DVD-R for General Vs DVD-R for Autoring

[ender2077]

Im am a totol beginner when it comes to DVDs, I ordered my DVD Drive yesterday, should arrive early next week. After months of research and price watching I decided on a Panasonic Multi Drive
DVD-RAM -Rw-R External drive, as I only have a laptop and travel a lot.
My problem is today I noticed (for the first time ever) that there are 2 types of DVD-R Drives and Media. DVD-R for General and DVD-R for authoring.
Whats all that about?
The main reason I purchased DVD Drive for converting my Digital (home) Video to DVD and converting some SVCD to DVD and DVD back-up, Secondary was data back-up, but is still very much needed.
Can anybody explain the differeces between General and Authoring Drives and how its going to affect myDVD quality.
Have I jumped in to quickly and made a big mistake??

Ive searched the net and forums all day and haven't found any answers to my questions.Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[setarip]

"Can anybody explain the differeces between General and Authoring Drives"

I'm not aware of any such distinction regarding drives - I've only heard of it regarding media. Your Panasonic should be quite content to burn your videos onto decent quality General Purpose DVD-Rs, etc. (No need to purchase special "authoring" media).

[ender2077]

Further, DVD-R discs come in 2 types: DVD-R(A), for "authoring," and DVD-R(G), for "general." Both DVD-R and DVD+R discs will play in most DVD players, even older ones. So if you put your movie on this kind of disk there is a high probability that it will play in your living room. However, DVD-R(A) drives can not record to DVD-R(G) disks, and vice versa.

http://www.dvdr-digest.com/articles/articles.php?article_id=4&page=4

This was the only information I found on the topic, its from an article I found on this site. Itexplains of 2 discs and one not working on the other and vice-versa.

So when i was about to buy my first blank DVD-R, I noticed that the discs are labeled General (for data) and specifically For Video.
I wanted to buy the Vdeo ones straight off the bat, but I was confused if they were the authoring discs or not?
Does (VIDEO) mean (AUTHORING)
Can I buy the Video discs or should I stick to the Geneeral ones?

[ender2077]

I should just point out;
the title of the article ison't Be Stumped By DVD Standards

and on page 6 it has a table showing what media works on what drives. it shows the 2 drives.

http://www.dvdr-digest.com/articles/articles.php?article_id=4&page=6

Also the article was written over a year ago, so I don't know if that specific information is still relevant.

[setarip]

All you need are what you've described as "DVD-R (General)" in order to successfully burn DVDs with video content...

[ender2077]

Ok thanks so much for your help.

[setarip]

"Ok thanks so much for your help."

My pleasure ;>}