DVD Formats - Which is for Me?

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Karl
Kurtis

Apr. 5, 2004

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Introduction

Because the DVD rewritable optical drives have dropped in price at such a great rate, many folks including myself already have or are seriously considering purchasing a DVD burner. The prices of the drives have decreased, but the offerings for what are available have increased. With so many options, it may be hard to choose a brand, or even the media format. You may have noticed a lot of the lower price range burners are single format, or perhaps you don't know the difference between the different formats.

There are two major formats that most of the DVD burners support. As of February 2004, there were no physical differences between a -R/-RW and a +R/+RW format. While at first this may not seem like a major deal, it can be. If you are looking to purchase a single format writer you will want to make this decision carefully, of course it's usually better to just purchase a dual format burner. In this article I will be discussing more of the benefits that the DVD+R/RW format brings against the previous and still used format DVD-R/RW. I will also be discussing briefly the main benefits of each.

The type of media you should use depends on its intended use and there is one thing to keep in mind: neither format is considered "The Standard." The dominance of one format over the other will mainly be affected by how the market chooses to drive the formats. This situation is quite similar to the time the market was deciding between VHS and Beta almost two decades ago.

DVD-R/RW

The originating DVD format that was compatible with most DVD players is DVD-R/RW. DVD-R/RW supports both single-sided (4.7 GB) and double-sided (9.4 GB) media. Due to the amount of time that DVD-R/RW has been out, many more stand alone DVD player are likely to support them. This format is pretty much your everyday use format. It is advised to use this format if you intend to create home movies, and other applications that would run from a stand-alone DVD player. The DVD Forum is the official supporter of this format.

DVD+R/RW

The new format is DVD+R/RW, which happens to be based on CD-RW technology. This format is becoming increasingly popular. The compatibility rate of this format however is not as high as the older format on stand-alone players. The introduction of the DVD+R/RW was created in the intent that the format would be completely compatible across both DVD optical drives in computers, and drives in stand-alone players. The format also allows for a mix of information on the media, such as not only video, but also data files. This is not to say that the previous format cannot be used for data, it is just to say that the creators of this format felt DVD+R/RW was a much better format to be used for both purposes. The DVD+R/RW format supports both CAV and CLV writing as well as lossless linking. CAV is an acronym for Constant Angular Velocity. This feature pretty much means that the data transfers at the same speed regardless of where it is being read off the disc; as opposed to Constant Linear Velocity which is dependant on the location of the disc being read. CLV is the method of transfer used by most of the older optical drives. The introduction of CAV allows the drive unit to operate without much trouble as it does not have to regulate the motor speed. This is an improvement over CLV which can run into problems on higher speed optical devices because of the brief latency when changing motor speed. Currently most DVD+R media are capable of writing at a maximum of 8x where as DVD-R is still at a 4x specification. The DVD+RW Alliance is the official supporter of this format. A more detailed article on the plus format can be found at the DVD+RW Alliance website here.

Conclusion

Given the benefits, the DVD+R/RW format would be more appropriate for computer usage. Either format will be acceptable in most readers. When it comes to use for creation of videos, with the intent of playing on a stand-alone player, either will work with newer players. Compatibility will be lower for the plus format, but members of the DVD+RW alliance are increasing support in newer devices. Manufactures that are members of this alliance are much more likely to support the DVD+R/RW format in their products. Some of the manufactures that are a part of this alliance are: Dell, Hewlett-Packard Company, MCC/Verbatim, Philips Electronics, Ricoh Company Ltd., Sony Corporation, Thomson multimedia and Yamaha Corporation, to note a few!

To sum it up, if you are in the market for creating home movies and want to distribute them to friends and relatives, the DVD-R/RW will be your best bet. Otherwise I would recommend using the DVD+R/RW format, as the features offered for PCs are more beneficial and it is becoming more widely accepted in stand-alone players as time passes.

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15 User Comments

1 - Posted by Guest on April 7, 2004 - 2:47 pm

Woefully bad article. Never been to this website before, but after reading this, I don't think I'll be back.

>there were no physical differences between a –R/-RW
>and a +R/+RW format

Yes, there are. For a deep technical explanation of differences, this article might be interesting:

http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/113

http://www.dvdplusrw.org/Article.asp?mid=0&sid=3&a...

And considering that there are "no physical differences," I'd love to see you write DVD-R media in a single format DVD+R drive. :)

Oh, and DVD-R discs hold slightly more than DVD+R discs.

Unless you mean they both look like CDs. Then yeah, that's true. Well, they have a different color dye underneath. But maybe that's just too nitpicky...

>This situation is quite similar to the time the
>market was deciding between VHS and Beta almost two
>decades ago.

Except that there no dual format (Beta and VHS) recorders back then. And the tapes weren't the same size. And the tapes couldn't be played back in common machines. Otherwise, quite similar.

>Due to the amount of time that DVD-R/RW has been out,
>many more stand alone DVD player are likely to
>support them.

Well that, and the fact that DVD-R media is recorded in a constant physical groove like a CD-R or pressed CD. Unlike the DVD+R which uses a wobbled groove.

>The new format is DVD+R/RW, which happens to be based
>on CD-RW technology.

Interesting since the DVD+RW Alliance white paper on the physical format of the media specifically comments on how addressing features of CD-RW were not used in DVD+RW format. The only thing offhand that jumps out as really being in common is that they both use the UDF file system.

>Currently most DVD+R media are capable of writing at
>a maximum of 8x where as DVD-R is still at a 4x
>specification.

