Looking to buy an external firewire DVD burner,first ever.

What specs and criterion should I be considering in this decision?

Are some manufacturers better than others and what do you use?

Buy online?Reccomendations?What speed do I really need?

All my computer drive bays are occupied hence this post.

Am I potentially asking for trouble by trying to burn video from an external hard drive to an external dvd burner connected to different firewire ports on the same computer?

All informative and constructive input,comments and suggestions are welcomed!

Thanks,
Bruce

Why a firewire drive? If you are on the Windows platform I would go with an
USB2 drive, not firewire. Speed isn't really that important. Dual layer might be
if you can afford those discs and want 9 GB of space instead of 4.5.

Basically all drives should be good these days.