I'm Scared for DVD-R

[roxics]

Every time I walk into a BestBuy or Circuit City store I see a ton of DVD+R media. But maybe only one type of DVD-R disk I can buy. Usually around $3 bucks a disk. So what's the deal? Are they just always sold out of DVD-R disks or do they prefer DVD+R? I also notice that they seem to only sell DVD+R drives at both these stores. Which is probably why their disk selection is the way it is.

But this scares me. After all I have a DVD-R drive and I'm looking for media I can buy off the store shelf. I don't want to have to mail order all my media.

Does anyone know if this is going to change? If a bigger selection of DVD-R disks are going to show up more on store shelves?

I mean really I'm having a hard time finding DVD-R media on store shelves. I thought it was the more poular format of the two and now I'm starting to think different.

Even Target stores seem to have 2 types of DVD+R media to every one type of DVD-R media they carry. Which is usually only Verbatim.

So when is DVD-R going to explode on the market?

[jacknjt]

yes there will be, but pricess gona be higher cause of less sales.

[Faustus]

BAH nothing to worry about, best buy choose the DVD+R side from the start.... at one time they had 0 DVD-R media in my local stores... not they try to have at least one brand. Try a Compusa they have some... when buying local I usually get the high quality apple disk since they are about $3 each now in packs of 5. There are usually some cheapers ones too but you can never tell about the quality of the different brands unless you look them up first.

If not comp you can also get apple disk at Apple stores if your lucky enough to have one near... oh yeah and dont forget either Fry's Electronics or PCclub if your lucky enough to live near either of those.

DVD-R is not losing this format war... neither is +, they are going to both be with us for quite a while, at least thats how its looking to me and many others.

Besides whenever you need a pick me up just click this link... heh
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=113424

[letgoofmyears]

Where I live, about the only place locally to buy dvd media is at office depot, and they sell the same for both formats, the only difference being the + media is more expensive.

As far as BestBuy jumping on the +r bandwagon, it's nice to know they saw the error of their ways and started selling -r. We all know what happened to Circuit City when they introduced the Divx machine!!!! LOL

Dude, dont worry. Like someone said earlier, both formats are going to be around a long, long time. One will eventually win out over the other, but both formats are still in their infancy, so it's going to take a while for this victory to take place.

[digitalmaster]

"Angel Cheng, a deputy sales manager for disc maker RiTek, expects that her company will continue to lower the cost of discs and predicts a big jump in disc shipments for all formats. Cheng estimated that this year DVD-R discs will fall from $8 each to $5, that DVD-RW will drop from $13 to $10, and that DVD-RAM will dip from $15 to $12. She expects volumes for DVD Forum-approved discs to increase from 33.9 million last year to 100 million in 2002 and 179 million in 2003."


"Its rival, the DVD+RW Alliance, supports the DVD+RW format. Its member companies, which also manufacture discs and drives, include Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computer and Sony."

"According to NPD Intelect, Spofford said, HP's DVD+RW drive, which began shipping in October, was the market share leader in November. A recent price cut on the drive to $499 will only help future sales, he added."[/b]
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-807602.html

[sullen]

My question is...why would you buy media off the shelf from any store? It is way overpriced at retail. I went to a "computer show" here in NY where you could get "up to 80% off" of some items. You know how much 4x DVD-R media was? $35 for 10. JUST FOR 10! I just put in an order for 100 4x at $177 at an online retailer yesterday. Let's all get out our calculators and do the math. I understand the heart of your question, that being if the media isn't on the store shelf then how will it remain a viable format. I think the people that are really doing DVDR are tech geeks like us and not everyday consumers. If it was everyday consumers I think there would be more standalone recorders hooked up to TVs. You also have to remember that Pioneer is the main force behind DVD-R and neither Circuit City or Best Buy have carried their equipment in large quantities for years. As long as you see DVD-R burners being sold and the speed goes up, then the format is surviving.

[metoo2]

Every time I walk into a BestBuy or Circuit City store I see a ton of DVD+R media. But maybe only one type of DVD-R disk I can buy. Usually around $3 bucks a disk. So what's the deal? Are they just always sold out of DVD-R disks or do they prefer DVD+R? I also notice that they seem to only sell DVD+R drives at both these stores. Which is probably why their disk selection is the way it is.

A year ago, you could only find +R disks and writers in these stores. They still don't sell -R writers, but at least they now sell -R disks. For whatever reason, these stores decided +R was the format to go with, probably because the HP +R DVD Writer came out first and was the first to be seen as a reliable writer due to HP's reputation for making good peripheral products.

Now, the stores have found there is a market for -R disks and they're probably considering selling -R writers. At any rate, both formats are here to stay for the next 2 to 3 years. Newer media drives will continue to read both + and - disks, even if support for either + or - writing is dropped.

[byrdmaniac69]

I would like to see sales figures from best buy re dvd-r vs dvd+r. I'll bet here locally that dvd-r sells better even though they stock 5 times the dvd+r selection. BB does have the sony 500 dual format locally. It's also amusing to listen to the employees tell customers the differences between -r and +r. It makes me mad to see a verbatim 50 pack of 4xdvd+r for 99.00 but the dvd-r maxes out with 15 packs for 40.00.

I submitted a suggestion email to best buy re my concerns in the -r stocking dept but I doubt it did any good cause they have the same selection now as they have had. Maxell, verbatim, memorex and fuji. BTW verbatim is across the street from where I work but does not sell out of their offices.

[jurynel]

Relax. I remember the same problem a few years ago with VHS and Beta, nobody remembers it anymore. By the time we have beaten each other blue in the DVD-R and DVD+R race, it will have been replaced by something else. