>>Some people can't tell the difference between average coffee and really good coffee, and so they don't care. Yeh, sure . . . some. But most people can tell because there is in fact a significant difference, so it's not a correct analogy. (And for the group of people that can't tell, why would they want to waste their money on expensive coffee ?) >>The same and the same as between average wine and really good wine. That's somewhat true, because the differences are much more subtle. But that begs the same question. Moreover, there's a problem of hype and expectation there . . . is a $200 bottle of wine really and noticeably 2000% better than a $10 bottle of wine in a blind test ? >>You get the picture. For sound, many have become accustomed to playing crippled lossy files through crappy sound systems and so yes, many can't tell the difference. That doesn't mean there isn't one. I have a medium quality system (several thousands but not several tens of thousands, nor several hundreds) and most people have been able to tell the difference if I do an A-B with high and low quality files. You just made the argument for "there's NO reason to not rip to lossless files" to be false. You're making a case for why some (5% ? - pick a number, doesn't matter) elite group of people might want to use lossless, whereas the rest wouldn't. As well, for some purposes yes, for others, no. We're not talking about "high and low quality files", we're talking about lossless, vs high quality compressed, and often less. Sure, there's a difference, but can a majority of the population (2σ of the mean) with the majority of systems out there tell ? No, and not even on decent systems. The evidence just doesn't support it. Thus, never say Never. There is not a one size fits all. ;-) This post was edited by kbarb on Mon, Feb 2, 15 at 0:38

If you have a 16x DVDRW it must have the capability to write to both +/- formats. Only very old models had compatibility problems with the two formats. Can your DVD drive recognize any disk at all? Try any movie or software application. If the drive recognizes the disk then it's either a software setting (is smartstart looking for the correct drive, it could be set to 'virtual' drive, which you don't want) or the problem is with the media. Is the disk already used? What brand is it? Have you ever successfully copied files onto a dvd with this drive? If so, was it using this brand of blank media? What format are the files from your camcorder in? Do they need to be converted? How big are they? I suggest you get the full Nero Burning Rom over the free Smartstart. You might want to include the full specs of your computer with your reply. It may make diagnosing the problem easier if we know what your are working with. Klaa2

yes when it says RW it will write to it also but yes it will play them too. So the write part is the same as burn. I did get an external drive that does cd read and write and dvd read and write it has come in quite handy since I can use it on all of my computers and my new netbook which does not come with any type of cd/dvd drive, I got mine on a clearance rack at staples for very cheap. It was an older model but that did not really matter much to me for my needs and works great. Having the usb plug in makes it very simple to use. I just googled and found some external ones for under $40 with free shipping so not too bad.

You should use CD-R CD's, since they are cheaper. Just let the iTunes application burn the CD for you. Does your eMac have a CD burner? If it does, first create a "Playlist" in iTunes, and name the Playlist as you wish. Drag the songs that you want, into the new Playlist folder. The songs will be either in the "Music" folder in iTunes, or in the "Purchased Music" folder in iTunes. You may want to drag the songs from the Music folder and leave the Purchased Music folder alone. Once you have dragged about 18 songs to the new Playlist, make sure each one has a check-mark on the box next to each song. To check-mark all the songs in the Playlist at once, press and hold the "Apple" key, and with the mouse pointer "click" on the first box. Now all the songs should be selected. The next step is to click on the iTunes "Burn CD" box (just follow the dialog after you have clicked in the Burn CD option). This CD should play on most CD players.