M.I.5¾ wrote:
> "Bill in Co." <not_really_here@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> news:OIXbXJS4IHA.4908@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> M.I.5¾ wrote:
>>> "Rahul" <nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote in message
>>> news:Xns9AD2D4A1AAB546650A1FC0D7811DDBC81@207.46.2 48.16...
>>>> 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.)
>>>
>>> First: the easy bit. The 'R' media is write once. The 'RW' media can
>>> be
>>> erased allowing its re-use.
>>>
>>> A little more complex is the difference between the '-' discs and '+'
>>> discs.
>>> As far as you the user is concerned, except for some uses there is
>>> little to
>>> chose. Some older video DVD players will refuse to recognise the DVD+RW
>>> discs (but will recognise DVD+R). This was the result of a deliberate
>>> attempt by Toshiba to discourage the '+' format. Once rumbled they had
>>> to abandon it.
>>>
>>> For DVD-R and DVD+R, there is no practical difference other than the
>>> latter is written faster by some drives.
>>
>> AND that the DVD-R discs are more compatible with some older players.
>> (BTDT)
>
> I've already covered this point. There should be no difference. I am
> not
> aware of any player that will not play DVD+R discs (even first generation
> players play them flawlessly) unless the player's laser has deteriorated -
> but then they won't play lots of formats.

Well, that's not the only reason. Come over and see for yourself. :-)

> It was the DVD+RW that gave all
> the problems but only because players were deliberately rigged to refuse
> to
> play them.

Well, as I said in my other post, evidently there is some difference. To
recap:

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.


>>> For DVD-RW and DVD+RW there is a subtle difference in that the former is
>>> eraseable at the block level only. The latter is eraseable at the word
>>> level. This means that individual words can be erased and overwritten.
>>> It also means that if used for video, more video can be added to the end
>>> of
>>> existing video and the two played through seemlessly. This cannot be
>>> done with the '-' format.
>>>
>>> If you are planning on using packet incemental format (Nero's InCD or
>>> Roxio's Drag-to-disc), then DVD+RW will be much more reliable than
>>> DVD-RW.
>>
>> Does any truly sane person use the packet writing stuff? Too many
>> potential problems there. :-) InCD and DirectCD, thanks, but no
>> thanks.
>>
>
> Whilst I agree with you, many people do. DVD+RW discs give few problems
> with packet writing unlike DVD-RW and CD-RW. But if your drive supports
> DVD-RAM use that instead.

I'd rather just stick with the tried and true DVD-R discs, which work on
about anything.

And another side benefit is that there are NO problematic conflicts between
(or even due to any) packet writing stuff. I have BOTH Nero *and* EZCD
installed on my computer, but sanely WITHOUT any InCD and DirectCD crap
being installed.

As in, "thanks, but no thanks".