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Which DVD Recordable Format Will Win?

Posted by timothy on from the anyone-else-think-of-young-frankenstein dept.

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."

2 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Standards dynamics by majid · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Usually, what happens is either:

    1. one of the competing standards wins in the marketplace by knock-out (e.g. VHS vs. Beta)
    2. there is a stalemate, followed by negotations and the development of a third "fusion" standard that is incompatible with either side so neither side can get an advantage over the other. This is what happened to the original DVD standard, or for 56K modems between USR's x2 (leading in modems) and Lucent/Rockwell's K56flex (leading in ISP dial-up ports), leading to V.90 which was incompatible with either.

    You have two less frequent variants:

    1. One company introduces a ground-breaking product but cannot impose it in the marketplace because everybody else gangs up to stymie them. This happened to IBM with GML (before SGML).
    2. One of the competing standards dies out and the other one is so badly wounded that it limps on to quasi-irrelevance. This is what happened to Sony's MiniDisc after its fight against Philips' DCC (Digital Compact Cassette)

    This leads me to think neither DVD-R nor DVD+R will win, and they will be replaced by yet another standard that will force users to upgrade yet again. The manufacturers are obviously OK with this, as this makes more profits for them, at the expense of slowing the initial acceptance of the technology. Consumers aren't complete idiots either, apart from a fringe of early adopters who are used to being shafted anyways, myself included (I own an Apple iMac with a Pioneer DVD-R drive)

  2. Another perspective... by fontus · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Working in the TV production biz, we have been looking for q cheap way to build and preview a disc before they are sent to the duplication house.

    We have a MacG4 with a SuperDrive in it, but now we are looking for a DVD player that will allow us to view a test disc. We use DVD-R General discs because they are cheap and allow us multiple tries without toasting a $25 disc and then find an error. We're thinking of going to DVD-RW because after a several burns, they are cheaper. We are also not opposed to going to +R or +RW if the cost/benefit is there.

    In the Aug 2002 issue of DV Magazine, they review the different formats (DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW but not DVD+R). They look at compatiblity w/players, disc failure rate by disc manufacturer, and other factors. It offers a good read and lots of info if you are interested. They even list players that can accept all of the formats. It has helped us make a decision on a player (Apex makes a nice model).