DVD -R

[mickthemonarch]

I apologise for the basic nature of this question, but I haven't been able to find the answer.

I always assumed that you could record once onto a DVD -R. That's what makes it different to a DVD -RW.

However I found using my Panasonic DVD Recorder dubbing facility that I could record one title, stop the dubbing, then record another.

If a DVD -R can do that, what else can a DVD -RW do?

[guns1inger]

What you are doing is multi-session recording. This has been around since the CDR days. So long as you don't finalise the disc, you can add to it until it is full. Note : add to it. Also note : not all players read anything after the first session.

A DVD RW, on the otherhand, can be scrubbed and re-written in it's entirety.

[mickthemonarch]

Many thanks, that's better in both cases than I had realised.

DVD manufacturers would do themselves a favour if they made these things a bit clearer to novices like me.

[StuR]

You can also use it more like a harddrive if its a RW- in VR mode. Panasonic use the RAM disk in VR mode though. Be careful as I've read that RAM disks are delicate so don't touch the disc surface (round the edge is best) but I think that goes for all DVDs too. Probably the biggest cause of disc faults are scratches and marks.
Cheers