Don't forget the Hardware......most of the time, it's the burner itself.
A burner bought a year ago and used extensively can easily burn a single layer disc but may have trouble with the dual layered variety. Do remember that they utilize laser Last year's marketed burners can only burn a speed of 2.4 max as compared to the newer geenration burners which can burn as fast as 8X for DL discs,and it only costs a third of the older generation burners.(1.4K against 4.5K last year)
The newer discs due to the newer dyes utilized may also be not compatible with the older burners, nowadays, the adage "burn slow,burn better" does not apply.
I had 2 coasters because I burned them at 2X speed.
Lastly...the newer softwares are really good, the Imgburn and Nero 7.1(free ones that comes with the pakage) are more than adequate(in fact,the lates nero can detect avi files,and will ask you if you prefer a burn that is compatible with stand alone divx players).
I suggest also "do not allow files to be added later" when selecting burn options, might help w/ compatibility issues
This only applies to Data burns but not to Image/Iso files.