The appearance of affordable DVD burners has given cause to celebration among the world's digital video makers – from hobbyists to professionals. The potential of DVD Video for corporate and wedding video makers is clear, but even the ability to present holiday videos in bite-sized, episodic and easily accessible chunks can't be sniffed at.

There are almost as many acronyms for the various standards of DVD as there are companies involved in DVD development.

FAQ: 10 Frequently Asked Questions about Sony DVD players

The DVD standards battle on, and prices continue to drop, so is it worth buying a DVD burner now? We put an assortment of DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW drives to the test to answer that very question.

HITACHI DZ-MV208E

In the latest twist of a heated battle over next-generation DVD technology, Paramount Home Entertainment said it would release high-definition movies in the Blu-ray format backed by a group led by Sony Corp.

According to analysts at IDC (International Data Group),DVD is now the fastestgrowing consumer electronic technology ever.

Sony's DVD201E HandyCam is a good example of how far DVD cameras have come and what a bit of commonsense can do when selecting the right format. Unlike some of the earlier DVD cameras which opted for the unpopular DVD-RAM rewritable format, Sony elected to go with the more common DVD-RW format.

DVD is said to be to movies what CD was to music. Well-filmed DVD movies are better in all respects than those recorded on VHS, so the idea of a digital video camera recording direct to DVD disc would appear sound.

We find out where the new HD formats are heading from the industry experts.

One of only two DVD burners this month to come with a two year manufacturer warranty, the BenQ DW400A offers peace of mind should things go pear shaped.

The first Blu-ray drive to actually BE available in Australia. The massive price should fall quickly.

Even with falling hardware prices, the expense and yet to be finalised format war rages on with DVD writing technology deterring many a consumer. DVD+R/RW appear to be making headway gradually with both format flexibility and hardware integration into next generation platforms.

A fantastic specification notebook with all the trimmings you'd expect to find on more expensive notebooks, the Joybook 8100-V13 has a 15.4in widescreen WXGA with native 1280 x 800 resolution. With ATI's Mobility RADEON 9600 graphics, boasting 64MB dedicated video memory, it's great for DVD playback or gaming -- the unit returned 9,502 marks under 3DMark01SE Pro, more than enough to provide comfortable gameplay with a decent number of fps even in recent games. BenQ has gone as far as to include not just a DVD-ROM for DVD movie playback, but an optical DVD writer, capable of 2-speed DVD+R media writing, ideal for both business archiving or for personal backup.

Your photos, music and data are just a virus or hard disk failure away from oblivion. Build a triple-layer defence using PC Authority's practical guide.

Blu-ray writers are more affordable than ever. We look at four internal models to find the best way to go high-def. The last time we did a round-up of optical drives, the former war was in full swing. But now Blu-ray has at last seen off HD DVD and taken its place as the industry standard for high-capacity optical media.

Hold-off on that high definition movie player - this could be a good reason to go Blu-Ray.

With no sign of the end of the format war coming to pass anytime soon, prices continue to fall and we’ve got the latest models to take a look at.

The use of DVD media for data storage hasnt been as quickly adopted as many people may have thought. However, building a PC without the capacity to use this format would be severely limiting. As was t