For a few years now i've bought various brands of cd-rom and dvd Writers, and it seems like they're all cheap.

The only ones that seem to last are the old ones that came with my original HP Media Center system.

Are there any advantages to buying a sata dvd writers - i'm not ready to spring for a blue ray or hd?

Maybe it's your media that's junk? I haven't had any drive just fail on me and they're all different brands. I have an old cd-rom writer from like 1997 still running. Personally, I would advise an LG just because I've never had ANY problems with that brand whatsoever. As for the S-ATA question, why not? If your motherboard supports S-ATA, and you have XP SP2 or Vista, go for it. All it does is save wire space to make your cases appear cleaner
What exactly do you mean by cheap anyway? Do you mean that it won't function as advertised after a few months, or what?

Ive never really had much of an issue either, ive still got an old Sony DVD burner IDE that works perfect and ive bought a few Pioneer, Lite-ons and Samsungs that have all served me well...

The only thing i can think of that might be cheap is possibly the actual tray which they always seem a bit flimsy to me

What's the issue with the one you got now? I used all the major brands and never had a huge issue with them.

About the only problem I've had with different DVD writers is that each seems to have their preferred media. Media that works fine in one writer is not necessarily the best media to use with a different one.

My current favorite combination is one of the Pioneer writers (DVR-115D, DVR-1810, DVR-1910 - all IDE, or DVR-215D, DVR-2810, DVR-2910 - all SATA) and Verbatim media.

This particular combination is the only one I've found that reliably burns dual-layer media that can be read on almost any set-top DVD player.

I checked my cables and it seems to be working better.

Has anyone used dvd player cleaners or are they a waste?

I live in a very dusty areas and maybe it just got dirt in it.