I s there any difference in quality btween DVD+RW and DVD-RW?

Question

How do I find out which one I should use. I have no documentation about the CD/DVD player in my computer.

Thanks for you help and advice

My player is
TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-W162C
so I am still no wiser as to if it is a DVD-RW or DVD+RW

Answer 1

A DVD-R is a write-once format: once you've burned the data onto that DVD platter, the disk is forever frozen with that information. Add the "W" to that, and you'll find that DVD-RW can be erased or rewritten up to a thousand times. Seems kinda weird, but if you can do so, DVD-RW obviously has significant advantages over DVD-R. DVD-RAM was even more flexible, however, since it let you erase and rewrite sections of an existing DVD, something that you cannot do with DVD-RW.Moving to the plus side is where things get a bit confusing, because DVD+RW came before DVD+R. The plus formats have the same data storage capacity as the minus formats (4.7GB), but DVD+RW offers faster writing, better internal linking (a technical obscurity you don't have to worry about), and support for drag-and-drop desktop files, which makes it easy to compose the contents of a disk. DVD+R is a write-once format intended to be more compatible with more DVD players, though at this point it seems to be about even with DVD-R, which remains the most compatible computer-burned DVD format.

In your case, since your drive is a DVD-RW, you're effectively limited to DVD-R and DVD-RW format discs. Stay away from any of the "plus" formats, as those won't work with your drive (and being newer, they cost more anyway). As to whether you want to use DVD-R or DVD-RW, that depends on what you want to use them for. DVD-R is a write-once format, just like CD-R, and you can't erase the data once it's written. DVD-RW is rewritable, so you can use it somewhat like a 4.7GB floppy disc, for all intents and purposes. In general, I suggest that you use DVD-R for archival purposes -- stuff that isn't going to change, and DVD-RW for more fluid data. DVD-RW discs are more expensive than DVD-R discs, so that may also influence your decision.

How do you confirm what format your drive works with? One way, if you're on a Mac, is to use the System Profiler application. You'll find this useful utility in Applications -> Utilities. Launch it, then click on the "ATA" item on the list. If you have an internal DVD burner, you'll see something like what I get: "PIONEER DVD-RW DVD-106D". If it's an external DVD drive, you might find it in SCSI, USB or FireWire, depending on how you hook it up.

As far as your second question, your data-burning application definitely has to be aware of the DVD format you want to use (i.e. DVD-R or DVD-RW in your case). For Windows, you can use GEAR for burning CDs, but you'd need to upgrade to GEAR Professional Edition to be able to burn both CDs and DVDs. Toast Titanium does burn DVD-R and DVD-RW so you should be set in that department.. Though the CD created a storage revolution in its time, it has now become commonplace. Its 640 MB capacity has become a bit limiting, so much so that most makers only offer 80-minute blank CD-Rs with 700 MB. So the DVD is the answer to the big storage requirements that hard disks of 60, 80 or 120 GB now entail. DVDs have a nominal capacity of 4.7 GB, so in practice you can record just a bit under 4.5 GB.

Such high capacity also implies new applications. While the CD was intended mainly for music with very little video, the DVD is really designed for digital video and multi-channel sound. Since it hit the market a few years ago, the public has always known it to be ideal for video, so it is now quite natural for it to be presented as the storage medium for home movies that are usually filmed with digital camcorders. But in addition to video, there are now a lot more audio DVDs around. These provide sound with a better sampling rate, so the quality is higher and sounds much more like the original. DVD audio can also reproduce multi-channel music tracks.

DVD-RW

On the one hand, we have the forerunner Pioneer, who, in accordance with DVD Forum (the entity which controls the DVD name and technical aspects), developed the DVD-RW.

DVD-RAM

DVD-RAM is a sanctioned format of the DVD Forum, a consortium of companies involved in the development of DVD standards. DVD-RAM was a format originally aimed primarily as a data solution, but it is now becoming popular as a video format used by some brands of standalone (non-PC) DVD recorders. DVD-RAM is a very robust data storage solution, theoretically allowing greater than 100000 rewrites per disc.

Early PC-based DVD-RAM recorders used 2.6 GB discs (or double-sided 5.2 GB discs), but current drives also use 4.7 GB discs (or double-sided 9.4 GB discs). DVD-RAM discs are traditionally housed within cartridges, so that the media is well-protected. Originally, the cartridges could not be opened, but newer Type II and Type IV cartridges can be opened, an important feature for those who wish to read these discs in DVD-RAM compatible DVD-ROM drives or standalone DVD players. In addition, some DVD-RAM discs are now sold without cartridges.

In addition to support of the usual DVD UDF formats, DVD-RAM also allows fully integrated OS-level random read/write access similar to hard drives, with both Windows XP (with FAT32) and Mac OS X (with FAT32 or HFS+), as well as on-the-fly write verification.

