Rahul wrote:
> I'm always confused by DVD terminology when buying media to write
> on. There's DVD / DVD+R / DVD-R / DVDRW and I'm not even sure which
> more!
>
> Are these all really distinct technologies and formats? Or are some
> subsets / supersets of others? Or maybe its only backward
> compatibility issues? What's the best way to figure out what format
> my Laptop supports? Do they have varied sizes? Does it matter
> whether I'm writing data or movies etc.? I faintly remember there
> being lead-in / lead-out issues....
>
> I've never faced the problem that I bought some commercial movie
> etc. on a DVD and my Dell Laptop ( Inspirion E1505)'s inbuilt DVD
> reader /writer couldn't read it. Its a dual boot so are there any
> Linux-vs-Win issues too?
>
> Are these distinctions only relevant when writing disks at home as
> opposed to commercially stamped disks? Or maybe when reading on
> hardware other than "computers" (etc. DVD players etc.)
>
> Just looking for some tips to lead me out of this technology morass.

DVD - this means you cannot write to it. It has been stamped or written to
by someone else and would be how some of your applications and movies would
come.

DVD+/-R - this is two different types of read many, write once media. As
for which kind would be what you want - it depends on your purpose and what
your other equipment is able to read (like stand-alone DVD players) and
write (what you are using to write to said media.)

DVD+/-RW - this is two different types of read many, write many media (RW =
ReWritable.) As for which kind would be what you want - it depends on your
purpose and what your other equipment is able to read (like stand-alone DVD
players) and write (what you are using to write to said media.)

There is also "DVD DL" (Dual Layer) and the older/lesser used "DVD RAM"
media type. The former is like having two DVDs worth of space on a single
DVD and the latter is like an advanced version of the RW.

As far as finding out what you can write to... Just figure out what DVD
writer you have. As far as reading - other than possibly DVD RAM - most
modern DVD players in computers can read any type of DVD - it's the
stand-alone DVD players that you have to read the manuals for.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html