imho that's a hot deal on that panasonic dvd-r/ram drive...if you're gonna be using it to "back up" movies though, i'd have to say get a dvd-rw drive (look into the pioneer a03), because as someone mentioned you have to strip menus, languages, etc...and even then, sometimes (not often once you get the hang of it) the discs won't playback properly...
I haven't messed around with movies in a while, but when I tried backing up my personal copy of 6th sense I had lots of problems because it had multiple angles (though I believe the latest version of ifoedit has most problems fixed)
still, rumor is pioneer's releasing the a04 in the near future (4x dvd write), so i'm sure the a03's will drop to maybe this price without the need of rebates.