Originally posted by wetmonkey
here is alittle more indepth on dvd burn media and its battle for which will be the standard as well as manufactured dvd standards
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvd
I still have a hard time explaining to people that
DVD-R/RW vs DVD+R/RW is not a format war but a spec war.
Beta and VHS never had compatible tapes.
In contrast, the purpose of DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW is all the same. Make discs that play in ALL DVD players out there. So it's 1 format, just 4 ways of doing it.
Some people cook dinner with a microwave, some with a toaster oven, some with a convection oven. But it's still dinner.
Some dinners are just more compatible with your taste buds than others.
If you go to +'s website, it is full of propoganda about how theirs is the only true DVD format and its compatibility with ordinary DVD players is like 99% vs. 60% for DVD-Rs. These statements are wholly unsubstantiated. I say either get the drive you have heard the best things about, or get a dual format drive that simply writes everything. I would be perfectly happy with a DVD-R/-RW drive and just skip the + from what I have heard so far on compatibility.
Where DVD+RW excels is in standalone DVD recorders. If you are buying a DVD burner as a VCR replacement (not a TiVo?
), DVD+RW gives you a lot more indexing, bite-at-a-time recording, better menus, etc. The format was designed for that purpose.
And don't worry about DVD-RAM. Any similarity to a DVD format is purely coincidental. DVD-RAM is, in my opinion, an expensive, niche market super-sized CD format which never caught on and whose discs have almost no compatibility with your neighbor's or parents' DVD players.