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Which DVD Recordable Format Will Win?
kila_m writes: "Their is a format war going on between two recordable formats 'DVD-R' and 'DVD+R.' Both formats do virtually the same thing i.e. are readable in most DVD-ROM drives - but a '-' disk is not recordable in a '+' drive and vice-versa. We have a
review of the Pioneer DVR-A04 - the worlds best-selling DVD writer and based on the '-' format. I would like get an view of what recordable format Slashdot readers prefer or think is going to win."
I want so badly a dvdburner to backup stuff with, cd's are often to small for some of the content I'm backing up, however it would be a waste of my money to invest in one now even though I can afford it, for the fact that these are Not standard....sigh...only time will really tell.
You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!
read topic -_-!
Wow, that's not going to be confusing to consumers at all! That's like selling two incompatible fuels, one called "gasoline" and one called "gasaline". Couldn't they have at least picked a better name difference than "DVD+R" and "DVD-R"?
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Whichever is cheaper to implement will win. It seems DVD-R is more prevalent right now, and it will probably stay that way. And if DVD+R has poor compatability and no advantage over DVD-R, I don't see why anyone would use it. I haven't read much on this, though, so there may be some advantage DVD+R has that I don't know about.
With VHS vs BetaMax people had a good reason to try and choose the same format as everyone else so they could view each other's tapes. However, once a DVD-R or DVD+R is recorded it can be read by either kind of drive. So people will simply choose the cheaper one.
As long as both kinds achieve a user base (and I think they already have) media will be available for either. It's not like one of them is going to die.
Do you believe in death after life?
Whether this will have an enormous impact on whichever is ultimately commonly accepted is another matter.
I should be noted, however, that many of their other choices of things to ship with before anyone else (CD booting, built-in networking, USB) have become pretty much standard for most non apple hardware now.
Uh, except the new technologies are not yet available, but there are millions of DVD drives and set-top players already deployed...
Simply because DVD-R can be pronounced as "DVD R", while DVD+R must be pronounced as "DVD plus R". The difference between the name is minimal, so consumers will get confused and go for DVD-R instead, not knowing that DVD+R is something incompatible.
Call me crazy if you want, but I do think that it's this kind of small things that will make DVD-R win.
Unless the prices were to suddenly drop on the DVD+R burners or media, it's hard to see DVD-R not winning.
Of note - while they don't quite drive the market, they do make a difference: The Apple SuperDrives are DVD-R. I'm not sure there are any Apple DVD+R offerings.
Also of note - I bought a DVD+R drive early on, not knowing any better. I wish I'd gone with DVD-R or waited for one of the few drives which handle both.
Says the RIAA: When you EQ, you're stealing bass!
DVD-R will take the lead not because it is compatible but because it has got the greatest market share. VHS did not beat BetaMax in the specs, it beat it in the market. I have gone DVD-R/RW because it is best but it is already the main player and the rest will fall because they do not have the following. The easiest media to get is for DVD-R/RW so to buy anything else is folly.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
However, DVD+R is just as compatible with DVD-R, i.e. with nearly 100% of players.
Both rewritable formats suffer from lower compatibility because older players are confused by the media's lower reflectivity into thinking it's a dual layer disc.
However, both write-once formats use a normal-reflectivity media, and both are more or less equally compatible. In fact, DVD+R has the theoretical edge due to its lossless linking method of writing, which is more like printed DVD-Video discs.
The answer is simply, don't buy a 1st-gen DVD+RW drive since they couldn't write DVD+R discs. However, the 2nd-gen drives (HP 200i, Ricoh 5125 etc) do burn write-once DVD+R discs, and are at least as compatible as DVD-R as this list shows.
I'm getting very tired of all the misinformation and FUD floating about this issue, and I'm starting to wonder who's behind it all...
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?