ok you are definitely the prom king
but before i pass you the crown....what is firmwaire?
never heard of it
i hope i don't need it...whatever it is
thanks
sb

I was going to help you but you already picked someone else for prom king. Anyway, the Pioneer is the way to go. No problems froms the start. DVD-Rs play in every dvd player I tested them in. The A03 has been replaced by the A04 but the changes are very minimal.

I have a Pioneer A04.
Installation was easy. I removed a Plextor CD writer and put the A04 in its place. My W2K Pro OS detected the Pioneer, installed the drivers, rebooted and we were away.
Using Ulead's DVD MovieFactory, I was able to put a finished movie together, with menus, introductory video, chapters, background music and a partridge in a pear tree, in next to no time.
The first DVD-RW I made played without hesitation on my Pioneer 545 stand-alone player (as you might expect). I'm told that some stand-alone players have difficulties with DVD-RWs, which have a lower reflectivity than DVD-Rs, but in my case - no problems at all.
The blanks I used were non-Pioneer (Princo!), but worked perfectly. They were cheap too.
Supplied software included VOB's InstantCD/DVD and Sonic's MyDVD, neither of which got installed because I dislike them both equally <g>

Good luck!

-Pete

I hate to say it but everyone is going to have a different opinion. I have the Philips DVD+RW and I like it very much. The problem is the +R media is not supported yet. That is the write once media like Pioneer's -R.

For write once, the HP and Philips are not your answer. For rewritable they are. The +RW is more compatible, much faster to write and in my area cheaper than the Pioneer -RW. I use rewritables more than I need write once. I often author a disc in differnt versions for different uses so recycling the media is a big savings for me.

For a player, I love the Pioneer 333, 343 and the one PeterMac is using. They will play ANYTHING, just about. The price is good as well.

Authoring software is a hitch. In the $300 range here in my opinion. I use DVDit SE becuase of the navigation features implemented. They are better than the other PC based software. It is bear to use sometimes though. ULead's DVD Workshop is not too bad, but it is better for Movies than interactive titles. I do like it though. For your use, I think the interactive navigation will be important to you in DVDit SE.

Dazzle just released a $99 package that claims it does it all. I did test it and found it to be unstable and misleading in the published feature set, although if you really understand the terminology it says what it does. I was not impressed, but for one third of the other package prices I guess I shouldn't be too hard on it.

Welcome to the world of desktop DVD Authoring. The crust of this planet is still cooling.

Keith

thanks to all of you
i guess will have to have co-prom kings this year :)
sb