Again, thank you very much for the replies....

While I was at work, I'd realized that there are many facets that makes a good dvd writer....and I really need a dvd writer that's excellent at reading any/most types of cd/dvd media, and that mainly includes crap media/old burnt stuff. (You can tell that I'm far more into reading / ripping data because writing data can be rectified with good cd/dvd media, and there's no solution to difficulties in reading
discs unless I switch to a different drive).

I hope experts here could give me some suggested brands or models (/w all dvd write modes) that conforms to this criteria.