dvd+rw burner vs pioneer a03 dvd-r/rw?

[jal]

Any reason other than best price to get one over the other?
I have a pioneer dv333 so I think all will be compatible and scanning the 'list' of compatible players...'dvd-r' sticks out as most compatible? ALSO, since dvd-r are cheapest this maybe the way to go. I have tons of hi 8 tapes I'd love to transfer to dvd with menus and chapter points. I figure working the bugs out with a dvd-rw and than commiting to a dvd-r copy may not be a bad strategy.

I read that the ao3 only does cbr vs the vbr of the dvd+rw drives? Is this significant for what I would need.? I'm not as concerned about copying dvds but I'd like to know I could make a working copy.

Thanks for any feedback
Jack

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: jal on 2001-12-19 11:49:46 ]</font>

[jazlee]

They both doe CBR and VBR.

I perfer the pioneer do to cheap dvd-r disk. You can get it for 2.99 vs. 8 for the dvd+r disk

You decide

[jal]

thanks,
know a good place/price for the a03, and where did you get your cheap dvd-r? do they tend to be as likely to be playable as more expensive. (Like how various cd-r will or won't play on given dvd player or car stereo)

[igornt]

From my good friend CNET:

"The trouble with DVD+RW is compatibility. The media has low reflectivity; thus, it's not nearly as compatible with legacy DVD-ROM drives and DVD movie players as the high-reflectivity DVD-R media supported by the SuperDrive and other DVD-RAM/R drives. This makes sharing data or movies with friends via DVD+RW potentially problematic. The DVD+RW developers group will be introducing a high-reflectivity DVD+R media that should be readable by more drives and players. However, the DVD100i won't be able to write to DVD+R without a firmware upgrade, which HP doesn't plan on providing. At least the company doesn't try to whitewash the compatibility issue--it lists all the current drives and players that can read DVD+RW media on its Web site."

As you see, the producers of DVD+RW lied when they promised higher compatibility of their drives! I have no sorry at all that I bought Pioneer a03 even at a high price a few months ago! Go for it!

[jal]

Thanks,
just ordered the a03 for $399 from http://www.shopharmony.com.
Now I was told to only use dvd-r/rw "negative" media. Is that synonomous with 'general use' vs the authoring type?

Will the cheaper dvd-r media at http://store.yahoo.com/cd-recordable-dot-com/dvdrcdrw.html work and be as compatable as other dvd-r 's?

Anyone using usb instant video at 5mb/sec to transfer home video (8 and hi with good results?
Jack

[Xesdeeni]

Just a word about the CBR/VBR thing that the DVD+RW FAQs talk about. I think I have this figured out.

What they are talking about is REAL TIME encoding. When you burn a disc, you burn at a constant rate. It may be 1x, 2x, 2.4x, etc., and it may change as the laser moves out from the center, but in general the data rate is constant. If you are recording video from a real time source (i.e. TV) straight to a DVD, then the video will also come at a constant rate. If you are recording at CBR, then all is well. But, if you are using VBR, the data rate will change, which will cause a problem. For example, if the incoming video gets less complex (like goes to black), then there are fewer bits of data. But the burning must keep going at the constant rate, so you run out of data to burn. The DVD+RW spec allows the burner to switch off and wait for enough bits to accumulate so that it can be switched on again, and then it gets resynced with what is already burned. They call it something like "lossless linking." Apparently the DVD-R doesn't allow this.

I think this means for all of us moving home videos (or other source ) to DVD, we don't care. Maybe once there are DVD recorders trying to replace our VCRs in the living room, this may be an issue.

Xesdeeni

[alkieman]

Jal, the only thing you need to worry about is that the DVD-R media you buy is labelled as "DVD-R For General". Authoring media is still extremely expensive and is designed for professional use and for producing master discs. DVD-RW discs should be Ver 1.1 or higher.

I think Xesdeeni is right about the CBR/VBR debate. VBR is generally a more efficient way of encoding MPEG video/audio files but it is only really relevant to the real time home DVD Video Recorders that are starting to appear. Encoding a video file to VBR should produce a smaller file than encoding CBR and this is touted as one of the advantages of DVD+RW. In theory you should be able to store a bit more on one blank DVD+RW than on one blank DVD-RW. In practice however this isn't the case.

DVD+RW has also been shown to be even less compatible with existing DVD players than DVD-R, despite what Philips and the biased guys at dvdplusrw.org kept trying to tell us.

[Xesdeeni]

Don't lose the forest for the trees...

DVD-R/RW drives WILL support VBR. What the DVD+RW people are pointing out is that DVD-R/RW devices for recording REAL TIME video (a la VCRs) will not be able to support it for the reasons given above. If you are doing what we are all doing, that is manipulating video "off line," then there is no issue with VBR.

[BTW, I didn't want to enter into a debate on VBR vs. CBR. But my 2 cents worth would be that as long as VBR never uses more bits than CBR, and as long as the VBR quality is at least comparable to CBR, then saving a few bits for low-detail scenes is always a Good Thing (TM).]

Xesdeeni