[lug] speaking of CD-R's that suck...

[D. Stimits]

...
> I haven't seen SATA DVD readers/writers. Where have you seen them?
> I've had mixed luck with DVD writer and +/-RW media compatibility.
> One NEC had problems with memorex +RW but did fine with -RW even though
> it is supposed to handle both. From what I hear, DVD player compatibility
> can be problematic.

I haven't been paying too much attentiont to SATA since none of my 
hardware is recent enough to use it. I'd be willing to add on an SATA 
controller if there were good enough reason...probably there isn't. Just 
looked at the plextor ones though, turns out they're actually announcing 
end of life on one of them (the PX-712SA at the bottom of the link):
http://www.plextor.com/english/products/product_dvdrw_drives.html

I'm actually not too interested in the RW, mainly just the write-once 
burners. On the other hand, if I get one capable of burning RW's and not 
just R's, probably it'll be better engineered to read RW's, which is 
something I'd value.

Is SATA working well on plain hard drives? The mentioned ioctl stuff 
makes me wonder if SATA is a good idea at all.

D. Stimits, stimits AT comcast DOT net