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Another Format War: DVD -R9 v. +R9

Posted by timothy on from the tie-yourself-to-the-mast dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "Just when we thought the dust settled on the last format war between CD-R's we see a new one brewing with DVD recordable discs. DVD -R9/+R9 will apparently be the next technological slugfest where there are no rewards for second place. With all of these new recording format options made available to the public, how can any consumer intelligently know which one to buy into?"

17 of 326 comments (clear)

  1. Do the same as w/ the current generation by digThisXL · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Buy a drive that supports both formats.

    1. Re:Do the same as w/ the current generation by dabadab · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Could you point to a burner that does support both DVD-R9 and DVD+9? Or, could you point to a drive that supports DVD-9R?
      No?
      Thought so.
      Currently there are only DVD+R9 drives on the market and that makes choice pretty simple.

      --
      Real life is overrated.
  2. A winner is you! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously, why can't these people work this out once and for all so that we don't have to buy DVD drives that support seven hundred formats?

    1. Re:A winner is you! by aksuur · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because the companies backing both formats have put too much money into developing and promoting them to just give them up. That's the way business goes.

  3. Familiarity wins by r_glen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...how can any consumer intelligently know which one to buy into?

    My guess is that they'll buy into whichever format they current use for single-layer discs.

  4. To answer your question by over_exposed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "how can any consumer intelligently know which one to buy into?"

    They won't. They havn't been able to since CD-R and CD-RW started confusing grandma and grandpa. This just adds more confusion to the casual computer user.

    --
    "The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his." - Patton
  5. Dual Format Dirves by jeffy210 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As long as they keep making +/- drives, I really don't care. Most all systems can read from either of them, and has long as you have a +/- drive you can write to either of them.

    --
    ------
    "And may your days be long upon the earth."
    1. Re:Dual Format Dirves by zakezuke · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Most all systems can read from either of them, and has long as you have a +/- drive you can write to either of them.

      Systems are not that big a deal. Sure some people gotta update their DVD's firmware, but this is trivial. I must admit that I had to buy a new drive to do DVD -/+R for my old Samsung just refused to take it, but again this was $30 and trivial. The real problem is standalone players. My Magnavox for example refuses to play +R media. It's 5 disk surround sound deal with a replacement cost between $100-$200 or so. That's slightly less trivial. People don't want to buy a new DVD player every 1.5 years just because we can't agree on one format.

      Part of the reason people buy into DVD burners is so they can burn videos and share them. In the 20th century, this wasn't a problem. If you wanted to share your home movies you just made a copy onto VHS with 100% assurance that it would be playable. While it's cool to burn a DVD in well under 1/2 the time it takes to play it, it's not cool when the best you can assure people is, "It might work."

      --
      There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
  6. Intelligent? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Since where are consumers intelligent?

  7. Exactly! by kisielk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's hard enough already as it is. I'm still wondering if I should wait for dual layer or just go ahead and buy a single layer writer now. The drives are available now, though not nearly as large of a selection as single layer, especially when it comes to external drives. Dual layer media is currently not readily available retail here in western Canada and reportedly will not be till early next year, and then there will be yet ANOTHER format? What a pain! In contrast, I've had my CD-RW for over 4 years now, it's been the same media and format the whole time. Upgrading CPU's, video cards, memory etc is not such a big deal, but constantly changing media formats for your removable disks is a hassle. A hard drive will work in any machine (even SATA ones have adapters available), but these new DVD types will likely require drives that support them. You can't count on everyone to upgrade their DVD drives every year so you will be able to transfer data to them...

  8. Re:Easy by Covener · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Get Ritek DVD-/+Rs. They're the best, most reliable quality discs on the market right now. Amazon has some deals on them right now.

    No, they're mediocre. You can get much better quality if you're willing to pay for it.

  9. Re:This is why... by Mike+deVice · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You know what's horrible? I've stacks and stacks of 3.5 floppies. And they're everywhere... I found one under a couch cushion recently. The worst part is that even though I haven't touched any of them in ages, I simply can't bring myself to toss them out. Who knows when I may need that lil collection of GIFs from 1994. And I'm too lazy to move em to CD-R. *sigh*

  10. We live in ficticious times, with a ficticious war by DroopyStonx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is no format war. I heard this same story back when DVD+/- R first came out. Guess what? Out of the 7 or 8 dvd playing devices I've ever owned, not ONE of them fails to read either format (including PS2).

    Reason being, the big companies want to sell their drives and will almost always make them both + and - compatible.

    The reason I say most and not all is because there's always some goon out there creating drives that can only read one format (for whatever reason). These drives never usually sell very well.

    --
    We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
  11. Re:Easy by William+Baric · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1) CD-R cost more than DVD-R per MB (at least in Canada). Of course, if you use only 2 or 3 CDs a month then I guess you simply don't need DVDs. For someone who use 20 or 30 CDs a month, DVDs are a much better deal.

    2) My weekly backup is about 1.8 GB. Using ONE DVD+RW is much simpler than THREE CD-RW.

    3) A 8x DVD recorder is FASTER than a 52x CD recorder.

    3) There will always be something "better". Will you wait forever ? Who cares if DVDs are obsolete in 5 years. Anyway CDs will become obsolete pretty fast too.

    Maybe you don't know this, but most DVD players can read BOTH DVD-R and DVD+R. It's not like the VHS / Betamax war.

  12. Does it really matter? by BCW2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The winner will be the group that comes in at the lowest price, just like always. Remember the Betamax vs. VHS war? Technical merit had no meaning. The people supporting VHS undersold Sony and took them right out of the game. If it works 'good enough' and is cheaper, that format is the winner.

    Perfection is a nice goal, but money drives the marketplace.

    --
    Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
  13. Magnavox by Ruie · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Try cheating and setting a code to indicate that you have plain DVD disc instead of DVD+R - chances are Magnavox will play it just fine.

    See Linux DVD+R/W page and search for "Book type".

    In my case setting book type to DVD-R for a DVD+R dvd allowed it to play fine in a drive that would not accept plain DVD+R disk.

  14. + got more support. - got less. Buy + or dual form by Nailer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    HP: +
    Microsoft: +
    Dell: +

    Compaq: - . Then got brought by HP. Now +.
    Sony: - . Now moved to dual burners.
    Apple: - . Now moved to dual burners (though IIRC some things still require - disks).