Best system for burning DVDs?

Hey all:

I'm near to buying a new notebook, and I've kind-of got my mind set on either a macbook or a MBP; here's my question, though, what's better for a non-pro user that needs to burn alot of DVDs? I know the MBP has a better caseing, higher quality components, and better devoted memory, but I don't do much that requires a powerful system (i'm a grad student and use web-browsing, office applications, music playing, etc.). However, I do want a system to burn alot of DVD's to "back up my current collection of DVD's which I legally own"; any suggestions on the best system?

 

Anything will work. The thing to remember is that the superdrive in MBP and I believe MB also is only a single layer 8x. If you are ok with that, the only other thing is to get a 7200 RPM drive and you should be fine. For the sake of being complete it is currently illegal under the DMCA to reverse engineer the copy protection on DVD's including your own. So, technically it's still illegal.

 

The 2GHz MacBook in white or black is the only one that has the superdrive. The 1.83GHz does not.

 

Please refrain from cross-posting:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=59648

 

well the 17"MBP would be the best for burning DVDs because it can do dual layer (8.5GB) DVDs, and now a days most DVDs are over 4.5GBs so you'll need the dual layer for that. for regular DVDs, the 17" also can do 8x burning as opposed to 4x burning, so the 17" is the best with out a doubt, but you pay a premium for it...

 

Thanks for this info. I was already planning on getting a DL external burner, since that's going to be faster than anything I can get in a notebook currently. What I'm really concerned about, though, is the encoding speed. I've been told that's what really takes alot of time burning DVD's-would there be a difference in encoding performance between the Macbook and Macbook Pro? And would it be faster to encode in Mac OSX or in Boot Camp XP? Also, any difference between USB 2.0 and Firewire 400 performance? Thanks again.

 

I don't know about OS X vs Boot Camp encoding, but between MB and MBP I doubt there will be a difference. And while USB 2.0 has a higher peak speed than FireWire 400, the FireWire will be more consistent and therefore faster overall. Go FireWire. As far as external goes. Don't think that you can't get a fast DL burner in a notebook, just not the Macs currently. Also, is the jump from 4x-8x really going to be worth the cost and hassle of using an external? For you it may, just a question to ask yourself. If you are thinking of burning at 16x I would advise against that. The media will cost significantly more, be harder to find, not to mention more likely to give you errors during writing. Same goes for dual layer.