Originally posted by: gavin77
So what format are my store bought Star Wars DVD's in......DVD-5 or DVD-9?

Most modern commercial DVDs are DVD-9s these days. Dual Layer has been around for quite sometime now. The only official SW DVDs that might be DVD-5s would be the bonus discs for the individually packaged IV, V, and VI, in other words, the GOUT. I do not own the GOUTs, so I am not sure about that. But rest assured that the PT and the 2004 SEs are all on DVD-9s. If you were to watch to backup one of your commercially purchased Star Wars DVDs, you would need to compress the video in order to make it fit onto a DVD-5 (which are the more common, and less expensive DVD-R/+Rs).

As for USB DVD writers, I have a LG brand, Dual layer, external USB 2.0 DVD writer I bought a little over a year ago, it works great and I have gotten good quality burns out of it. But my previous experiences with USB DVD burners has not been so good. It doesn't take much looking at external DVD burner reviews and consumer feedback to see that you are better off with an internal drive. Not to mention internal drives are much less expensive than an external drive. I am a laptop owner, so I am limited to buying a drive specifically designed for my model of computer, which are often fairly pricy, or to a external drive. I choose the later because ti was cheaper, and it is not limited to working with just one computer, if a friend needs to back up his files and doesn't own a DVD drive, I can just bring mine over. It also allows me to get things off of my old laptops. So externals can be very practical. However, if I owned a desktop, I would most definitly go with an internal drive. Externals tend to have buffering problems far more frequently than internals, and the likelihood of making coasters is usually much greater.

An internal is really easy to install, if someone is not able to do it themselves, no doubt they have a kind friend, aquaitance, neighbor, etc. who would be willing to do it for them. I have installed many drives for neighbors and friends of my parents when I was a teenager. It is a pretty simple process that requires minimal knowledge to preform.