I'm thinking my problem might be that it just plays dvd's, but even at that it won't recognize regular dvd movies (store bought)
A DVD-ROM can not burn DVD's. And you say it won't recognize the movies. Will it play them or anything? When you put the disk in does "My Computer" say anything?
DVD-ROMs will not burn a DVD but they should play a DVD-store bought movie or a backup copy of one. Some DVD-Roms can be CD burner combos-read and write CD-R(W) and play DVDs.