DVD-R's
 

Ok folks, what are all the pro's and cons concerning owning a dvd-rw.

What can you really do with it besides being able to backup a ton of crap.

I own a dvd player as well, can i simply copy dvd's i *buy* and have backup copies, similar to vcr's. And once i get an xbox, what can be done with it? Copy games?
thanks..

Right now there isn't a one-set standard. So make sure you get a write that will do both.

Exactly. Add to that, you can't just burn a copy of your dvds. You'll have to buy a program like DVD XCopy first. I'm sure there is copy protection on the XBox games, so I don't think that you can just copy the games. (We don't allow warez, serials, etc. here, so don't ask about how to copy it.)

IMO, DVD Shrink is better than DVD XCopy and it's much cheaper.... $0. I use mine to make copies of DVDs so I can leave the originals in the safety of my house while I have the copies here in my dorm room. I also use my burner to make copies of anime I download(unlicensed, it's legal) because depending on quality I can usually fit an entire season on one disc instead of having a bunch of cd-r.

There are no cons that I know of, other than the price. No pun intended. You can do all kinds of things with programs such as X-Copy and DVD decrypter, as well as video editing if that interests you. And of course DVDs hold much more info than CDs.

CompUSA has crazy sales on DVD-R/+R media all the time, sometimes as low as $1.99 per disc, making things quite affordable.

Re: DVD-R's
 

Console discs are unreadable by standard computer CD/DVD drives--as a way to deter piracy. The computer won't recognize it, and a retail console won't recognize a standard burned CD/DVD copy of a game. Although I think the Xbox has optional software that allows it to read some audio and image files off a standard burned CD, and will of course play retail DVDs and music CDs. But I'm not sure if the Xbox or PlayStation supports VCD/SVCD.

DVD-R work fine for me. I have used +R also, but it is not worth the extra cost as I see no difference. -R is for general use. +R is for master disks. You can get them for a little over a buck a piece <a href="http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/SearchAll.asp?search=dvd%2Dr&child=&curpage=2&ureq=y">here</a>, Cyberguys. Add some shipping it is still a good deal.

An explanation of -R, +R, RW, DVDRAM is <a href="http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvd"> here</a>.