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Like DVD, KFC or BP, the term BFR doesn't formally stand for anything.

That's funny. I was going to correct you with the meaning of those acronyms we all know, and when looking for sources I found that you're actually right. Thanks for the info.

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• DVD was initially supposed to be "Didital Video Disc", and later renamed "Digital Versatile Disc", and eventually nobody agreed on it and it was officially renamed to simply "DVD" (three letters), with many other unofficial meanings.

•    

• KFC were the initials of Kentucky Fried Chicken until 1991. From the previous link: Dieting trends had made “fried” a dirty cuss, and the plan was to banish it from view. Voila: KFC.

•    

• BP used to be The British Petroleum Company plc, but after many acquisitions it simply became BP plc in 2001.

Not that it matters, but DVD was originally Digital Video Disc. As it became apparent that DVDs were going to be used for more than video, they retconned the acronym to Digital Versatile Disc, and later because "Digital Versatile Disc" was so unwieldy, they simply became DVDs.

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1 is one possible reference.

I have to nit-pick. 'DVD' doesn't stand for Digital Versatile Disc. It never has.

Actually, in the original 1995/96 spec for PAL DVD, MP2 was mandatory - anything else (e.g. AC3, PCM) was optional. It was amended in 1997 to allow for either MP2 or AC3 as the primary track.

Because of this, MP2 is considered pretty much mandatory by PAL-country replicators/distributors, although some from NTSC areas tend to ignore this in their PAL releases.

What evidence do you have of this?

According to this:
http://www.videohelp.com/dvd

Standard NTSC DVD: 720x480

720p stands for the number of rows, not the number of columns. Standard DVD is 480p

  approximately resolution, it can be higher or lower

See also: http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.4

It seems a lot of articles have been against Sony while this fear of Sony's set top player being overpriced is relatively unfounded.

Exactly. People seem to have forgotten that prices for DVD players in 1997 were even higher: $1000 and up ! Sure a grand for a DVD/Blu-ray/Whatever player is expensive but it is NOT overpriced. It is perfectly normal for new formats to be sold at a high price when first introduced.

That said, I am also impressed by the HD-DVD guys who have found a nice way to leverage the existing DVD technology to be able to introduce HD-DVD players at "only" $400.

Google is your friend, but just in case: http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#4.3

Isn't regional code locked devices illegal in Australia?

Absolutely not. Australia is region 4

To make it worse; under the terms of the copyright modifications we traded away as part of the free trade deal with America "trading or being in reciept of an unauthorised encrypted broadcast" is against the law.

As a DVD is an encrypted broadcast, and as a Region 1 or 2 disks are not authorised for use in Australia... simply being in possesion of the disks means you should go to goal.

Also see my journal about Nero 7 DvD burning probs.In short ,stick with Nero Version 6.X

Also see my journal about Nero 7 DvD burning probs.In short ,stick with Nero Version 6.X

It looks like I could have been clearer in describing what I was trying to say. So, let me attempt to clarify for those that didn't get my point (or perhaps didn't even realize that this distinction existed).

Let's first be clear that I'm not saying that progressive content is not encoded on DVDs, for indeed movies provide plenty of progressive source material (i.e. an entire frame comes from a single moment in time) and it's easy for players to re-extract the original progressive film frames for display. My point is that the result is something that is not quite as good as it could be if DVDs had actually designed with 480p displays in mind.

I called the end result 480i for two reasons. The first is that DVDs do contain each frame of progressive content separated into 2 fields (in the encoding this is called a progressive interlaced sequence, and having the frames separated into fields is required for the 3:2 pull-down flags to be used in MPEG 2 encoding because the flags just indicate "repeat this field"). The second is because there is vertical filtering applied to the image that reduces the quality down to one that won't flicker when displayed on an interlaced TV. For progressive source material, the first reason could be totally ignored if not for the second, so let's not get too bogged down in the encoding details. In other words, if the vertical resolution were not filtered to remove twitter, the two fields of a progressive frame could be reassembled into a full-resolution frame (at a frame rate 1/2 that of the field rate) and we could consider the result to be the same as 480p.

So, the problem is that DVDs were designed in an era before progressive scan was popular, so the images stored on them are pre-filtered for interlaced display. If the DVD player had been tasked with this vertical filtering for interlaced TVs, we would have a full 480p format. Indeed, someone could use the DVD Video format with full 480p resolution source material if they wanted to encode a disc that way (it just would twitter if it were displayed on an interlaced TV at standard refresh rates).

