DVD+RW and DVD-RW
 

Hi folks,

What will be the difference between DVD+RW and DVD-RW? To my limited understanding the former is for DATA storage and the latter for pictures.

However on practical application I discovered not much difference between them they can be for DATA as well as pictures. Except their burning speed, on my NEC ND-3570A DVD burner the max burning speed for DVD+RW is 8X and for DVD-RW 6X.

Please shed me some light. TIA

B.R.
satimis

In a nutshell
+RW and -RW are competive formats. DVD+RW was developed mainly by Phillips and DVD-RW was developed mainly by Pioneer. The electronics and media are different. However many writers have the capability for using both types of media.

BTW all of the info can be found on the internet.

DVD-RW and DVD+RW formats are independent of the data that is actually written to media. And as you have discovered they have different writing speeds.

More info
http://www.pctechguide.com/34DVD_DVD+RW.htm
http://www.pctechguide.com/34DVD_DVD-RW.htm

From Wikipedia:
"DVD+RW supports random write access, which means that data can be added and removed without erasing the whole disk and starting over. This means that DVD+RWs can almost be treated like removable hard disks. Conversely, DVD-RW is more like CD-RW: to change data, one must wipe the whole disk clean and start over again."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_plus_RW

I'd say the way most PC users use the media however, like an eraseable DVD-ROM, there's really no functional difference between the two. I mean, when you burn an ISO it's written sequentially regardless of whether the media is a + or -. ;)

I use drives that work with both. It seems the very fast record speeds can only be attained with DVD+ media. Eventually, DVD+ should become standard, although there are even newer formats now that promise much greater storage capacity.

Hi folks,

Tks for your advice and URL

B.R.
satimis