You won't get any better than just getting an appliance device.  Why make life hard on yourself?

trig42:

 

I've got one of these - it works fine:

 

https://www.jbhifi.co.nz/transcend/transcend-extra-slim-portable-dvd-writer/287292/

 

 

 

i think that might be the one I have. Only used it a few times because a friend wanted me to make them some back up copies. Keep it around just in case it comes in handy. 

neb:

tripper1000:

I wouldn't be too concerned about buffer sizes. If buffer under-run becomes an issue you simply slow the write speed down - it's not like you're going to be making a lot of disks. If you want longer lasting, widely compatible disks, it is best not to write at full speed anyway.

Yep, I always do that since I'm aiming for long-term archiving. The issue isn't so much that but concerns about the input data stream stalling, see the previous post.

neb:  Yep, I always do that since I'm aiming for long-term archiving. ...

CD/DVD writable are a terrible choice of media for that (RW even worse) . If the data is really important .
Its 2020 after all, not 1998  :-)

Handle9: How were you planning on reading these long term archives?

 

CD/DVD writable are a terrible choice of media for that (RW even worse) . If the data is really important .
Its 2020 after all, not 1998  :-)

 

I agree, although CDs I burnt back in the early days are still holding up quite well many of my DVDs failed horribly in a much shorter time frame. Eventually I threw them all out. Now I just archive things to a portable hard drive, and if it's important then I keep 2 copies on 2 drives.

Optical PC media is all but dead at this point. I have an external LG drive that works fine, but rarely ever use it.

1101:

CD/DVD writable are a terrible choice of media for that (RW even worse) . If the data is really important .
Its 2020 after all, not 1998  :-)

neb:

Handle9: How were you planning on reading these long term archives?

I was planning to stick them into a DVD player and press play (for the ones that consist of photos). Or is that too far out there?

I doubt you won't be able to buy an optical reader.  But also, it's old tech now in the sense that it's as basic and ubiquitous as a tape player was in in the 90's.  Meaning that even the cheap and cheerful no-name brands of optical drives are tried and true tech that just work.  So there's really no need to go overboard.  If anything the software and native support in OS's is probably going to disappear before the hardware does.  

neb:

 

Yep, I always do that since I'm aiming for long-term archiving. The issue isn't so much that but concerns about the input data stream stalling, see the previous post.

If you are aiming for long-term archiving, then get a blu-ray drive, not a CD or DVD burner. CDs and DVDs (and LTH blu rays) use organic dyes and aren't terribly reliable for long-term storage. On the other hand, HTL DVDs use a metallic layer, and should last much better.

Plus the disks are larger, so you need fewer and storage is less of an issue.

Also, drive region locking is irrelevant for burned disks.

gehenna:

I doubt you won't be able to buy an optical reader.  But also, it's old tech now in the sense that it's as basic and ubiquitous as a tape player was in in the 90's.  Meaning that even the cheap and cheerful no-name brands of optical drives are tried and true tech that just work.  So there's really no need to go overboard.  If anything the software and native support in OS's is probably going to disappear before the hardware does.  

Floppy disks have been obsolete forever and you can still by those drives.

neb: I've got 25-year-old archives on CD that are still perfectly readable. And since the media was cheap, I made two copies of each, and wrote copies of updated stuff every month or two to a new CD. What would you suggest as an alternative?

Im not saying every CD will fail. Just as many old floppies are still readable
Im saying its not a highly reliable medium , for several reasons . Seen plenty of unreadable burnt CD's.

Having 2 backup copies of everything mitigates your risk though

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2984597/hard-core-data-preservation-the-best-media-and-methods-for-archiving-your-data.html

If you want a USB-C connector then have you looked at the ASUS ZenDrive U9M? It comes with a normal Y USB-A cable and a separate USB-C cable. Plus it supports M-DISC as well which have a much higher lifetime than CDs or DVDs. 

https://www.asus.com/Optical-Drives-Storage/ZenDrive-U9M-SDRW-08U9M-U/