It seems that the prices of DVD-RW drives just went down. I can now buy the NEC ND1300A drive for $135 delivered. This is close to the the Lite On LDW-401S at $132. New Egg has other drives at these prices:

Optorite DVD+-RW Dual Retail Drive Model DD0203 Retail $155
RICOH DVD+RW/+R Rewritable Drive Model RW5240A $135
LG(GOLDSTAR) DVD-RW / CD-RW DRIVE MODEL# GMA-4020B $145

This seems to be a good time to buy a drive like this but maybe I am wrong. Is there a good reason to wait? Then there is the question as to which is the best type of drive. The plus RW, minus RW, the dual drive or does it matter.

I am leaning towards the NEC ND1300A drive. Is there a good reason not to buy this drive? I have read in the forum that NEC does not support the drive but other here have recommended the drive. Is there anything new on this drive that supports a reason to buy or not to buy this drive? The price of this drive is driving me very close to buying it. I would like to hear any opinions on this selection from those of you who know better than I do.

My other concerns are DVD copy and DVD region play back.

Thank you[8)]

Well the NEC-N1300 is not a good cd-audio or protected cd-rom copier.
However as DVD-recorder it's quite good. With most quality media.(including ritek G04,but there are some doubts about the quality of that ones). The NEC is still the best 4x DVD burner. It writes most media with the lowest error rate.
Bad point for some people is that it won't write bad media like princo officially. There is a hacked firmware which let you write allmost any disc out there , that supports higher ripping speeds of DVD video's and that is region free. However flashing it with that firmware will cost your waranty.

About the other drives.
Lite On seems to be quite problematic.
LG - Super copying device but slow dvd-r only burner (2x isn't fast) (writingquality is okay)
Optorite - Very nice allrounder. Not very good for protected media.
Has HD-burn.Writingquality and media support are quite good
(pro's against the NEC are that HD-burn and better support (service as media) Cons the error rate is higher)
Ricoh - DOn't know which model this is since I was lazy to search it up but there 2,4x DVD+R(W) drives are quite bad. The 4x DVD+R(W) drive is a good burner for +R media. But is a very poor cd-writer.

(in reply to GB)

There is a web page out there with over a hundred responses of NEC drive owners. Most of them had flashed the drive and were very happy with it. I also have seen somewhere a file to flash back the original firmware so that it could be sent in under warranty if there is a problem. I guess the biggest risk is a flashing gone badly. This has not happened to me yet.

Thank you for all the good info.[^]

(in reply to GB)