The main drawback of the DVD-RAM format is its limited read compatibility by DVD-ROM drives and standalone DVD players. DVD-RAM read support with these units is increasing however, partially because of the increasing popularity of home standalone DVD-RAM recorders in home theatre systems.

DVD+RW

On the other hand, there is DVD+RW Alliance, where, among others, we find HP, Philips, Ricoh, Sony, Thomson and Yamaha. They officially claim to have developed a new format because the DVD-RW cannot handle video recording very easily. But it may be that they just don't want to pay royalties to DVD Forum.

The Differences

There is very little difference between DVD-R and DVD+R, both of which can only be written once. They are used in exactly the same way. But you have to be careful with DVD-R because there are two standards for blank disks. The one to use is marked "DVD-R for General Use." The other is marked "DVD-R for Authoring," and it only works for mastering DVD video or data because its composition is different. This sort of DVD-R is not usually available to the general public.

Things get a bit more complicated with DVD-RW and DVD+RW. DVD-RW technology is very similar to that of the CD-RW. For DVD+RW, the Alliance wanted to make video recording easier, especially for home use. So they implemented a technology called Lossless Linking. In DVD+RW video format, a video can be encoded in VBR (variable bit rate). The process of writing at a constant rate takes up a lot of room, so it has to be stopped and started again. This is likely to cause link loss, which makes the disk incompatible with read-only devices like DVD video players. With DVD+RW, the process can be stopped and started again without any link loss. This characteristic makes the format efficient and suitable for random data writing and video applications. With lossless linking, it is also possible to replace any individual block of 32 KB (write unit) with another, without losing compatibility.

For a lossless link, each block of data must be written in the right place with precision (on 1 micron). For this, the groove is controlled by a high-frequency wobble (817 kHz at n=1) to ensure that writing stops and starts in an exact position. The writing clock resulting from the groove is very precise. At the same time, addressing information is stored in the spiral groove by locally inverting the radial wobble mark. There are four addresses per ECC block of 32 KB, so the address format is reliable with wide margins of detection.

DVD-R and DVD-RW are also both formats of the DVD Forum. Both formats generally use 4.7 GB discs, although some professional DVD-R drives use 3.95 GB discs.

DVD-R is a write-once recordable format which allows excellent compatibility with both standalone DVD players and DVD-ROM drives. There are two main types of DVD-R discs: DVD-R for General Use and DVD-R for Authoring. Most consumer DVD-R burners use the cheaper General Use discs, while some professional burners use Authoring discs. The correct media type appropriate for the recorder must be used when burning a DVD-R. However, once written, the discs should be readable in either drive type. (General Use DVD-R is designed to prevent backup of encrypted commercial DVDs.)

DVD-RW media uses rewriteable discs which are rated for more than 1000 rewrites in ideal situations. The majority of standalone DVD players will play video recorded on DVD-RW discs, but the compatibility is not as high as with DVD-R.

Current DVD-RW recorders also record to DVD-R. However, the reverse was not always true. Some older DVD-R recorders were not capable of writing to DVD-RW discs (although some were able to read DVD-RW discs burned with other drives).

DVD-RW and DVD-R have heavy penetration into the professional multimedia market as well as the general consumer market. For instance, the Apple SuperDrive, found in many pro and consumer Mac computers, is simply a DVD-R/DVD-RW (and CD-R/CD-RW) capable burner.

Support of combinations of several of the formats are available in many current drives. Recorders that conform to the DVD Forum’s DVD Multi Recorder standard will record to DVD-RAM, DVD-R, and DVD-RW. Other recorders also record to both +R/+RW and DVD-R/DVD-RW. Some drives are even able to record to all of the DVD Forum and DVD+RW Alliance formats. In addition to the various DVD formats, most drives will also record to CD-R and CD-RW discs.


DVD-RAM discs cannot be used in most standalone DVD players and DVD-ROM drives, and this has historically made this format less attractive for the average home user. However, the integrated OS-level drag-and-drop read/write data support of DVD-RAM makes it very attractive for some users, especially now that most current DVD-RAM burners also support DVD-R burning for video applications. DVD-RAM capable PC drives will also be ideal for those whom already own DVD-RAM based camcorders or standalone DVD-RAM recorders.

DVD-R/DVD-RW drives currently have the highest market penetration, both with PCs and Macs. As previously mentioned, DVD-R enjoys high compatibility with standalone DVD players. In addition, the low cost of DVD-RW is attractive to many for backup purposes. Furthermore, most standalone DVD players will read DVD-RW as well, although the compatibility rate is lower than with DVD-R.

DVD+R/DVD+RW is gaining market share, and these discs appear to have similar compatibility on standalone DVD players as DVD-R/DVD-RW discs. Similarly, current functionality with these drives is similar to DVD-R/DVD-RW drives, both for data and for video applications, and they likely are equally reliable.

