You will come across many cryptic labels on DVD burners and blank discs and are probably wondering what they all mean. Fortunately, when shopping for DVD drives and blank discs, most of these support the DVD+/-RW format, so you probably won't go wrong. But just in case, the following is short glossary of these terms:

DVD+R and DVD+RW

These two formats are supported on DVD burners created by Philips, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, Ricoh, Yamaha, and others. They can be read by most commercial DVD players.

A DVD+R disc can be recorded to once, and once only. Once recorded, the data becomes permanent and can not be re-recorded.

DVD+RW discs can be erased and recorded multiple times without damage. They are almost always compatible with the DVD+R format, so you'll sometimes see this format written as DVD+R(W).

DVD-R, DVD-RW

These formats are supported by Apple, Toshiba, NEC, Pioneer, Sharp, and Panasonic. They can be read by most commercial DVD players.

DVD-R is similar to DVD+R in that it can only be recorded to once.

DVD-RW is similar to DVD+RW in that it can be recorded to multiple times. They are usually compatible with the DVD-R format, so you'll sometimes see this format written as DVD-R(W). Furthermore, drives which support both the + and - formats, might have the following jumble of letters: DVD+/-RW or DVD+/-R(W).

DVD-RAM

This is a less common format and can only be read by DVD players and drives that are specifically compatible with this format. These discs are usually housed in cartridges.

DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL

These are dual layer formats supported by many manufacturers, including Dell, HP, Sony, Yamaha, and many others. Dual layer DVDs can store data on two separate layers on the DVD, effectively doubling their capacity.

Dual layer discs can be read by many DVD players, although the less expensive ones tend not to support this format.

DVD ROM

This was the first format supported for DVD discs and is a read-only format (ie: the discs may never be recorded over). It is typically used for movies and video games, and should run on every DVD player.