Finally, a discussion of twitter for those that might not know what it is: imagine a frame that has a single white dot on a single line in a 480i image which is being updated at 60 fields per second. That dot would be re-displayed only 30 times a second, so it would appear to blink to the human eye. Because of this, the highest frequencies in the vertical resolution must be filtered so that the alternating fields can support each other in displaying highly-contrasting light levels (such as white on black).

Here's one DVD FAQ page that discusses the storing of progressive content as interlaced fields.

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.3

From DVDDemystified:

Many people complain that the audio level from DVD players is too low. In truth the audio level is too high on everything else. Movie soundtracks are extremely dynamic, ranging from near silence to intense explosions. In order to support an increased dynamic range and hit peaks (near the 2V RMS limit) without distortion, the average sound volume must be lower. This is why the line level from DVD players is lower than from almost all other sources. So far, unlike on CDs and LDs, the level is much more consistent between discs. If the change in volume when switching between DVD and other audio sources is annoying, you may be able to adjust the output signal level on some players or the input signal level on some receivers, but other than that, there's not much you can do.

DVD Audio Levels

No.

It is possible to buy DVD players that'll convert on the fly, but they tend to be expensive or have lousy video quality in the conversion.

"Digital Video Disc" came first but some of the companies wanted to call it "Digital Versatile Disc" . The official word is that "DVD" doesn't stand for anything now.

Firewire never gained more of the market share over USB, and that is why all DVDs use MPEG4.

sigh...

Firewire is to multimedia as USB is to keyboards.

Seriously, Different purposes and it is the same reason that Firewire is part of every camcorder shipped today and USB is part of just about every keyboard or mouse shipped today. You could say that the floppy drive is one of the most successful devices in history because it shipped unchanged for so long, but that doesn't mean that you can use it instead of a hard-drive.

All DVDs use MPEG4? WRONG. MPEG2 is the standard DVD codec. While many newer DVD Players may support new formats such as MPEG4 or DiVX, studio productions are rarely encoded in these since they need the disk to play everywhere. Don't believe me about MPEG2... Look here. That is the first link I found to it, but it technically is the DVD FAQ that every site backs.

How about some figures/links to back that up? I'm not saying that it's not the case, just that as stated it's no more convincing than the OP.

I loathed responding to this, because critical thinking skills are still required to realize the truth.

They've already recouped their production costs in broadcast advertising.

I can't help you if you can't understand this concept. If a TV show doesn't make money for a TV network, they eventually kill the show. The only exception to this is NFL games for a network, or a cable network that will prolong a critically acclaimed show in order to secure visibility.

If you think their manufacturing and distribution costs are $22 per box, you're truly clueless

According to the DVD FAQ, the cost of pre-production for a two-hour movie is roughly $20K. That cost is spread across every DVD box set you manage to sell. Even presuming that rate is maintained through for a TV series (no way, the original mastered media was already formatted for TV), that translates to $166/minute. A complete TV season of Buffy (22 eps * 43 mins * 166) could be calculated to cost $157036 to preproduce. (And then its $1/disk to create the disk.) If you were to pretend that a TV production company would put out a box set and only expect to sell 10K units, that would get you a production cost of $22/box.

No, according to TV Guide, "While the biggest hit movies on DVD can sell in the millions, a TV series just has to do a few hundred thousand units to be successful -- a fraction of the audience for a moderately successful prime-time show. The biggest sellers -- Seinfeld, The Simpsons, Family Guy and Chappelle's Show -- are in the 2 million range." So, its more like USD $7.50 to manufacture a box set. I don't have references to generalize "distribution costs" (that would have to vary by residuals arrangements, packaging, and advertising strategy), but its not going to come close to $22/box. That might have prompted an actor for Babylon 5 to muse, "If they want to do 20 years of Babylon 5, they recoup their entire production cost just one box set run of DVDs." That's certain to be an exaggeration, but certainly the idea is there that the DVD income helps immensely.

These companies are making a killing on DVD sets; the profit margin is unreal. And that's why I disagreed with the original poster's sentiments that these companies can't reduce the price on a $60 box set.

