whats the best disc to burn a home video on?

Are you asking brand or type?

There are three types of burnable DVD. DVD-R, DVD+R and DVD-RW. Almost all computer DVD drives can read all three types. Home component DVD players vary in their ablity to read each of the different formats. Most newer home component DVD players can read all three. DVD-R and DVD+R are write once, where the DVD-RW is capable of recording, erasing and re-recording. Because of this, unlike what the above poster said, DVD-R and DVD+R are very reliable media/data storage for long periods of time. Data/Media stored on a DVD-RW can degrade over time, because of the nature of the their re-writable nature.

Which brand of DVD should you use? There are only a few DVD manufacturers in the world, but they manufacture the DVD's to the company who puts their name on them's specifications. Frankly, I buy what ever is cheapest of a name brand (TDK, Maxell...etc) or of a few media brands I know (Verbatim, RiData, Ritek). I do, however, try to avoid store brand DVD's (eg, Staples, CompUSA...etc). Any good camcorder will give you good results while your home is burning, especially at night You can use either a VCD or a DVD to burn a home video, but it depends on your camcorder if you have a normal Hi8, or Mini DV then you can go for VCD. If you have a DVD handycam then you can burn those videos on a DVD.VCD is cost effective and software for conversion to VCD format is easily available.If you have DVD Handycam the software is available with the camera.