Why is it that Almost every DVD standalone is......

[ajaybird64]

Incompatibile with DVD+RW? Isn't that supposed to be the most compatible drive? Most accept DVD-R/-RW. Why is that? Also, have they fixed the compatability problems with the DVD+R in the DVD+RW drives?

[ejai]

I think you got it wrong, the accepted format for DVD is DVD-R/RW. Here is a link to the DVD Forum which has chosen the DVD-r/w as the accepted DVD format. http://www.dvdforum.com/forum.shtml

ej

[tom28]

It is call the format war, the team of sony/hp/..etc.. said the opposite..that their dvd+rw is the standard for compatibilities. So the Format war like VHS, Beta, SVHS, Hi8 is on, lol.

[nick1977]

What is quite ironic though, is that the Sony RX203 desktop PC uses a Pioneer DVD-R/RW drive

Nick

[tom28]

no way, lol

[ajaybird64]

So basically, DVD-R/RW is superior, okay. I don't understand the specs on the dvdplusrw.org page about how they're saying it's superior to everything in every possible way. It's probably irrelevant anyways. At anyrate, when do you think someone will release a dvd-r/rw with burnproof, justlink, or any of those technologies?

[tom28]

I will wait and see since the dvdplusrw.org said that even without the DVD Forum's approval, they are still going forward with this standard since it is highly compatible and think that the future user base will help them.

I am skeptical on the DVD-R/RW now.....it is actually looking like the DVD+RW will win.

So, I am still waiting and see who wins........since I don't want to buy a beta max and find out VHS is the standard.

[thxkid]

uuummmm,
1980's I bought Sony Betamax - Lost, even though superior to VHS
1990's Bought Laser Disc - lost to DVD
2002 - No way am I gonna buy any DVD recorder until there is one standard, burned twice no gonna catch me a 3rd time.

[Mirror_Image]

Betamax was better than VHS, but it lost.

AC power was better (for long distance transmission) than DC power, and it won.

History is full of similar competing technology situations that go one way or the other. It's certainly significant that MS did this, but don't perceive it to be any more or less significant than it actually is just because you love or hate MS.

[Malcom]

You guys are crazy.

Apple's G4 w/ SuperDrive is *THE* platform for home DVD authoring. They made sure of this by getting Pioneer to give them the drive exclusively for a short time, and then buying it out companies like Spruce who made GOOD, USABLE dvd authoring software for the PC. Ulead and Sonic's consumer DVD products SUCK in comparison to old SpruceUp for PC or iDVD/iMovie on the Mac.

I don't have a MAC, because I am a PC person, so I waited for the drive to be available to me, and now I have a PC to make DVDs with. The search for solid authoring software is a long quest.

Anyway, my point is that:

The SuperDrive writes DVD-R/RW. If you were to put everyone who has a DVD burner in one room (they'd probably fit *grin*), I'd say 80-90% of them own a G4 w/ superdrive and hence write DVD-R/RW, not the unstandard +R/+RW formats.

I predict +R will find a home in the PC market, for backups (mp3s *grin*) and such, and -R will dominate the set-top compatible market. -R is approved by the DVD Forum, and +R media doesn't even bear a DVD logo. In the future, it won't matter anymore because new DVD players will surely be made to play either/or.

If Apple decides to hang all of their users out to dry and drop DVD-R, I'll eat my hat. For now, I'll work my way through the two packages of Apple DVD-R media that they just shipped me.

[energy80s]

Are Apple still in business???

[Malcom]

Absolutely :)

I despise Macs.. but they are truly entrenching themselves in the home video editing / dvd authoring market.

They are also making serious inroads in the professional/prosumer video market w/ products like Final Cut Pro, which is acknowledged as the BEST way to edit video on any affordable computer (non-video workstations).

Now they are going to release Final Cut Pro Cinema, which can edit 24p High-Definition video, so George Lucas could edit Attack of the Clones on a Mac.

So yes... they are very much in business, and it speaks to how much of the vcdhelp.com users are just rippers/pirates that you even asked :)

Anyone doing original digital video production is quite aware of Apple's position. In my case (PC user/video enthus), I'm worried about their position because I don't want to end up using a Mac!!

[tom28]

As a User, I Love the MAC interface or the Amiga or the Atari ST. But PC is much cheaper and so do their software. PC won. Apple trying to close their open architecture and thus lost. That is why I am using the PC.

But think about it, as a User, it really depends of the market share of the DVD+rw or DVD-rw/-r. If somehow DVD+RW format companies selling their Drive very cheap and so do the media, I will jump on it. If they do that and they gain market share, they will win, right?

The DVD+RW.org saying their format is something like linkless (I forgot what it is call), which saying it is more compatible to the DVD-RW/R and thus will be the standard. But in any case, I believe both formats are fine as long as most DVD Player support it. So if Most DVD Players will support the DVD+RW or DVD-RW/R and also the their burner is cheap, they will win right?

so, who knows, we still have to wait and see their marketing strategy.

[vitualis]

tom,

The info on dvdplusrw.org is full of crap. DVD+RW is definitely NOT more compatible than DVD-R/W. DVD-R/W is the more compatible format.

The compatibility of DVD+R has yet to be establised.

Existing DVD+RW drives WILL NOT be able to write to DVD+R media, even with a firmware upgrade.

Also, the information it has on the site about the playlength/quality thing between DVD+RW and DVD-RW is only relevant for the set-top box recorder (i.e., a VCR-like device). If you use a PC to author a DVD (as most people here would or potentially will), the only difference between DVD-RW and DVD+RW is pretty much the price and the compatibility of the media.

As for the Mac thing, please note that it is VCDHelp.com. DVD authoring may be great on a Mac, but VCD authoring is pretty darn woeful compared to the PC scene.

Regards.

[nemethmik]

If you visit Fry's, BestBuy, CompUSA or any computer store in the US, the piles of DVD-R packs far outnumber the quantities of all other DVD media formats (DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM). DVD-RAM is more popular than the other rewritable formats. Apple alone sold more than 2 million copies of DVD-R (I'm a Wintel PC user and still am buying Apple DVD-R discs). The price of a DVD-R disc is affordable ($2 - $5). The best price/performance DVD burner is Panasonic LF-D311 with its sub $300 price (and it's really a high quality burner). It writes DVD-R discs. DVD-R is compatible enough to be the winner write-once standard. It is here and it works. I found so far no standalone DVD player that did not work with DVD-R discs burned with the Panasonic DVD burner.
In my opinion there is no war. Today DVD-R is the de facto standard. The DVD+RW presence is marginal compared to DVD-R. DVD+R does not exist. DVD+RW, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM are only for DVD authors and computer data; normally, noone distributes DVDs on expensive rewritable discs.

[nemethmik]

The current DVD+RW burners do not support DVD write-once media; what a nonsense!

[nemethmik]

Keep in mind that the number of DVD-R disks burned so far are so abundant that everybody expects from a new DVD device to support at least DVD-R.

[Faustus]

I just ordered the DVR-104 about 2 hours ago, I look at is this way, If I burn a DVD-R disk (data) on my new burner can I read it on my Computer? Yes, I can also read it on my friends computer as he has a fairly recent DVD drive. If I burn a Movie can it be read on my Player? Yes, I have a model that supports it. So if I can read my movies and data then who cares which format wins? Because the one I have does everything I want.

But the +RW drives seem more expensive and do not support burning as many formats... I think its doomed to fail, to many people are slowly starting to adopt the -RW standard and its gonna be an uphill battle for them.

[tom28]

http://forum.vcdhelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=86784

The above is interesting in the fact that Microsoft is support the DVD+RW format.