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DVD+R/W has some big supporters behind it, although the discs are about twice the costs of -R/W discs. If you're curious if it will work in your player, you might check out the Compatibility List at dvdrhelp.com. It's also a good place to find out which player to buy.

My votes go to the Koss KD305 available for $49.99 at Sears (plus option $7 service plan, unlike $30 at Best Buy) or the Norcent DP300 which is $39.99 at Amazon ($49.99 at Walmart). Both play darn near anything you can throw at them, and they're CHEAP!

I own the Koss 305 and simply love it.

What Rob wants to know -- and what I want to know -- is which format is outselling the other, not which one /.'er X prefers and which one Y has heard has more problems than the other, and not even the rumor that a certain fruity computer company is leaning toward dvd-r (or is it dvd+r, who cares?)

dvdrhelp is a nice site, but they only tell you how many recorder models do one or the other or both and how many dvd player models play one or the other or both. What we want to know is: is one recorder format outselling the other by, say, 5 to 1, because then the war is over and hang the minute technical details. You can't find this out by Googling, unless there is some secret search-term combination; I've tried.

The sales data seems to be as closely held as the crown jewels. Isn't there some industry insider reading this who will post some facts, perhaps as Anonymous Coward?

And curse Sony for starting this whole format war in the first place!

>> So what do you get? Check out the card list at www.vcdhelp.com which has a huge list of products with many user ratings which tend to be quite reliable.

Just to be helpful: here's the dvdrhelp.com capture card list with ratings, and questions to ask to work out a good capture method.

Incidentally, if you're looking at ripping music videos, is dedicated to it.

>> So what do you get? Check out the card list at www.vcdhelp.com which has a huge list of products with many user ratings which tend to be quite reliable.

Just to be helpful: here's the dvdrhelp.com capture card list with ratings, and questions to ask to work out a good capture method.

Incidentally, if you're looking at ripping music videos, is dedicated to it.

Try some of these:

• dvdrw.com - Official DVD+RW Site
• dvdrhelp - lists some differences
• dvdplusrw.org - has some info on dvd+r plus some comparisons
• DVD FAQ
• Pioneer's Info
• DVD Forum - consortium supporting DVD and DVD-R, but not DVD+R

(DVD+R's are several times more expensive).

I don't know where you're shopping, but at one online retailer I use 10-packs of Memorex DVD media are priced right now as follows:

• DVD+R $25.44
• DVD-R $25.99
• DVD+RW $30.61
• DVD-RW $44.99

That's right: DVD+R is actually cheaper than DVD-R. DVD-RW is almost 50% more expensive than DVD+RW while also lacking some DVD+RW features like defect management and lossless linking, and being very slightly less compatible with consumer A/V gear (dvdrhelp.com).

You can get DVD-R media for $0.70 apiece if you buy a hundred or so of some off-brand that won't work in most drives. You can do the same with DVD+R. The claim that DVD+R is "several times" more expensive was never true, and is not even close nowadays.

• Speed: You can convert a two hour long DVD movie into a high quality DIVX movie within 5 hours.
• Space: Two hours long of DVD quality fit on a 750MB CD-(R)W
• Ease of use : Every try to copy a DVD? One-click DVD to DIVX ripping is a lot easier
  than having to make VCDs. (Even newbie guides can be a little cumbersome)
• Cost : Ever price out DVDRs? They're hella expensive. Compare that to, say, a 100 pack of CDRs after rebate.

This brings up an interesting point

I was just looking for a player that could handle DivX and happened across this page of comments from users who already have one of these units. Sounds interesting, although hopefully the codec support can be upgraded by the user.

Would you frown on "format-shifting VHS tapes because I'm afraid VHS will go the way of the 8-track after my VCR has died" or "format-shifting VHS tapes because they're notorious for wearing out after a couple dozen plays"?

I realize there are legitimate reasons for timeshifting. Certainly archiving your old VHS tapes is one, as is archiving old home movies. Fine. Rip them into your PC, and then onto VCD or DVD. However, that doesn't change the fact that many people do pirate movies. It just gives them a convenient excuse they can tell themselves to help manage their guilt.

Divx 1 movies (Circuit City time-bomb DVD) don't work anymore because the license servers have been taken down. Which set-top player do you recommend for DivX 4+ movies (AVI with MPEG-4 video and MP3 or AC3 audio)?

People still relate Circuit City's aborted "Divx" with the word "Divx"? Anyway, I obviously meant the MPEG4-based DivX encoding that is popular for movies (pirated and otherwise) these days. As for players that support it, look here. Ignoring the two DVD-playing consoles (PS2 and XBox, where the XBox at least requires hacking before it'll play mpeg4/divx and so doesn't count), there's still 5 other players that support Divx, and at least one of them is in the $200-$300 price range.

Sounds like a hack waiting to happen :)

I'm not sure why, but the VideoCD format is much more popular in India than the DVD format. At least, this was true a couple of years ago when my dad was there. It could be because of the region lock, but then there are plenty of players that have workarounds for that. Note that not all players on that page support many regions, but it's a good place to find out if yours does.

Ravi

See: http://www.dvdrhelp.com/ http://www.videoguys.com (retailer but has great guides and forum) http://www.radified.com (guides to alot of stuff)

Reading reviews at
VCDHelper I picked the Canopus equivalent product over the Dazzle one. I get no dropped frames and perfect audio/video sync. I am alot happier compared to the days when I used my Matrox Marvel G400. The Dazzle is rated at 7.2/10 with 41 votes and the Canopus is rated at 9.4/10 with 85 votes.

BTW, VCD help has a bunch of Video Capture guides that seem to be better than the one in the article.

Note.. this is very Windows biased though.

Anyhoo... here it is. Enjoy.

I tried about 10 types of media and I found that just as important as the type of media was how/what you used to record. The settings in Nero are very important. If I selected UDF 1.02 I could use cheap media (less than $1) and still be able to play everything in all of my DVD players. I have 6 DVD players: a 3 year-old Sony, a new Sony, RCA TV/DVD/VHS combo, a newer JVC, an APEX and a Bluapunkt.

I purchased 5 packs of about 10 different DVD-R media and went to work. It took 2 weeks of playing with the settings and burning the same 30 minutes of video to 40+ discs but I found a low cost media that worked for me. It won't work in all the players that I have tried it in, but it works in all of mine.

My suggestion would be to visit www.dvdrhelp.com and visit the forums. Find others that are using the same DVD recorder (DVD-R or DVD+R) that you have and read, read, read.

Old7

Have you tried the DVD Player compatibility list? It will let you search for players that support whatever type of media and formats you want. I don't know how you could have checked "a ton of sites" and missed this.

Anyway, go Here.

~GoRK