a bit mind racking indeed.

To make matters worse for those who aren't up on

the lastest marvels of technology is the rate at

which the industry of technology is evolving.

Just when you think you've caught on to the

concepts of MP3s and burning CD and DVD media,

new twists on blank media hits the market and

you found yourself confused more than you were to

start with.

The "R" found in CD-R and DVD+/-R media stands for

recordable. It will tell consumers that these

disks are blank recordable media. You can record

movies, data, music, and photos on the disc, but

the discs cannot be erased.

The "RW" on CD-RW and DVD+/-RW media stands for

rewritable. This lets you know that media with

RW on them can be recorded and erased several

times. Even though the prices for blank CD and

DVD media is inexpensive, you can expect to pay

a bit more for RW type media.

The biggest source of confusion stems from DVD-R

and DVD-RW and how they are different from DVD+R

and DVD+RW media. In order to avoid a long

technical speech on the differences, you simply

need to know that each DVD types can record

movies just like the next type.

DVD+R and DVD+RW are a newer more expensive

technology that offers a few technical advantages

over DVD-R and DVD-RW. None the less, DVD-R has

greater compatibility with more DVD players than

any other format of blank DVDs.

If you have a newer DVD player or if you use your

computer to play back media, you should have no

problems with DVD+R/DVD+RW media. Some say that

they provide a better range of quality, although

the quality is indeed similar.

Keep in mind that all recordable CD and DVD media

do the same thing regardless of their particular

brand or extension. Because there is not an

industry standard that involves DVD technology,

not every DVD player is compatible with each and

every format you see on retail store shelves.

For this very reason, you should always check with

DVD player manual to see which type of recordable

media it will play back. This way, you'll know

what to buy the next time you go shopping for

blank CD or DVD media.