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Can anyone help me with this? I recently installed a DVD burner on my mom's computer, and when she went to buy recordable DVD's, she called me to ask what the difference is. Only problem is, I had no idea.

DVD+R disks will not work on DVD-R burners and vice versa. I've learnt this the hard way.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Thanks a lot!

Is there any difference in quality and performance between the two, or are they pretty much the same? Other than the incompatibility, of course.

Pretty much exactly the same.

I'm not certain about it but IIRC (read it in a computer magazine a while back), DVD+R is supposed to be better when it comes to data, and DVD-R is better for playback.

I am told the technical difference between the two, is one rotates in the opposite direction to the other

The same difference between VCR and Betamax.

Don't worry about it. Most drives nowadays will read either type and only write to one (I think it's + but I cant remember) - but to be safe, check the description before you buy.

Essentially, DVD-R is split into different subtypes depending on whether you're a consumer or author ([G] and [A] formats), and is oriented towards recording video. Compatibility with set-top units is supposedly higher as a result, but is also supposedly less optimal for data. DVD+R, however, was intended to be a multipurpose format from the start, with provisions for both data and video. In the end, despite the physical differences in disc design, there's not much of a practical difference between the formats except that you can't write one type of disc in the other type of drive (though +R has much more reliable multisession writing, in my own experience). Most drives made recently will read both formats and will write to one (usually -R if for a Mac, and +R if a PC).

They are just different specifications using the same basic media DVD. Don't worry about it though, most dvd burners are made for both and alot of dvd players can read from both too.

Datana wrote:Essentially, DVD-R is split into different subtypes depending on whether you're a consumer or author ([G] and [A] formats), and is oriented towards recording video. Compatibility with set-top units is supposedly higher as a result, but is also supposedly less optimal for data. DVD+R, however, was intended to be a multipurpose format from the start, with provisions for both data and video. In the end, despite the physical differences in disc design, there's not much of a practical difference between the formats except that you can't write one type of disc in the other type of drive (though +R has much more reliable multisession writing, in my own experience). Most drives made recently will read both formats and will write to one (usually -R if for a Mac, and +R if a PC).

My PC has -R and no +. I think -R is more common.

The latest, just-released-last-week PowerBooks (Macs) have + and - burning.

I've made both DVD+R video discs and DVD-R video discs. DVD players tend to stutter and jump a lot with DVD+R discs, even when they were burned at a slower speed. DVD-R, on the other hand, has much smoother playback, likely due to the aforementioned features.

One has a + and the other a -.

Have a very nice day,

SOD

I have a BenQ drive that says DVD+R everywhere in little labels over it, and I bought a bunch of dvds that say "DVD-R", and so far I've successfully recorded about 4 or 5 (I made two coasters but I'm positive that's because I had repeated buffer underruns from trying to read from an older HD at 4x). I test them before I delete the crap I record, so they're definitely ok...

Maybe the label is misleading and the device is actually DVD-R? Or maybe it supports both formats? I don't get it, from this thread it shouldn't be working.

There are lots of dual format drives.

The main companies from what ive seen (Plextor, LG, LiteON, etc) have their mainstreme DVD Writers fully compatible with reading and writing to BOTH forms (and others as well). Maybe 2 or 3 years ago they were limited but in the last year I have only ever seen DVD Writers which are fully compatible with reading and writing both formats.

As for the differences between +R and -R: I learned it as that -R is the most compatible with set top DVD players and thus best used for burning and watching movies from and that +R was the best for raw data storage but less compatible with set top DVD players and thus not as good choice for burning movies too.

DVD+R with bitsetting to make it look like a DVD-ROM is most compatible with set-top DVD players. DVD-R and 'normal' DVD+R are marginally less compatible, in that order.

Try to buy quality media -- usually if something says "Made in Japan" it'll be good. This site is also a good guide.