If you’ve been shopping for blank CDs or blank DVDs recently, you may have found yourself a bit confused by all of the choices - CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW. Trying to figure out the abbreviations between them can be 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 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.