I have a older Toshiba laptop that has a CD-RW with a DVD PLAYER. I would like replace the CD-RW with a new DVD burner. However, I have no idea of what to look for when making a decision to purchase a burner. Is there anyone out there who could possibly give me a few pointers on where to begin and what are most important things to look for in choosing a DVD burner.

Thank you

Internal laptop optical drives of all brands are not that great.

If your laptop supports USB 2.0 or firewire, I suggest getting an external burner and connecting it to either a USB or Firewire port.

Not sure if this will help, but I had the same problem a while back. I took my laptop to a computer repair shop that i find fair and who i have trust in to ask advice. If I wanted to replace the original Sony dvd-burner, it would have cost a small fortune, but the guy there was able to replace it with another model. The cost of fitting was just around 100 baht if I recall correctly, plus the cost of the burner.

Might be worth finding a couple of good repair shops near you, where you can ask their advice on prices and models that are compatible. Then take the free advice, buy the burner and fit it yourself. Or, to save yourself time and the hassle, pay the small fitting cost.