/medi...urner-pre.html
I contains some related information.
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Not entirely, no. Let me explain by replying to some other quotes...
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After visiting the websites of several companies,
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Which sites, in particular? Some sites have great information, while other sites are written by incompetents.
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I'm under the impression that any reputable SATA burner would basically be plug-and-play in my Mac
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This statement, as quoted, is the correct answer. 
Of course, it assumes the computer you have is currently using a SATA burner, and not an IDE/PATA burner.
External USB2 drives would also be perfectly fine.
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but that most conventional dvd burners would require the purchase of third party software to take full advantage of their capabilities.
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This is where the "no" comes in. DVD burners are hardware connections, and software has no effect on connectivity. At most, DVD burners come with software discs, but it's always junky "backup" software, and almost always made for Windows computers.
DVD burners don't have drivers to install, software that makes it work, etc. Nothing. It's purely in the hardware, like a hard drive. It either works, or it's broken. There's no in-between.
(Although if you want to get technical, there are times when older SATA-I 150 boards can't see SATA-II 300 devices, but that's an exception to the rule that few people will ever have to deal with. Your 2010 Mac is a half-decade newer than the hardware that would cause those problems.)
I am curious what "conventional dvd burner" is supposed to mean. There's really only one kind of DVD burner these days, the DVD-R(G)/DVD+R combo drives. It comes with PATA/IDE or SATA interfaces. Match the interface to what you have in the computer. Don't try to replace a SATA (small L-shaped connector cable) with an PATA/IDE (2" wide ribbon with 40 holes on a wide connector bar). Nor the inverse.
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Now then, I suggest one of these burners:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/medi...worst-dvd.html
Pioneer is the best choice of DVD burner.
Most of the links on that list go to
Amazon. If you're more of a
Newegg use, get this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827129062
Depending on where you live, the
Newegg price may be slightly lower.
Amazon has the 118 model, Newegg has the 119.
On Amazon's Pioneer DVD burner, you'll see this silly note: "
Not compatible with Mac OS." Lots of people miss the words that came before it: "
Software: Windows 2K Pro/XP Home or Professional." This is some of that garbage backup software that was mentioned earlier in this post. Even if you have a Windows computer, you're better off not installing this stuff. For it to not work on Mac is almost a blessing in disguise anyway -- less people to be burdened by junkware.
I have a 2010 Mac mini, and use a Pioneer USB2 drive on it. Works great. Better than the internal LG drive, in fact.