Something I've always wanted to see (and for awhile, thought Wal-Mart[1]) was television episodes available for purchase either the next week or the next day after it's aired on a DVD-1 or DVD-2 sized DVD (these are like those semi-cool mini-CD's you see, DVD-1 can hold 1.36 GB and DVD-2 can hold 2.47 GB). And I don't mean a crappy 4:3 non-anamorphic release, but a release based on the HDTV airing of the show with the fully Dolby Digital treatment.

Sell this for $1-3 (dumping the price in half after, say, a month or so) and I'd probably buy television episodes that way (even if I did watch it). There's something like 24 episodes per season, that works the cost out to (to buy a full season)--

24 x $3 = $72
24 x $2 = $48
24 x $1 = $24

And in these smaller formats (especially DVD-1) they can get away with using a lower bitrate, reserving the higher bitrate for their season packages at the end of the year.

I'd be willing to bet if they sold television shows like this that you'd see piracy curbed. Especially if there wasn't any advertising during the shows, but there was advertising (that you couldn't skip past) at the beginning of the show (say, two or three 30 second commercials).

[1] Wal-Mart had a little display off to the side of their new DVD section that had TV episodes on a single DVD-5 disc (which was shrinkwrapped in a cardboard holder, no plastic case and no frills). They had first episodes for a couple of relatively recent TV series such as E.R. and others. The display said to check back every week for new episodes (which at the time I took to mean "current"). Unfortunately it's just been old episodes as far as I can tell.

I don't believe the FCC was responsible for the region codes on DVD's and in DVD players. (See FAQ here.) That was a decision by the movie industry to take copy pretection into their own hands, and they managed to pressure most hardware manufacturers into making DVD players with embedded regions. With the FCC's help or not, there's a good chance the MPAA et. al. will manage the same thing here. If the industry can influence the production of DVD players, the industry can influence the production of TV's. If the MPAA blocks their movies from broadcast on any station that transmits a digital signal without a broadcast flag, it won't take long for all digital channels (think HDNet Movies) to adopt the broadcast flag.

Lots. That was a common concern when DVDs came out but there is a lot more data correction on DVD. Same so with BluRay See the FAQ

The DVD FAQ agrees with you, Digital Video Disc was the original meaning.

If we're talking about the NEC/Toshiba next gen DVD; it's also a different format physically (15 GB for a single sided, single layer disc). So, the optics would have to be tuned for that format as well.

HD-DVD also allows for H.264 (MPEG-4) and a WMV9 based codec, not just MPEG-2.

I also have, on very good authority, that the DMCA only covers encryption for copy protection. Region coding is neither encryption, nor for copy protection. So, working around it does not violate the DMCA.

Everone knows that DVD stands for "Digital Versatile Disk" [google.com], not Digital Video Disk.

And most people who speak English know that it's "disc," not "disk," as in "Digital Versatile Disc."

Further, according the the Internet DVD FAQ, "DVD" doesn't stand for anything.

Another tip for you: using Google to confirm something you think is correct, but isn't, only leads you to the thousands of others who share your misconception.

Actually, it doesn't stand for anything at all anymore (it's just "DVD"). See http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.1

Actually, DVD doesn't stand for anything. Source.

It was originally "Digital Video Disc". Some folks decided to reconsider the name when they saw how "versatile" the medium could be.

Wikipedia needs to check their own references, as do you. The first link listed by Wikipedia explains the origins of DVD as digital video disk.

This was confusing me, too, but I found this chart in the DVD FAQ which does seem to indicate that pressed dual layer DVDs are also limited to 7.95GB.

Can any DVD experts confirm that pressed dual layer discs have the same storage capacity as DVD+R DL discs?

I know of no law in any country which requires DVD players to set its region. In fact, this nice DVD FAQ further states that only the CSS license actually requires it. Choosing to mod or chip a player might void the warranty, but it would be a stretch to say it was illegal.

Macrovision may show up as stripes of color, distortion, rolling, black & white picture, and dark/light cycling. Macrovision creates problems for most TV/VCR combos (see 3.2.1) and some high-end equipment such as line doublers and video projectors.

I agree, but not just because of the Lossy AC3 format. The DVD Video disc standard supports regular uncompressed lPCM audio at 24/20/16bits at 96/48khz, and you can use 1 to 8 discrete channels as well. (just don't exceed 6.144 Mbps)

All you have to do is burn a DVD video disc with only audio or blackness/slideshow, etc. Compatible everywhere, no need for specific DVD-Audio players, just put and play, no need for visual cues either, but certainly available.

