As of lately, the nec 35xx is blowing away the competition in terms of parity scans and price. I own a half dozen of nec 3500ag's and I've never had a bad burn with any of them (using quality media of course ).

Anyways, DL media is waay to expensive right now. I'm talking $5-8 per disc when you buy them in bulk. Prodisc, ritek, and taiyo yuden all plan on releasing dl discs soon, so I'd just wait on it for a few months if you already have a burner, assuming that your burner isn't giving you any problems.

edit: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...ion=27-152-035

newegg has it for $59 shipped, in case you do decide to get a new one