When I did MY research a year or so ago, I found that DVD+R was more compatible on home players. As a result, I purchased the HP burner.

Perhaps things have changed since then, but so far I haven't made a disk that was not playable on any player.

Commerically made DVD's and CD's, are pressed, not burned. That's one reason they play on 99.99% of all burners. One of the main problems with older DVD players was they couldn't handle the difference in reflectivity that home brew discs had that commerical ones didn't. To overcome this problem most newer DVD players have TWO lasers or a single one that can haddle the difference....if they claim they support the "burnable" media.

This is a very confusing topic, I had a bet both ways and got the Sony 500 drive. So far I have one player that plays DVD +R/RW and DVD -R/RW and one that will not play anything that DVDA produces. The only time I've found a difference is with the DVD players in Macs, they seem not to play DVD +Rs.

DVD +R/RW does have more capability than DVD -R as you've no doubt already read, all I can add to that is, mostly its stuff I don't see much of a need for, who wants to edit something on a DVD?

WHat I do like about +R is I can burn it at 4x speed, I haven't seen any -R 4x disks yet so I don't know if thats a limitation of the type of media or not. If your budget is tight I don't think you'll go far wrong with a -R burner, there some bargain drives around now.

Thanks for your responses.

I just happend to see a Sony -/+ burner today. Perhaps other companies will follow.

I've had an hp 300i for a couple of months now, but it's not 100% compatible. I have an expensive JVC that doesn't recognize the discs, and a cheapo promo give-away Toshiba that plays the +R perfectly. I circulated some test +Rs around at work, and most of the decks recognized them, but some did not.

I guess the only thing to do is to just sit back and see which format prevails.

Thanks again

Both Pioneer and Cendyne are coming out with Multi-format drives soon. You may also want to check out the new Iomega Multi-format drive.

JTH

There was some background noise about the 'independent' research that proved +R is more compatible than -R.

At the moment it appears that replicators are taking dvd-r general disks for mastering but not dvd+r, at least as far as I've seen.

The question, which I've haven't found an answer for, is what is difference between a -R and a +R once it has been burned? This would seem to be crucial for those of us using dvd discs for archiving and testing dvd content for replicaton. But it appears that most of the tech writers are skirting this issue or ignoring it.

rr

I'm on my 2nd "-R" burner. I'm happier with my current one because it burns at 2 and 4x, and does RW's too, but I have yet to create a disc that works on my in-law's Sony player.

The main reason i bought a new burner is that I thought my old burner was the reason I wasn't having much success on making DVD's that played on several different ST players. So, after I got the new burner, and ebayed the old one, I read somewhere on this forum that someone said some players work better with name brand dvd-r's than generic. So, I switched to branded and have actually had much better luck. I've tried TDKs and Maxells. Still though, no go on my in-law's "high end" Sony box.

But back on subject, both times I bought burners, I stayed far away from +R's because of advice given from people who should be in the know. Now, based on other experiences, I wonder if they really were in the know after all.

My point is, it's probably six of one and half a dozen of the other.

Risenwithhim,

"...but I have yet to create a disc that works on my in-law's Sony player."

Is your in-law's Sony player on this list of 1351 DVD players that can play DVD-R discs?

DVD Players that can play DVD-R

-- Seeker --

Clearvu,

"When I did MY research a year or so ago, I found that DVD+R was more compatible on home players."

I don't know of any time when DVD+R was more compatible on home players. Did you check the DVDRHelp site? Currently they show 1351 models that are compatible with DVD-R and only 934 models that support DVD+R. That is a sizable difference.

1351 DVD players support DVD-R

934 DVD players support DVD+R

-- Seeker --

I see that for set top players, you'll never get to 100% unless the older players are specifically designed to fail after 2yrs.

I like the +RW format as much as -R,-RW. However the +R format gives me problems with, of all things, PC playback. DVDhelp.com/vcdhelp.com doesn't list the PC DVD(-ROM) players that support +R, and the results of my colleagues testing shows quite poor support on the desktop.

NEC's 1300 drive is dual format and 4x, like Sony 510AX but much cheaper.

As far as pressed/duplicated DVDs go. I think general media is still a frowned upon, even authoring DVD suit the duplication process particularly. Historically, tape streamer transfers (DLT) and more recently firewire external hard discs are used for DVD-5, DVD-9 and DVD-10 pieces. Fortunately an ISO file, or directory structure can test your menu before you press, with some last checks before you press maybe 1000 off the glass master.

I've been researching this for over a year myself, and still can't come up with a clear answer. The best site i've found so far to describe the differences is http://www.dvdplusrw.org/.

Check out the many great FAQs on that site and make up your own mind.

A couple key pieces of info i've gleaned from that site is that:
a. +R/+RW was designed from the beginning to be backward compatible with old drives
b. +R/+RW disks are physically laid out the same way as pressed DVDs, so will offer the highest compatibility, excluding the reflectivity issue.
c. -R/-RW disks have 2 modes, 'Video' mode which is the 'compatible' mode, which has siginificantly limited features (and this is the mode most likely used to determine if a drive is compatible), and a "Video Recording" mode which has all the features but is far less compatible. This is a classic example of 'fine print'. So -R/-RW support all kinds of cool features, but NOT in their compatible mode.

I have yet to find a site that provides any technical details pro -R/-RW, so i question if all the pro -R/-RW stuff is marketing FUD created by the -R/-RW manufacturers.

Technical superiority doesn't always dictate who will "win the war" (consider Beta vs. VHS), so popular support is a key factor. -R/-RW seems to be winning this war currently. One thing i find interesting tho is that -R/-RW was THE CLEAR winner a short while ago, but now more and more dual-mode and +R/+RW drives are surfacing. I'm curious why the drive manuafacturers are even entertaining the +R/+RW format, if the existing -R/-RW standard was supposedly so great and compatible. This fact alone leads me to believe that +R/+RW is probably technically superior and the drive manufacturers are (silently) acknowledging that. Other technically inferior standards like DVD-RAM are all but exinct already.

In summary:

1. If you CURRENTLY need the most widepread compatibility, but DO NOT need any special features, -R/-RW seems to win (in video/compatible mode)
2. If you need relatively widepread compatibility and special features, then +R/+RW seems to be the way to go.

(I'm not sure what the 'special feature' differences are, but the site i mentioned claims some are "making chapter stops, overwriting recordings, or adding a recording once the disc has ben "finalized".)

Hope this helps a little.

I'm still uncertain tho :)

- Jon

It looks like the dvd writer folks are moving towards supporting both; the pioneer a06 will do both; so making the choice may not be required at the burner level in the near future.

I've been having good compatibility with my pioneer a04 -R, even with my 3 yr old Sony consumer DVD. Hopefully we'll have this issue cleared up soon and not have years of beta vs vhs wars.

This is not the same as the Beta- VHS conflict. Generally speaking a -R or +R will play in the same DVD player. This was not the case with Beta -VHS.

Ed