On top of that, manufacturers won't care. The average asian standalone DVD Video player will play mp3 and various mpeg1/2/4 formats from data discs. DVD-Audio is the failing attempt to produce a format with a better "protection" than the original DVD format, which already had decent audio capabilities.

DTS is just another lossy format, that uses more bitrate than AC-3. Certainly it sounds better, but never as good as 24/96 lpcm (raw).

As for Ogg Vorbis, sorry, current spec seems to require too much hardware and power for standalones. There seems to be a v2 planning to address that and produce a more hardware friendly format; but only Xiph knows...

The ideal player is a regular DVD-ROM drive attached to something, that lets it read data discs filled with audio in different formats; including lossless, not just lossy. Add a bit more hardware and have it handle the various video formats (and containers) as well.

Or at least there is a demand in the community for this. Everyone will soon have dvd burners, just as everyone seems to have cd burners these days. Who cares what the powers that be dictate, the people will always rip it somehow and put it in their favorite non DRMed physical format.

It might contain MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 audio, but even this, according to a later section, is only Layer-2 audio, and not the same thing as AAC. There's a reason that AAC is called MPEG-2 NBC--NBC stands for non-backwards-compatible.

That's true in a practical sense for North Americans, but MPEG audio is valid under the DVD specification.

If the video is NTSC, a DVD must contain either AC-3 or LPCM. It may also contain MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DTS, or SDDS audio.

See also the DVD FAQ.

There are only three recognized formats for audio on DVDs. On PAL DVDs, the compressed format is MPEG-1 Layer 2. On both PAL and NTSC DVDs, PCM (uncompressed digital audio) is used. On NTSC DVDs, the compressed format is Dolby Digital AC-3. The "AAC" you refer to is not the AAC that is sometimes referred to in the MPEG-2 specification; however, MPEG-2 for DVDs is a restricted subset of that specification. In fact, I get paid to show folks how to do this every day, since it's my work.

There's a great FAQ as to the formats for DVD audio.

However, the AAC standard referred to in the article is part of the MPEG-4 standard, and the MPEG-4 AAC does incorporate the formal MPEG-2 specification's AAC as one part of its capabilities.

Wrong. DVD+R was released after DVD+RW. DVD+RW works best as filesystem accessible rewriteable media. The format was updated to include write-once media in order to compete with DVD-R. (You'll notice that even the write-once DVD+R discs bear the stylized RW logo.)

Check here for some more info on the entire DVD spectrum.

A few other quick notes:
1. The +RW alliance claims 100% compatibility with the DVD-Video standard. I've had no trouble using +R discs on very old DVD drives and DVD-Rom drives. Although, as has been said above, there seems to be a huge amount of variation across different drives and players.

2. +R/+RW media does not have the rediculous finalization (lead out) routine that's required with -R/-RW routines.

3. One more thing, formatting times for -RW are rediculous, whereas +RW media can format on the fly.

Although my drive is multiformat, the +RW camp has my vote through experience.

I have a Sony DVD burner (DRU-510A). It was bundled with a basic version of Sonic MyDVD. MyDVD has an option that would make it transcode audio to AC3 stereo for imported MPEG2 video files. I would post a image of the options window, but I don't want my site to get slashdotted. :)

As a DVD authoring program, I wasn't too impressed with the bundled MyDVD. After digging around for other software, I ended up purchasing the DVDlab/EditStudio/MPEG XS codec bundle mediachance offers. I have been very pleased with DVDlab and EditStudio, especially for the price of the bundle. Most consumer-level DVD authoring and video editing software seems to be very basic with a dumbed-down interface. DVD-lab and EditStudio have a lot more features and don't treat the user like a simpleton.

My current process of building a DVD (mostly from home movie captures) is to edit the video in EditSTudio and render an MPEG2 stream with PCM audio. I use MyDVD to build a 'dummy' DVD project to the hard drive. I have MyDVD set to transcode imported MPEG2 audio streams to AC3 stereo. After that is complete, I use DVDlab to demux the vob files created by MyDVD and then proceed to build my 'real' DVD project with DVDlab. Compressing the audio to AC3 stereo results in very compatable DVD discs (MP2 audio for DVD is not part of the standard for NTSC and not all players will support it. See the DVD FAQ) and the compression of about 12:1 on the audio streams leaves more room for higher bitrate (i.e. higher quality) video streams.

