I'm seriously considering buying a DVD burner now that Sony came out with a DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD+R/DVD+RW/CD-R/CD-RW all in one. Lots of questions.....
How well do the various media types work in standard DVD Players and DVD-ROM drives? Which formats are better for what etc.... How much does the media cost? Pricewatch shows DVD-R 100 packs for $40 and DVD-RW 100 packs for $60, but I don't see DVD+R or DVD+RW. Also how specific does the media have to be with burner? I remember in the early days of CD-R/RW you had to buy specific brand media if you wanted good results with your burner.

Generally DVD+R/RW media is more expensive then majority of DVD-R/RW media.

The Sony DVDR model is currently a mixed result.. It suffers some prejudice like the Pioneer A05, since many complain its not as compatible with certain cheap blank media.

You pay for what you get.

Im quite happy with my 4x Pioneer DVD-R burner. But i only use reliable media: Ritek 4x, Ritek 1x, Verbatim 2x, Maxell 2x, etc
Media that doesnt work for me:
-CMC: very cheap crap, that causes jittering during playback on all my DVD players.
-OptioDisc (uses CMC media)

I have since stuck with Verbatim when i can get them cheap, but usually im buying bulk of Ritek 1x and 4x as of late.

The Ritek, verbatim and others are expensive, but reliable. U.S. prices, you can get a 10 pack for 20$ from hypermicro for the the 4x speed.

If you do get a burner, dont go for 100 media bulk, since you could easily get screwed over with stuff that doesnt meet your standards, try a small pack if your unsure of the quality. like a 10pack.

i use teh cheap media only cause its cheap and i dotn have a problem at all with it
http://www.inc-tech.com/shopping/index.asp?ca=488&cas=0

I use Ritek and very seldom make coasters... usually when I do it is because of a sw error not the disk. Also, I haven't had any poor quality video or audio.... You can get them for less than $2 per DVD

Scary you should point out your using DVD+R

i have yet to have a single coaster after 50 burns. Just the mis-fortune of buying 5 CMC discs..they work. just not to my standards.