I'm looking into getting an external DVD burner for backups. Most of my machines have DVD-ROMs, but none of them have DVD burners.
CDs are simple. You can read, or you can read and write. No muss, no fuss. But DVDs have this perplexing combination of competing formats: DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and the old standby, DVD-ROM. We're still in the Betamax-vs-VHS war, with no clear winner in sight. What's what?
Wikipedia knows about DVD formats, and has a nice description of each kind of recordable media.
And if you're a complete newbie (like me) at the bizzare world of optical recording, IT Conversations has a segment on choosing optical media.
