Depending on the software you are using, an external DVD burner can make photo discs, read only music or audio CDs, burn home movies, create back up copied of a media library, read re-writable discs, play DVD movies or CDs, convert formats, back up data files, create karaoke discs, share slideshows, print unique disc labels or play DVD-ROM or RAM discs.

First, you need to consider how your external DVD drive will be used. This will help you determine what format your drive will support. The more advanced models support various formats such as DVD+R, DVD-R and dual DVD.

You also need to make sure external drive will be compatible with your computer. You can check this by accessing your PC configuration.

Remember that one of the features of an external DVD drive is that it is backward compatible and can play old CD-ROMs, new CD-ROMs, CD-I disks as well as video CDs.

Another thing to consider is burner speed and also how portable you need the device to be.

Most external drives are powered by USB ports. Some come with Y cables in order to access two ports in order to increase speed. There are also a few that are powered by a regular AC power adaptor.

Blue-ray is the next generation of DVD, which delivers high definition video resolution and increased storage capabilities. They can effectively store 50 GB on a single disc (using both sides of the disc). There only are a few Blue-ray burners hitting the market so far and they are very pricey compared to other external DVD drives.

LightScribe and Labelflash enable you to actually etch your own label or artwork onto the non-data side of a disc. The write speeds of these drives are known to be slower and you will need more expensive LightScribe or Labelflash media.

The term double layer means that two recording layers can fit on one side of a DVD increasing the discs storage effectively from 4.7GB to 8.5 GB. It is a great option for archiving large ammounts of data but it does max out at 10X speed. These discs may not play in some of the older stand-alone DVD players. There are two types of double layer recording. Most of the ones that you will find support the DVD+R double layer but there are newer ones available that also support DVD-R double layer.

All new external DVD drives can write and rewrite data and video to DVD-R/DVD-RW and DVD+R/DVD+RW formats. You can only write to DVD-R and DVD+R discs but these discs offer high compatibility with drives and DVD players. You can write to and erase DVD+RW and DVD-RW about 1,000 times, but they can have compatibility with with older players, drives, and some current DVD recorders. Most new burners today support both +/- formats. Multiformat drives are available that can read, write, and rewrite CDs, and they can also play DVDs. Some drives can record to DVD-RAM discs, but these models are less common since these discs are primarily used for data storage and backup.

Internal DVD burners rely on an IDE or Serial ATA (SATA) interface in order to connect to your PC, but External DVD burners connect to your PC by using USB or Fire Wire connections. Some models are labeled as dual interface and offer both USB and Fire Wire connections.