M.I.5¾ wrote:
> "Lil' Dave" <spamyourself@virus.net> wrote in message
> news:uUjWq5K4IHA.4492@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> "Rahul" <nospam@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
>> news:Xns9AD3F2E27FF656650A1FC0D7811DDBC81@207.46.2 48.16...
>>> "Lil' Dave" <spamyourself@virus.net> wrote in
>>> news:#YpoGn#3IHA.3500@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl:
>>>
>>>
>>>> The plus (+) and minus (-) are write formats. Either writer
>>>> requirement doesn't really matter. In the end, both can read both
>>>> formats if worth their salt.
>>>>
>>>> In the early days, there were DVD players for the TV that could only
>>>> read the plus or minus versions. Now, that's not really an issue.
>>>> Stamped DVDs is not an issue in any case. For both DVD players and
>>>> DVD burners, media quality and reflectivity can determine the outcome
>>>> of a readability and burner recognition.
>>>
>>> Thanks Dave! I just dug into the specs. for my Dell Inspirion Laptop:
>>> "8X
>>> DVD+/-RW Drive for Inspiron 6400/E1505"
>>>
>>> So I guess it can write to both + and - types I assume. They both seem
>>> to
>>> be equally cheap. Any reason to buy one over the other?
>>>
>>> --
>>> Rahul
>>
>>
>> Only if you're burning movies for a + or - specific DVD player for the
>> TV,
>> or, one of your share DVD buddies has a picky DVD player on their PC or
>> TV.
>>
>> I transcended from the same story of a Technics DVD player that only
>> reads
>> + media.
>
> That is the first time that I have heard of a player that reads the '+'
> but
> not the '-' format.

Same here. BTW, some older players will not read the DVD+R discs but will
read the DVD-R discs fine. (NB: I'm not talking about the RW discs here,
which you address below)

> Older players made by Toshiba* will not read DVD+RW disks but only because
> they were deliberately rigged to detect the media and then behave as
> though
> they couldn't read it. Toshiba had a commercial interest in burying the
> '+'
> format. Some more modern players will not work with DVD+R9 media (dual
> layer) because the book code was allocated after the players were made
> (but
> they didn't actually require a different book code - a mistake that was
> not
> made with DVD-R9)
>
> *Including other manufacturers' players where the mechanism was made by
> Toshiba.