digital video and compatibility

I have a kind of old video/dvd converter/player thingie which works OK, but compatibility is a serious problem.

The problem I am having now is that apparently only DVD+RW VIDEO works in my machine. I am also wondering if only the Maxwell brand ones will work.

I recently transferred a conference meeting to DVD but something went terribly wrong -- sound is almost nonexistent (no it's not like that on the original recording). I used a DVD+RW disc, but apparently I need to find one that also designates Video. Can you download firmware upgrades for standalone dvd players? Is there such a thing and how would I do it? I have decided that these companies need to get their acts together and STANDARDIZE.

For example, my digital camera shoots video in .mov format. I have to convert it with appropriate codecs to avi (using a conversion software I purchased separately) so that I can then use it ulead or windows moviemaker. My camera is not an apple product and there's no choice of format for the movie (although I can shoot raw, tif, or jpg for still images).

I'm not so worried about the dvd conversion at this point, as I'm not buying vhs and I'm not shooting in vhs anymore, either. I WOULD like to find a good opensource video editing software that works with .mov, .avi, and .wmv though, so any suggestions are greatly.

..and don't get me started on the curse of wma. I won't be buying any more music that is wma format, either. I understand the need to control legally purchased music, but when I lose music that I have paid for (new player, new computer, + old computer + old pda) I am not a happy camper. Thankfully, I still have my mp3s to listen to.