Is there a difference between burning video and data DVDs? I know you need to pick the right type in Nero, but what's the difference between the 2 types, and is there really a difference?

I recently burned a DVD using Roxio by just copying the VIDEO_TS directory to it, it plays fine in a DVD player and is recognized properly as "DVD video". Is this the right way to copy a DVD (we are talking home-made videos, so there's no encryption issues), or am I just lucky that it's working?

Thanks,
GK

For a DVD movie to be playable in a standalone player DVD Video must be used, aka the DVD should contain a Video_TS and an Audio_TS folder, although some players might feel comfortable with more relaxed settings. So DVD Video should be used at all times if you're talking about a movie. You can just use it and drag and drop all the contents of the Video_TS folder of the DVD movie into the corresponding folder in Nero or Roxio.

However data suh as programs, documents whatever, can be written as DVD Rom (ISO)

a dvd-video is simply a data dvd with the following requirements:

1) all dvd-video files have to be contained in a VIDEO_TS folder (all caps). an empty AUDIO_TS folder should be included for maximum compatibility (some dvd players can't play dvds without it).
2) the file system has to be UDF.