Actually, most DVD+R media is rated only for 4x. Because of the lack of 8x media available, 8x burners were released with the ability to write some (definitely not most) 4x media at 8x. As well the DVD forum has released their specs for 8x DVD-R writing:

http://www.dvdforum.org/tech-dvdbook.htm

Until manufacturers ramp up production, 8x +R and -R media will be in short supply. Currently only Taiyo Yuden (-R and +R) and Ritek (+R) 8x media is available.

Anyway, I could go on. If people really want to learn more about DVD recordable technology, then I would suggest a lot of other sites:

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/

http://www.cdrlabs.com/

http://www.cdfreaks.com/

2 - Posted by Guest on April 7, 2004 - 2:49 pm

man, that sucks - can't even add line breaks. oh well, why am i surprised?

3 - Posted by Guest on April 7, 2004 - 4:34 pm

Since you won't be back, does it really matter?

4 - Posted by Guest on April 25, 2004 - 4:29 pm

no, actually mate, he's right on all counts, you've just dumbed down your article to the point where it's pretty much wrong all the time. This is either because you are wrong and this becomes obvious through your article, or you know better, you just wrote garbage and got caught out by someone in the know.

Better luck next time

5 - Posted by Guest on April 30, 2004 - 4:01 pm

Well my dad's bigger than your dad.

6 - Posted by Guest on August 17, 2004 - 5:25 pm

I cannot believe how childish many of the posted comments are. It seems like there are too many self styled gurus with little in the way of manners and way too much time on their hands in their empty and otherwise meaningless lives. A better grasp of syntax, grammar, spelling and command of the English language would not go amiss in the posted critiques either.

I recently purchased an external DVD drive compatible with both DVD-R/RW and DVD-R/RW as well as several CD formats. Add to this the ability to write to 8x R media of both types and support for DVD+R DL 2.4X means I really need to get a handle on what is best for my intended use - both PC and Mac. I found this overview to give me sufficient information to make my media choices without innundating my brain with technoclutter. I want to use my drive - not perform an autopsy on it!

Thank you Karl for writing an informative overview (and I do not believe that you ever maintained that this was the definitve technical article), which provided the insight I need to make a qualified decision. At least some of us appreciate your time and effort. As for the rest of you - get a life!!

7 - Posted by Guest on September 8, 2004 - 4:43 am

Can't agree more. as a working photographer, I don't have the time to plough through huge great articles on the various DVD formats. The article here helped me to make an informed decision about which DVD media to use to prepare my proof discs for my customers. My new writer will write every format, and as a result of reading this, I now know the basics of when to use which type of disc. Many thanks.

8 - Posted by Guest on September 14, 2004 - 4:21 am

I searched the internet to find the differences between the two formats and found the answer in your article. I enjoyed reading the article because it was written in plain English so even a non-technical person like myself could understand. Many thanks.

9 - Posted by Guest on November 3, 2004 - 10:17 am

not as much information as i had hoped. gives you only a brief description of what it is. And i have a MEMOREX Dual Format DVD+/-RW Burner that burns DVD+R's at 16X.

10 - Posted by Guest on November 26, 2004 - 9:35 pm

A useful article - although many sites go into (more) detail about the differences between the formats, few actually suggest which format to use in which context, but this one does, so thanks for that :o)

11 - Posted by Guest on January 30, 2005 - 11:00 am

I had used the DVD+ format to making A wedding DVD for my daughter. The DVD+ didn't play on everyone's DVD players so I had to convert it to a DVD- format for those that didn't except the DVD+. I had also found that my PHILIPS DVD player would play both. Why? Kathy

12 - Posted by Guest on April 28, 2005 - 12:36 pm

You know what really pisses me off about DVD burning? Everybody seems to think that it all falls down to +/-R/RW. Most new computers that have a DVD burner can burn all formats, and many have CD burners combined. But nobody ever (seriously ever in my whole life) mentions or has mentioned DVD 5, 9, 10, 14, or 18. No package of blank DVDs ever mentions this, no computer manufacturer, no recordable drive manufacturer, no writeable media manufacturer; no one has ever mentioned that certain drives, for some reason need specific DVD number formats. I have an HP with a multi-DVD/CD burner drive. Now, according to all I've ever heard and all anyone ever says, that means I can buy any package of blank DVDs and it will work. Alas, I did that and my computer told me I need to enter a DVD 9. I tried to look this up on the internet and found about two links out of however many billion the internet can normally provide about anything that even mentions what these numbers mean. I also tried to look up on my computer and the HP website any information I could about my burner and what I really am supposed to use for it. The part that pisses me off the most is the fact that blank DVDs don't reveal any information about this. Looking at a package of DVD-Rs, you think they're supposed to work because you're DVD drive supports DVD-R, but you can't tell if you're looking at a package of DVD 5s or 9s or whatever; nor can you look up what number you need for your DVD drive.

13 - Posted by Guest on May 6, 2005 - 3:04 pm

Saad :Ontario, Canada.
Thank you for your nice explaination. It was very useful and simple. I enjoyed reading every single word. Cleared all my previous doughts about these different types of formats. Great job.

14 - Posted by Guest on May 15, 2005 - 6:24 pm

I recently purchased a DVD of an old movie. However, when I try to play it at home none of the DVD players I have will recognize the disk. Is there any way I can tell which format was used, i.e., is there any physical difference between the several formats available? Can I convert the disk I have to another format? How?
Chuck, Galena, Ohio

15 - Posted by Guest on December 31, 2005 - 10:38 am

In spite of the nitpickers, your article answered the question that I had -- Which format to use for a home DVD to pass on to friends. Another site gave me all the details, but no answers. THanks for your straight forward article.

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