If you've ever shopped for optical media, chances are you've felt a bit confounded by the sheer volume of options on the shelf (or Web site). Buying discs isn't as simple as grabbing the first spindle or box you find--if you don't look carefully, you could end up with media that's the wrong format, the wrong speed, or overkill for what you're planning to do. Even folks who are savvy about optical media can be stymied by cacophony of choices. You know the industry has a problem when you hear experienced pros admit they, too, have inadvertently bought a disc that doesn't work in their PC's optical drive, or the DVD recorder in their living room.

With a growing array of media types on store shelves, I figured it's time for a back-to-basics primer to help you navigate the increasingly muddied waters of optical media. There's so much to cover that I'm going to spread it out over a couple of columns. This month, I'll address formats, layers, and disc speeds.

With more media types and format variants than ever before, it can be a challenge to find the right recordable media for your purposes. This buying guide is where you can learn the difference between DVD-/+R and DVD-RW/+RW, CD-R and CD-RW, and more.