M.I.5¾ wrote:
> "Bill in Co." <not_really_here@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> news:uT2$tHS4IHA.1196@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> 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)
>>
>
> Then there is something wrong here. The difference relates only to the
> way
> the discs are written. Once a DVD+R is written, there are no different
> from
> a DVD-R (or indeed a premastered DVD). The ID bytes are even the same (in
> all 3 cases).

Evidently there is SOME difference. We know the DVD+R discs are
manufactured at least in some way different from the DVD-R discs, but
whether the problem is with reading the disc themselves, or the way it is
written to the disc, I can't say. But one thing I can say: I have on at
least a couple of occasions had discs I made using DVD+Rs that could not be
read by my older DVD players, whereas when I made them using DVD-R discs,
they worked perfectly. And yes, the DVD writer was able to write both
types of discs.

There was also some article covering this very point that I read some time
ago on the net, so it's not like it was just my case alone. The
recommendation then was to use the DVD-Rs for better backward compatibility,
and from what little I have seen, they were correct.