For digital movies that can be played on both your computer and on standalone players, you have two practical media choices: write-once CD-R and DVD-R/+R. Rewritable CD-RW, DVD-RW/+RW, and DVD-RAM are fine for temporary storage or for testing your creations, but for final storage, you should stick with recordable media to ensure longevity, reliability, and better compatibility with drives and players.

The only reason to go with CD-R over DVD+R would be to save money. CD-R/RW drives and media are cheaper than their DVD counterparts, though inferior in every other respect. There are two primary CD formats to choose from: MPEG-1 VideoCD (VCD), which is more compatible with standalone players and allows about one hour of video per disc, or the less-compatible but higher-quality MPEG-2 SVCD, which can hold only a half hour per disc and is incompatible with many set-top boxes. Other formats, such as XVCD, are completely incompatible with set-top boxes.

A VCD, with a maximum resolution of 352x240 lines, is good enough for duplicating 250-line video formats (VHS or 8mm tape, for example), but if you're capturing from a format with more lines (SVHS, Hi8, and such), you'll lose quality unless you go with 480x480 SVCD.

We highly recommend spending the extra money on DVD-recordable to avoid resolution and compatibility problems. DVD-R/+R can be played in nearly every drive and player sold in the last couple of years, and its superior 720x480 maximum resolution can cope with even the highest-resolution home-video formats. Sure it's more expensive, but these are precious memories, right?