External DVD recorders

DVD recorders exist in SCSI and IDE formats. Most external DVD recordable drives are essentially IDE drives with USB 2 or Firewire 1394a bridges and custom housing. These drives can be purchased as complete drives, but one may purchase a standard IDE DVD burner for use in a third party USB 2 or Firewire enclosure. Besides ease of installation, an external drive offers the ability to use a single drive with multiple computers.

Many laptops now include DVD burners as the primary optical drive. If one does not have an internal DVD burner, one may use an external drive, connected to a Firewire or USB 2 port on the laptop. This port can be either built-in or on an add-in PCMCIA adapter card.

The fastest desktop burners (as of September 2003) are 8X for DVD+/-R and 4X for DVD+/-RW. Laptop DVD burners usually have a 2X maximum DVD burn speed.


Archiving

If your main goal is to archive data, the DVD-R format (Pioneer DVR-A05 or TEAC DV-W50E) is the best choice. 4x burn speed gives you your result in 15 minutes. The time saved compared to DVD+R at 2.4x (over 24 minutes) is not to be sneezed at.

Video

However, if you are more interested in video, the DVD+RW format is still the best solution. It is much more flexible to use and, what's more, it is compatible with Philips home players.

Compatibility

In the end, apart from certain technical differences between the two formats which prevent you from using a DVD+RW disk on a DVD-RW burner and vice versa, the final recorded disk (DVD-RW or DVD+RW) is read-compatible with DVD-ROM drives, home players and even DVD-RW or DVD+RW burners. Most of the branded home DVD players released within the last two months are not just DVD-RW- or DVD+RW-compatible, they are also DVD-R- and DVD+R-compatible. For older players, the compatibility rate is 80%.

Blank Disks

Never has the quality of blank disks been more important. No-name disks from Asia may cut prices, but above all, they cut quality. DVD recording absolutely must be done on good quality disks, and this means branded ones.

Answer 2

There is no real difference in quality between plus and minus media, it is simply a different way or storing information. Toshiba and DVD Consoritium set the standard for minus, while Sony uses plus. The problem here is Sony likes to license and make money from the media. Toshiba and its allies would rather make media that is more compatible all around, therefore making money off the purchase of the units, which cost about $2 to make, and sell for many times that.

To find out what type of media your machine uses you should check the documentation, but you can usually look on the front of the unit as well. There is usually a symbol like DVD-RW, DVD+RW, this is an indication of the media, just follow the plus and minus indicator. If the item is hardware on a computer you can also right click on the drive in Windows Explorer and choose Properties. This will bring up a window with an identifier for the drive. You can choose the Hardware tab for more information, you can usually find out the manufacturer, the model, and maybe the serial. All this information can be used to search for the item online where you will most likely find specifications for the item.

As well there is always the disk test, just put the disk in and see what happens, you won't hurt the unit. Most machines will say 'can not read', 'bad', 'no disk', something of that nature. If it reads one and not the other then you got a good shot at knowing the required media. Some machines will read both, this is common in higher end products lending themselves to better compatability.

And also remember statistically about 25% of disks will fail, no matter what, you may be able to read, record, rewrite, and more, but the items can fail, light, heat, moisture, and dirt can all cause a disk to fail and possible data lose, so always backup. Keep a copy in disk form, on your HDD, and online if possible, this is the only way you can ensure the continued use of your information. AND if you change the data make sure you update the backup.

Hope this helps out some

MT

Answer 3

No difference at all i use + -rw & DVDram with 4 DVD recorders
quality is no difference,i record on all formats the only difffence could be editing,which is not a problem for basic recording.

Answer 4

There is no difference in quality. It depends on your driver as to which one you should use. Some drivers are capable of using both. Usually this information can be located on front of the driver itself. my info on my driver reads DVD-ROM so i would choose the DVD-RW format ,if it wasDVD+Rom then i would choose the DVD+RW format. Hope this answers your question.

Answer 5

DVD+RW is a dvd disc that allows multiple layers for one disc where as DVD-RW only allows one layer.

-RW was released first and is cheaper.
+RW is better has features like lossless linking.

I would go for the DVD+RW.

Answer 6

Yes there is a difference but I don't know what it is. My dvd player/ recorder will only accept +. It tells me in my dvd instructions.However i just read in the argos book that most players are able to accept plus and minus but older machines will only accept one or other.Go to a store and ask them.... they should know.
I just found this
http://www.systemax.co.uk/contentModules/htm/dvd/What-is-the-difference-between-DVD-+R.htm

Answer 7

-RW works more often than +RW, try the -RW first!

Answer 8

good question! i need the answer too

Answer 9

I have no clue