i was wondering which DVD RW should i buy? i have heard that samsung is better than sony in terms of durability. I am gonna buy a writer thats a dual layer because i assume its better than a normal DVD writer. But someone told me that some DVD writers can write upto 8 GB. Can anyone clarify that? i thought writers could only write upto 4.7 GB http://www.dvd-and-media.com/dual-l... the above link shows a Double Layer 8.5Gb DVD+R DVDs pack. Does it mean 8.5 GBs can be burnt?

If you are referring to internal drives they are all disposable units, IMO. Buy what is on sale. Most likely anything available will be capable of dual layer and all the normal formats, plus DVD ram. Dual layer is OK but tell me when you need to burn over a GB to a single disk. This format was intended for movies, which don't necessarily fit on a 4.7GB disk. With the price of dual layer disks 5 to 10 times what single layer disks cost and the fact that any burning/ backup program can span multiple disks, I see no compelling reason to buy dual layer media. With burners costing $30/40 US dollars why worry about durability.

there is several differences in burners and their quality, i would rather spend $30 on a burner that will provide quality burns for years. i burn ALOT of dvds so i have alot of experience with dvd burners. ive heard alot of god things about benq burners and i own one now and it never fails disks, a friend of mine has a samsung and it fails disks sometimes my burner burns a single layer dvd in around 1 minute and ive burned around 200~ disks on it so far and haven't failed a single disk yet (and thats also because i buy decent quality disks that i get on sale from futureshop or bestbuy for about $15/100 or 15 cents per disk CAD, i backup my dvd collection so when i go to a friends place i carry them in a binder and don't give a care if i loose them or they get stolen and i know that most production dvds fit on one single, single layer dvd, you just might have to take out the special features and menus to take out the extra space or sometimes might have to slightly reduce they qualty but dual layer disks cost around $35 CAD for a 25 spindle, so its cheaper to burn 2 16X disks than 1 8X dual layer disk so there isn't saved time or saved money if you buy dual layer disks, but yes you can burn 8.5~ gigs to a single disk. a dual layer burner thats lite-on or benq or lg or samsung or sony should cost $20-$50 depending on what store and what sale you get it on

thanks to all for you for typing so much & providing me your valuable suggestions! i think i will go for samsung :)