Going to DVD-R is a big step! And it can be expensive the more things you want to do with the medium. The more basic your needs the less it will cost. First thing you need to do is decide what dvd writer drive is best for you. The faster the writer writes the more it's going to cost you but the faster speeds will help you in the long run be for productive. Sony's and Pioneer's latest dual format -R/+R drives that are around $250 to $350 are your best choice for the PC. That is going to be the easy item to get. The software area for DVD authoring and creation is huge! This really depends on how much you want to put into creating your vision for the DVD. If you just want to put the video from your hard drive to a DVD, the sony drive comes with Sonic's MyDVD that will get you started. It will allow you to make a DVD that just automatically plays as soon as you put it into you DVD player. But you can also add simple menus for your video if you want to. In the middle range of the DVD software products is Video Vegas+DVD from SonicFoundry. http://www.sonicfoundry.com/products/showproduct.asp?PID=810 I've tried this software out and it's a very good piece of software for even some more advanced users, it includes the great Vegas 4.0 NLE. Highly recommend this one. More expensive programs are avaliable but most people can't afford these. Only hollywood studios and DVD production houses mostly use these. And they're for the advanced users. Again... this is only a small slice of the programs out there. CreativeCow.net has some really great tutorials and forums for every user level and many of the programs I've mentioned here. Here's the link: http://www.creativecow.net/index.php?forumid=1 Adobe After Effects is great for creating menus that move seamlessly from menu to menu and can have video motion backgrounds in the static menus. I'm not going to get into After Effects relation to DVD creation futher since you'd just be starting out. Hope this helps. Post if you need futher help/clarification.