DVD-R/RW data discs -- does anyone here create them?

I'm having a terrible time trying to do anything at all with my DVD+/-RW
drive... Mandrake 9.2 here...

I found dvdrecord but it gives me all sorts of error messages...
dvd+rw-format crashes and leaves me with $5 discs that the drive
firmware crashes when you insert them...

Is anyone here having *any* success writing to any kind of DVD media?
It seems the free software world is about seven years behind Windows in
this arena...

\\/
480/947-6100