It would have to be one hell of an old laptop to not have a DVD burner.
I would see if you had no optical drive(a trend in new laptops) in the laptop, but if it has an optical drive chances are it will burn DVD's
Even my 9 year old laptop can burn dvd's(still works too).
If you have NO optical drive, then you would need an external.
btw dvd/cd rw is a CD and DVD Reader and Writer(burner)