I have looked at stand-alone AC3 encoders, but they are very expensive, even for basic stereo encoding. The freeware encoders seem to be very buggy and are probably illegal since they aren't licensed by Dolby Labs. So far the cheapest AC3 encoding solution for me has been using the MyDVD bundleware.

Some music DVDs use it (Metallica's Cunning Stunts for example).

But apart from that, I believe the only place it's used is in porn movies...leading to Multi-Angle Title being a euphamism for porn.
(source The DVD FAQ)

BTW, I have Cunning Stunts, and the multi angle support is pretty lame...the camera angle changes so often anyway, that you barely notice that you've changed it.

Hmmm...some titles also use the feature in their special features - they might show a scene and by selecting different "angles" you can see different levels of production or effects.

Well, consider this.

a) i've seen single sided disks that do this (see A Bugs Life)
b) as a anti-piracy measure, as well as a way to increase the quality of the throughput, the movie studio's prefer DVD-9 (dual layer, single sided)
c)DVD-18 (dual sided, dual layer) disks, are quite expensive to produce (read: low yields)

a) i've seen single sided disks that do this (see A Bugs Life)
b) as a anti-piracy measure, as well as a way to increase the quality of the throughput, the movie studio's prefer DVD-9 (dual layer, single sided)
c)DVD-18 (dual sided, dual layer) disks, are quite expensive to produce (read: low yields)

You do realize that DVDs today, utilizing only MPEG-2, require payment of royalties to the MPEG-2 Licensing Association. Furthermore, if you enable Macrovision, CSS, or Dolby Digital audio, you are also paying royalties to the respective organizations because they own patents regarding these technologies. See Section 6.1 of the DVD Demystified FAQ for details.

Neither MPEG-2 nor the other technologies that are part of the DVD standard are free (save for possibly PCM audio). Furthermore, the hardware royalties are quite nominal as shown by the proliferation of DVD players, on the order of less than a dollar as the FAQ shows clearly. MPEG-4 Part 10 (aka H.264) and MPEG-2 are still available for use in authoring DVDs. Nobody is forcing anyone to use WMV9 if they don't want to. Just because Microsoft's CODEC is included in the standard doesn't mean that they're taking over anything. It's not mandatory.

The contents of a DVD are both locked and encrypted. You can do a simple check for this yourself. I used the bundled software with Creative's PC-DVD DVD/MPEG2 playback card. Other hardware/software and or software only players should work also. Put a DVD in your drive and play it using your DVD software. While the DVD is playing put it in pause. The DVD and drive have now been authenticated and you can now open your DVD drive in Windows Explorer and copy the VOB/IFO/BUP files from the DVD's VIDEO_TS directory to anywhere you wish. Copy any of the VOB files off the DVD and then try to read them with any DVD/MPEG2 playback software. You'll find any DVD/MPEG2 playback software you chose won't be able to understand the VOB files because while the VOB files have been copied off the DVD they are still encrypted.

CSS is a two step process. The first step is authentication of the media to the player. Without this step the DVD drive won't allow one to look at the protected file(s). The second step is decryption of the encrypted files.

For more information and a good overview of CSS see the DVD Demystified FAQ section 1.11 -- "what are the copy protection issues" especially part 3, section 4.5 -- "why can't I play movies copied to my hard drive?", section 4.8 -- "what is DeCSS?", or take a look at Frank Stephenson's cryptanalysis of CSS (couldn't find a link.)

I do agree with you however that CSS isn't really a copy protection method. There are too many other ways one may copy a DVD wihtout having to deal with CSS -- if one throws enough money at the problem.

The contents of a DVD are both locked and encrypted. You can do a simple check for this yourself. I used the bundled software with Creative's PC-DVD DVD/MPEG2 playback card. Other hardware/software and or software only players should work also. Put a DVD in your drive and play it using your DVD software. While the DVD is playing put it in pause. The DVD and drive have now been authenticated and you can now open your DVD drive in Windows Explorer and copy the VOB/IFO/BUP files from the DVD's VIDEO_TS directory to anywhere you wish. Copy any of the VOB files off the DVD and then try to read them with any DVD/MPEG2 playback software. You'll find any DVD/MPEG2 playback software you chose won't be able to understand the VOB files because while the VOB files have been copied off the DVD they are still encrypted.

