On another list I heard a recommendation of LG, though I'm not totally sure how trustworthy the poster is on this. Make sure firmware upgrades are available for some time, Pioneer turns into a paperweight not too long after purchase when it can no longer adjust to the media then on the market, not even at the lower speed the drive is capable of. Dump Ricoh. Scan the cdwrite list at debian for models to avoid. Sony used to have an *extremely poor* media compatibility, ie the drive could only burn a few different brands and turned the rest into coasters. This is a k.o. as far as I am concerned.
Everything works with Linux these days, I don't think you get anything any more which doesn't do dual-layer, or doesn't do one of the 4 +-R(W), though be sure to check. Some do DVD-RAM as well, though nobody advertises that. -RAM is the only long-term reliable read/write format when you have more than a hundred or so overwrites. The "packet writing" or whatever it's called, mounting DVDs/CDs read/write, is nonexistant or unusable in practice with Linux, so just forget it. It also still requires kernel patching as far as I am aware. Some dipshit decided some while back to make CDROM drives with the "burn-now" command recycled as "update firmware now" (and Mandrake was stupid enough to ship a default kernel issuing "burn now" commands - lots of dead drives). As you're looking for a DVD burner this isn't your issue. > > Cheers, who round this dump of a town stocks them? tastech.co.nz, Sydney St, with next day pickup, or delivery at extra charge. > I got mine from Ascent (www.ascent.co.nz) and I would thoroughly recommend > them as a dealer. I wouldn't recommend them, simply because they're not in town, unless they have a price which is lower enough to warrant the additional hassle when it comes to warranty claims. Dito for any other non-town shops. I recommend against Dragon. When the shop was in the NE of town, it was difficult to communicate with the guy, I was often not quite sure whether he understood the question, and typically he'd answer the first, but not the second question when I had something to clarify. Distinctly low service. As it's also the other side of town for me, I went elsewhere. Now there are a few more Dragon outlets, so I thought I'll try once, and it was some some end-of-line items. I paid and was told "will ship tomorrow". A week later I enquired, and heard "sorry but the courier didn't pick it up". Which sounded so so (any courier that bad?), until I found the packing slip in the box dated the day before delivery. Not with me. Volker -- Volker Kuhlmann is possibly list0570 with the domain in header http://volker.dnsalias.net/ Please do not CC list postings to me.
