Well, for the first time in a very long time, I've run into a situation where the DVD player (my girlfriends, it's a JVC player) won't play a movie burned onto a DVD-/+R disc. It happened twice.

The first was with Memorex DVD+R media, which I found out makes perfect sense, since the player doesn't support/play DVD+R media.

The second was with Maxell DVD-R media, which doesn't make sense since the player does support/play DVD-R media. So I'm guessing it just has issues with Maxell discs.

In order to hopefully decrease the likely hood of this happening again, I was hoping someone might have some answers to my questions.
My questions are:
(1) Which is the better, more supported DVD media out there? DVD-R or DVD+R?
(2) What is/are the best, most supported Brand(s) of DVD media out there?

DVD-R is the most supported format, since its the original dvd format. DVD+R is a proprietary format created by sony (go figure.. sony creating a incompatible proprietary format to compete with an established standard)

If you burned the media correctly, it should play in the standalone player. What exactly are you trying to play? a copied disk? a self authored movie disk? dual or single layer?
The best brands to buy are (in order) Taiyo Yuden, MCC, Prodisk, Ritek

Taiyo yuden is by far the best brand to buy, however you will probably need to order online. Some OEMs do sell rebranded TY media though...

I've been "out of the loop" on this topic for a while, but about 18 months ago, DVD-R was said to have better "backward" compatibility, particularly with older set-top players. Of course, today, that might not be an issue as many of the older players have been retired. Also, Fuji, and TDK, at least at that time, had some of the better ratings for reliablility. Today, these brands are harder to find. particularly at you local B&M chain stores such as Wal-Mart, Sams, and Target.

I've found the best locally available blanks are, in fact Sony (+R and -R). They have a classy white finish.

They can be had had on sale at Best Buy / Freddies-Kroger / Staples, every other week or so for roughly $12.99/50 or $22.98/100, which is a great deal. If they're not on sale, your better off buying some TY online if you want a quality disc.

I've never had a burning error with them, nor a CRC error (and some of them are now 3+ years old).

Memorex are some of the crappiest blanks out there. I recall one of the first spindles I purchased was Memorex, and within that single spindle there were discs made from three different manufacturers! About half would burn at the advertised 16x, while the others would only burn at 4x max.

what are the media codes for those sonys?

skittle: I'm trying to play backup copies of movies that I made.

What's the deal with the Verbatim brand? I've stumbled across some sites on the internet that claim this to be the best brand for DVD-R media?

verbatim has re branded taiyo yuden media and Mitsubishi chemical corporation media
look for the "made in japan" ... as taiyo yuden and MCC media is made in japan.

Can I assume you were able to play it in a different standalone box, to confirm that its the girlfriends player that cant read the disks?

skittle: Yes. I've tried the copies in other standalone players and they played without issue. I've also tried other burned media, different DVD-R brands, in my girlfriend's player and they played without issue as well. So I'm positive it's the player that's incapable of reading certain media.

I went to Best Buy earlier and checked out the Verbatim DVD-R discs. All the packs (25, 50, 100) had "Made in Taiwan" on them, so I'm assuming that those aren't the re-branded TY or MCC discs. If I'm wrong let me know.

The Best Buy does have the Sony DVD-R discs with the white finish. I have use those before and I haven't had issues with any of them. They were labeled as "Made in Japan" if that has any meaning.

Besides Verbatim and Sony, Best Buy had these brands: Memorex, Maxell, Dynex, TDK.

So I guess my best options from Best Buy should go in this order:
1) Verbatim (if they are labeled as "Made in Japan" )
2) Sony

What do you guys think?

For Verbatim Dual Layer DVD+R (8.5GB) look at only the 10 packs since they are made in Singapore.

All 20 packs are made in India; avoid these. (Read as 20 DVDs per cake box.)

Two 10 separate packs are sometimes bundled together as a 20 pack. This "20 pack" is good.

A better question is which are the brands of DVD players, that play all media discs. I have found that a lot of the top branded DVD players (esepcially the older ones), JVC included, Panasonic, Sony etc., are more likely to have issues with DVD R discs, + & -, than the cheaper Taiwanese brands.

Wish I could help you there. I abandoned standalone players in favor of a HTPC I built myself to play my media files.

Buy the TDK, they make excellent disks

That would be a good thing to do if I was buying a new standalone player but I'm not. Plus, I can't go and tell my girlfriend and others to go out and by better standalone players so they can play the media I used. That's why I'm looking at the best media option.

skittle: Really? Buy the TDK over the Verbatim (if they are labeled as "Made in Japan" ) or the Sony
options?

Taiyo Yuden 8X DVD-R
Verbatim DVD+R MIT
Verbatim DL 2.4X MIS (Although the MII are getting bashed on the boards, I've had relatively good luck with the two spindles I've burned so far, but a lot of folks have experienced otherwise. )

Although TDK is getting better I would still lean towards either Verb or Yuden. Sony is a reliable brand (I have a ton of Sony's) but my archival data all goes on Yudens and/or Verbs.