Choosing Between DVD+R and DVD-R?

Pieroxy asks: "Most people like to make the analogy between DVD+/-R and the old VHS/Betamax/V2000 battle. This analogy is not applicable here, because whether you choose DVD+ or DVD-, you burn DVDs that are readable in most existing DVD players. Even if you buy today, the burner based on the technology that will die tomorrow, all your DVD*R will be readable in most DVD players. That said, what other argument than technical superiority can drive your choice? We know the DVD-R compatibility on existing players is better than DVD+R, we know that DVD+R as well as DVD-R have dual layers plans. What else can help me choose between either format? Are prices that different? Reliability? Speed?"

Either Or Really...

[Vaevictis666]

I got a dual format drive a while back for burning, and it seems that (up here in Canada at least) DVD-R discs are cheaper by the spindle. Or they were when I bought my last spindle...

Current pricing for a 25-disc spindle on Future Shop (from the same manufacturer) is $55CDN for DVD+R, and $60CDN for DVD-R. Another manufacturer has -R for $70CDN, so maybe +R is the better deal.

In any event, both should play in modern DVD players so if you can get a Dual Format burner you can just go with the cheaper discs at the time.

And while we're here...

[Zocalo]

...what about including DVD-RAM in the comparisons? ;)

DVD-RW
The original "standard". Major backers are Apple, NEC, Panasonic, Pioneer, Toshiba. Some incompatibilities exist with the emerging Mount Ranier standard, but there is a *huge* user base.

DVD+RW
Followed shortly after DVD-RW. Major backers are Dell, HP, Philips, Sony, Yamaha. Supposedly less error prone than DVD-RW and also more efficient, so faster drives are a more likely prospect and most pundits I've seen tend to favour this over DVD-RW. Used by Philips in their DVD set-top recorders.

DVD-RAM
The most recent standard. Major backers are Panasonic and, um... but Panasonic does use them in their set-top recorders and the format dominates this market in Japan. Much better support for random access recording (doesn't use a spiral track IIRC) so better for timeshifting, etc. Longest (hypothetical) lifespan of 100 years vs 70, and most supported rewritings (again hypothetical) of 100,000 vs 10,000 times. Most of the gains are due to the fact that a cartridge is often required, although this is starting to be phased out.

Ultimately though, if you want to use these disks in your DVD players, all the features don't matter a damn if your disks won't play, so check compatability first! I've also heard that different brands of media can cause issues with some players too. I'm waiting for now, but I think a DVD+RW/RAM drive would be the way to go at the moment. Finally LG [lgeus.com] does a drive compatible with all the standards, I'm not aware of any other drives that can do this as yet.

vs

[Tumbleweed]

DVD+ apparently supports VBR (Variable Bit Rate) encoding when recording as video (obviously, computer media files with VBR in them will save just fine when using this as a data medium). DVD- apparently does not. This may be outdated information.

DVD+ is now faster. Plextor has their (I think 708A) drive out, which supports 8X recording on DVD+R _ON 4X MEDIA_. Nobody else is doing this, certainly not on -R.

DVD+ seems to be getting faster, faster than DVD- is.

The media price seems to be at parity, though I've not done extensive checking, just take a peek every now and then at a Best Buy or CompUSA.

If I was going to buy a drive now, I'd go for the Plextor 708A, and stick with the + media (it's compatible with both + & - media, both reading & writing).

DVD-RAM isn't dead, it just smells that way. :) Okay, admit it, it's dead. Don't touch it. (and put that stick down, Billy!)

You may want to hold off until the whole burning dual-layer thing comes to fruition - I'm not sure how soon that'll happen, though I think someone just recently demonstrated it (Philips?).

I'd definitely go for the Plextor drive right now, though - it's even cheaper than the very nice Sony dual format drive, in addition to the 8X burning thing, which the Sony doesn't do.

Cheap just to get a dual drive.

[delus10n0]

A combo DVD+/-R(W) drive will only set you back like $120 nowadays, and the price is getting lower all the time. Might as well just go with the combo drive, and you'll bet set to deal with either format.

This is what I know

[doc modulo]

At the end of october the new DVD+RW drives will get a feature called Mount Rainier. Drives which are fully M.R. compliant will get a brand sticker from Philips called "easy write" or something like that.

It's a technical story but it comes down to, that you can use Mount Rainier rewritable (DVD+MRW) disks as 4.3 Gigabyte harddisks. In other words, you don't need a special burning program to put stuff on the +MRWs, you just drag and drop it to your drive icon.
Copying, deleting, everything behaves like with a floppy disk.

DVD+MRW has extra disk storage reserved for error correction so it is safe to use a DVD like a HD. However, that is also the reason why you can only burn 4.3 GB on it instead of 4.7

The DVD- standard cannot be made compatible with Mount Rainier.

Also, eventually DVD-RW will become more expensive because a disc has to be made unwritable by machine at a certain small area of the disc, you can see the lines with the naked eye. This has to be done with an extra step in the manufacture of the discs and so will increase the price. The movie industy wanted that extra feature to prevent 1:1 copies of movie DVDs.

Using a seperate program to be able to use storage is a bit strange if you think about it.

Hope I made up your mind for you.

Re:Just get a DVD+/-R/RW

[Krandor3]

Be careful on this... if the person buying it is technically savvy, fine. If they are not then do not get a combo. The reason is this - there are very big differences in what and how you burn stuff on DVD+R and DVD-R and when you can add extra sessions and when you have to finalize the DVD before you can read it in a standard player, etc. Somebody that is not technically savvy could easily get confused as to why the DVD they burned yesterday let them to X and this one today does not. I have a combo drive, but if I was reccomending one to my parents it would be a single format drive. Only get a combo for people who can and will take the time to learn the differences in the two formats so they know which is best to use for which project.