I have a Panasonic DVD-Ram/RW 2x and it does its job, Never had a prob with it sinice July. Stay away from Lesser known Brands. Most people dont every own more then 1 DVD burner so if they have a good experience with one then thats all the experience they have.

DVD-R is a good idea to get b/c it has (there was a test done) 99% compatibility with Stand Alone players and DVD+R is 98% its a small difference but with the price of Media anything small helps.

For really Help on this go to http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdwriters there are good reviews on DVD Writers, they are great. They also have good Programs to fit Dual layer dvd's to single layer DVD recordables