What is the difference between a DVD-R and a CD-R?

Question

Which is best for backing up QuickBooks data file? Which is best for recording photos to mail to my Dad? Which is best for making music CDs for my car?

Answer 1

Backing up Quick Books = CD-R

Recording Photos = CD-R

Making Music Cd's = CD-R

DVD-R would be used mostly for Backing up huge amounts of data like your hard drive. but its mostly used for Burning/Backing up movies. but if you have a huge amount of Photos... in the thousands... or more than 700 megs worth... you can put those photos on DVD-R... but you'll have to make sure your Dad also at least has a DVD-ROM or DVD-Burner in his PC.

but i think your best bet is to stick with CD-R :D

hope this was helpful

****Additional Info****
if your CD player in your vehicle supports Mp3's .. you could make a CD-R with anywhere from 150 to 200 songs instead of 15 to 20 songs... :D.. and if your CD player in the car does support MP3's then all you gotta do is burn a CD-R full of Mp3's using the "Make A DATA CD" option.. and NOT the make an Mp3 CD... trust me... :D that way you can fit 15 to 20 albums onto one CD-R... that should keep you going on long road trips.

anyway.. hope this info helps you.

Answer 2

The CD-R and DVD-R media is different and you can't make a CD out of a DVD. So right there, if you want to make a music CD for your car, you NEED a CD-R. Any DVD drive will read CDs, so for sending the files to your dad, you should use CDs UNLESS he has a DVD drive. AND unless you are sending 500 or more pictures FREQUENTLY. For backing up QuickBooks, I've never seen a Quickbooks file larger than 350 MB - a CD can handle twice that.

CD-Rs are cheaper than DVD-Rs, so for backups, I typically suggest CD-Rs anyway.

Frankly, given the price of DVD-R drives, I would suggest getting a DVD+/-RW drive. They burn CDs as well. This way you can burn whatever is most appropriate for the situation.

Answer 3

The difference is the amount of data they will hold. A CD will hold approx. 700 Megabytes of data where a DVD will hold about 4.7 Gigabytes (which is about 4800 Megabytes). There are also dual layer DVD's which can hold twice that amount.

Almost any QuickBooks file can be backed up on a CD. As to your picture and music collection, it depends on how big it is...

Answer 4

A DVD is like what you would play in a movie DVD player. A DVD will hold several gigabytes of data, while a CD will only hold 700 megabytes max (1024MB = 1GB). And you HAVE to have a DVD drive in your computer to read DVDs. Not all computers have them, but most recent ones will. You have to have a DVD burner to burn DVDs also.

For your car, you would need to use a CD-R. For all three things on your list, a CD-R should be fine.

Answer 5

MUch, if were talking about a DVD its mostly used for movies, and somehow theres more room on the aldvd-r than the cd r. as in only 80 Min on a cd and over a few hours on the dvd, possible 5-6 hours of music, but with dvd-r and dvd +r theres no real diffrence, ive herd one is cheap made, but any of them can be cheap made, although if your DVD burner is a + burner and you have - dvd's then its not gonna work, weird? oh yah and theres a price diffrence, cdr's run about 13.00 for 50 when dvd r's good ones run about 25 bucks for 50

Answer 6

CD-Rs have a single layer data sheet which info is burned to, which (on most CD-R Disks) is limited to roughly 700MB. DVD-R disks have multiple layers, but require a DVD specific Optical assembly to read past the first layer, to read the second layer. Standard DVD-R disks are 4.7GB, or you can go DUAL Layer and get 9.5GB. for your use go with CDs. DVDs would be overkill on the QB and Photos, and your car will not read DVDs

Answer 7

A dvd will have much greater storage space than a cd, so it would be good for photos. Your dad has to have a dvd player.

You cannot use a cd player to play dvds, so you would need cds for that.

QuickBooks its a toss up

Answer 8

CD-R's will work fine for all the uses you mentioned....but if you don't know the difference---- do you have a DVD drive/ burner in your computer???? Also test the CD brand before you record for your car-- some don't work...try "imation" brand to burn for your car---It works for me while some expensive ones don't...Good Luck---Hope this helps...

Answer 9

DVD-R is for movies and CD-R is for recording music. We use dvd-r for photos and you can use cd-r for your data

Answer 10

You could probably do all of those on a CD-R, which holds about a half gig of stuff. A DVD-R holds about 4.75 gig, so it may be better if you have a REALLY BIG photo album for your dad.