I have looked through the manual and the only time it ever talks about DVDs is in regards to video. I just want to use DVD-Rs as a larger CD-R and burn more MP3s onto them. Is this possible? The manual does not explicitly say whether it does or does not.

It does say it won't read the following:
"DVD-ROMs, DVD-RAMs, DVD + Rs, DVD + RWs, CD-ROMs
(excluding MP3/WMA files), photo CDs, etc."

 

yes. you can do this no problem.

i did this all the time with my 9965.

you will be able to fit about 40-50 cds on on dvd if in mp3 format.