What do the + and - signs actually MEAN?

[i am x]

I'm sure that almost every person on this board knows the difference between +R and -R discs and what the advantage of each type of disc is. BUT......does anyone out there KNOW what the +and - signs actually MEAN (in reference to the discs). I've scoured the board and couldn't find one explanation for them. If anyone knows this info, I'm sure that MANY of us, (including me) would LOVE to know what they mean.

[fritzi93]

My guess is marketing. DVD-R came first, they coulda called it DVDR, or DVD(R), or DVD_R, whatever. Nothing to do with "minus". Phillips comes along and wants to plug their competing format. What are we gunna call it? Hey, how about "plus"? CLEVER. You know, bigger, better, new and improved. Don't buy that dumb minus format. Buy DVD+R!

Then again, I know nothing.

[Sifaga]

I thought it was a "Dash" not Minus ...

[lordsmurf]

I thought it was a "Dash" not Minus ...

It is. Like a CD-DASH-R, the DVD-DASH-R is the official disc of the format.

The "minus" garbage was started by the marketing department of the "plus" format.

The DVD-PLUS-R is the UNofficial rogue format for DVD burning, made by greedy companies unwilling to pay for or use the official DVD burnable standard set aside by the DVD Forum, the creators, owners and certifiers of the DVD file specs and even the coveted DVD logo. It was originally a 3GB disc made for data, at least in the labs, but that quickly died away. However, all of this does not really make it "bad" in any way.

In the end, both discs work, just different in physical specs and design.

Also the DVD-R format has a slight edge over DVD+R as far as DVD-Video compatibility. But as time moves on, this becomes less of an issues, due to things like new players, new burners, new software and new features like bitsetting.

They called it + because they wanted people to think it was better. And it almost worked.

[fritzi93]

Lotsa people DO use the "plus", "minus" terminology. I was passing by Circuit City last week and dropped in to see if they had any deals on DVD-Rs. The store "expert" comes over and treats me to a load on how the MINUS format is on the way out, PLUS is better, plays on more players , and how come I want MINUS disks if I have a dual burner? Cuz they work on my Apex, ya dope.

[Cornucopia]

I wouldn't call anybody that works at Circuit City an "expert" :P

Scott

[vitualis]

As per the other posts...

What do you call CD-R? You don't call it C-D-minus-R do you?

Before the "+" format, DVD-R was just D-V-D-R. However, when the DVD Alliance wanted to differentiate themselves, their marketing department thought that calling it DVD+R would be clever (and it sort of is).

Regards.

[jaxxboss]

If you all state that it should be speoken as "dash" R, then shouldnt the dvd+r be spoken as "CROSS R" ?

I havent read anything anywhere that the marketing gurus did this as a marketing ploy to make people think +r is better. Wouldnt it be easy to just assume that since -r was taken they just used +r ? I guess they could have used the division sign but that would have looked funny. Of course the multiplication sign would have just confused people with the writing speed.

[SaSi]

[quote="i am x"]I'm sure that almost every person on this board knows the difference between +R and -R discs and what the advantage of each type of disc is. quote]

I REALLY wonder what the difference between the two is.

Not in marketing hype and stuff, but in real technical terms.

For example, what is the laser wavelength requirements on each, is there a physical difference in the media, etc.

I have skimmed through the official boards and I see a lot of hype on each. Nothing to do with real differences.

To me, the only difference between the two is like between AMD and Intel on CPUs. They are both fast and perhaps you need bigger fans with AMD, but Intel chips are a hell to overclock, and companies tell you that AMD processors are not very compatible, but people go out and buy AMD because there is more MIPS / $ (or should I say BIPS nowadays - for Billion).

To go back to DVDRs, I find +Rs easier to burn (more compatible with my SONY) and -Rs easier to play (more compatible with DVD-ROMs and set top players). Isn't it funny?

[SunMaster]

There's a link here http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/113 which gets a tad technical about the hows and whys. I bookmarked it when I was trying to find out what the difference was.

I have no idea whether the article writer is correct though, and I myself use mostly DVD-R(W)