IRemember th good old days ? when there were CD-ROM (read only memory) then there wIN
ere CD-W's (writables) and then CD-RW (re-writables).. well, assuming nothing changed i bought a DVD-writer.. it supports DVD+R, DVD-R DL, DVD-R, DVD+RW,




DVD-RW, HD-BURN plus all of the CD writables that are so much easyer to undersand. Im only 20 years old, and im already behinf on technology !

in my Day Cell's were battery's, and mobile phones had aerials that dug into your leg as you walked.

Don't feel too bad. In my day cell's were where you recieved 3 hots and cot if you'd been naughty. And mobile phones were only in Alexander Bell's wildest dreams. But I hear ya, all the different DVD formats available, with still more to come, are a little annoying. You'd think they'd settle on a single standard and stick to it for awhile, not!

Yes, next we will have HDDVD and BlueRay to further confuse things

And I'd 42, so I'm really in trouble

wow, sorry for the format there guys, i was using links (compiling gentoo)

so whats the difference ?
which one will be most compatable for other PC Data DVD readers ?

and which one is compatable for the standalone Video dvd players ?

Actually it's a pain. Some of our older standalone dvd players will only play dvd-r and some will only play dvd+r... dvd+r are the 'best' to write I have heard, due to better burnproof systems (esp in linux), tho I think it's been fixed a bit. So I burn a bit of both depending on what I'm doing... Mostly dvd+r so far, tho I just bough a 25 pack of dvd-r to use with the dvd-r player

Most newer stuff will play both, but some cheap standalone dvd recorders will only record dvd+r...

It's all a matter of trial and error at times...

LOL

on which +/- R is better, I tried doing some research a few months ago - after reading tons of forums, usenet, hardware sites, the best I came up with is: flip a coin. seriously, for every 10 people you get 11 different opinions.

I've gone through a pack of -R Ritek media using a Lite-On 8x without a single coaster or read error so far (knock on wood) - so I guess I'll stick with -R for now.

Yeah, best thing to do is get out the manuals for all of your DVD equipment, find a common ground if you can and use that. Really it's a mess. But some DVD writers will allow you to set the booktype, bitsetting they call it. Meaning you can change a DVD+R to DVD-ROM after burning it so that almost any player will work with it.

This is only true of the +R and +RW, not - (which has the booktype hard coded into it.) But it does increase comptability with older drives (means an old Matsushita DVD-ROM drive in the other computer can read DVD+R discs now). Also, although older drives may make no reference to +R/RW, this is normally due to the fact that they predate it, but may still read + discs (my Sanyo standalone DVD player certainly does, and makes no mention of + in the manual.)

For more information on the differences, read this: http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#4.3

To summarise that section of the FAQ, the six different formats are:

DVD-R(G) and DVD-R(A): The -Rs you buy will normally be DVD-R(G). A write once format. (DVD Forum Standard)
DVD-RW: A rewritable format (DVD Forum Standard)
DVD+R: A write once format from the RW Alliance (Sony, Philips, et all)
DVD+RW: A rewriteable format from the RW Aliiance. Unlike DVD-RW, and similiar to DVD-RAM, DVD+RW can support random writing access, but this isn't well supported.
DVD-RAM: A random access format, really only useful for data storage. Extremely poor compatibility (DVD Forum standard)
DVD+R/RW DL: The only dual layered disc available is from the + camp. Compatibility is rather udbious (bitsetting _must_ be used) and the cost per disc is rather high at the moment.

Note that the DVD format is not an ISO (International Standards Organisation, not a CD image!) format, like CD-R and -RW are, so the manufacturers are not bound to sticking to a format, hence the number of them.

Neither DVD-R and DVD+R is better. It depends on your player and what disc brands you buy. DVD+R group saids it closely resembles the DVD-ROM format, but I say that is loads of BS. You can make any DVD recordable drive support both DVD-R and DVD+R by updating its firmware. My DVD recordable drive supports DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and as well the CD-R and CD-RW formats. IMHO, stay away from RW discs because they can get you in a lot of problems.

I have read some suggestions (from the guys who write dvd rw tools I think) that the overburn protection is slightly better, or at least easir, with +R, tho they managed to get -R working good as well, so no big deal. I find both work.

Also I've never had any trouble with RW, what's the problem there?