External DVD drives, any gotchas?

[Havin_it]

Hi,

It looks like my last ODD-bearing computer may be near to death, so I'm looking at getting an external DVD drive. I haven't bought such a thing in a good decade, so just wondering if there's anything I should know and/or any recommended brands/models before I go shopping.

Of course it must be Gentoo-friendly but I assume that these things are quite standardised these days so kernel support is not an issue. Please tell me if I'm wrong

I don't see myself doing much burning, but basic ability to burn would be handy (data and perhaps movie discs if anything).

The main use will probably be for ripping audio CDs and maybe movie DVDs. I do remember some brands (Pioneer? LiteOn?) used to be more reliable for dealing with some lame-ass DRM CDs, but forget the details and dunno if this is an issue these days.

Interface could be USB or eSATA, though I think I'm right in saying there's probably no read-speed benefit between these as disc-read speed is still the bottleneck?

Bus-powered is not a big deal either; in fact bus-powered *only* might be a drag, as I'd probably want to use it with my Raspberry Pi sometimes too, and that can't bus-power much of anything.

So, is there anything I ought to know? Thanks in advance.