The Dreaded Optical Drive

So I was watching one of Linus's personal build videos and I noticed he had this for an optical drive:

http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-GGC-H20L-LightScribe-Blu-Ray/dp/B001TOD5BM

I almost never use an optical drive of any sort, but just like he says in the video "I don't use an optical drive often, but when I do I want it to be a sweet and hard to find one."  So what is the difference between the one he has, and he one I have picked out currently:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=27-136-252&Tpk=N82E16827136252

Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Vt9k93JR-ng#t=552s

The newegg link is not the drive Linux has it does not play HD DVD, I had one of those drives, I gave it to a friend after upgrading to a Pioneer 12x blu-ray drive