CSS is a two step process. The first step is authentication of the media to the player. Without this step the DVD drive won't allow one to look at the protected file(s). The second step is decryption of the encrypted files.

For more information and a good overview of CSS see the DVD Demystified FAQ section 1.11 -- "what are the copy protection issues" especially part 3, section 4.5 -- "why can't I play movies copied to my hard drive?", section 4.8 -- "what is DeCSS?", or take a look at Frank Stephenson's cryptanalysis of CSS (couldn't find a link.)

I do agree with you however that CSS isn't really a copy protection method. There are too many other ways one may copy a DVD wihtout having to deal with CSS -- if one throws enough money at the problem.

The contents of a DVD are both locked and encrypted. You can do a simple check for this yourself. I used the bundled software with Creative's PC-DVD DVD/MPEG2 playback card. Other hardware/software and or software only players should work also. Put a DVD in your drive and play it using your DVD software. While the DVD is playing put it in pause. The DVD and drive have now been authenticated and you can now open your DVD drive in Windows Explorer and copy the VOB/IFO/BUP files from the DVD's VIDEO_TS directory to anywhere you wish. Copy any of the VOB files off the DVD and then try to read them with any DVD/MPEG2 playback software. You'll find any DVD/MPEG2 playback software you chose won't be able to understand the VOB files because while the VOB files have been copied off the DVD they are still encrypted.

CSS is a two step process. The first step is authentication of the media to the player. Without this step the DVD drive won't allow one to look at the protected file(s). The second step is decryption of the encrypted files.

For more information and a good overview of CSS see the DVD Demystified FAQ section 1.11 -- "what are the copy protection issues" especially part 3, section 4.5 -- "why can't I play movies copied to my hard drive?", section 4.8 -- "what is DeCSS?", or take a look at Frank Stephenson's cryptanalysis of CSS (couldn't find a link.)

I do agree with you however that CSS isn't really a copy protection method. There are too many other ways one may copy a DVD wihtout having to deal with CSS -- if one throws enough money at the problem.

The contents of a DVD are both locked and encrypted. You can do a simple check for this yourself. I used the bundled software with Creative's PC-DVD DVD/MPEG2 playback card. Other hardware/software and or software only players should work also. Put a DVD in your drive and play it using your DVD software. While the DVD is playing put it in pause. The DVD and drive have now been authenticated and you can now open your DVD drive in Windows Explorer and copy the VOB/IFO/BUP files from the DVD's VIDEO_TS directory to anywhere you wish. Copy any of the VOB files off the DVD and then try to read them with any DVD/MPEG2 playback software. You'll find any DVD/MPEG2 playback software you chose won't be able to understand the VOB files because while the VOB files have been copied off the DVD they are still encrypted.

CSS is a two step process. The first step is authentication of the media to the player. Without this step the DVD drive won't allow one to look at the protected file(s). The second step is decryption of the encrypted files.

For more information and a good overview of CSS see the DVD Demystified FAQ section 1.11 -- "what are the copy protection issues" especially part 3, section 4.5 -- "why can't I play movies copied to my hard drive?", section 4.8 -- "what is DeCSS?", or take a look at Frank Stephenson's cryptanalysis of CSS (couldn't find a link.)

I do agree with you however that CSS isn't really a copy protection method. There are too many other ways one may copy a DVD wihtout having to deal with CSS -- if one throws enough money at the problem.

It's not allowed to. Not legally anyway.

Will we see that kind of cooperation again? Probably not. There's too much incentive to play dirty, after the massive success of DVD.

FWIW the book also contains far, far more tech background on the DVD format, MPEG-4, visual theory, etc. than anybody except Slashdotters will ever want to absorb.

yes, but the latest region 1 DVDs will not work on multiregion DVD players unless you can manually set the player to a certain DVD. a automatic DVD player query the DVD for it's region and the new DVD's wont allow that, hence they wont play. so if you go for a multiregion player, go for one were you manually set the region before playing the disk.
more info here

Not correct +r/-r are about 85% and +rw/-rw are more like 70%.

Most new DVD players, even really cheap ones, will read either, though (I have a $50 player that reads both).

I bought a DVD burner that does both +r/-r +rw/-rw for $140 in August though the internet, and have seen the same thing for as little as $100... I think I even saw a $100 Sony DVD burner at Best Buy yesterday (after rebate)... it's $150 online, though, so it may have been a store promotion.

Anyhow, read the FAQ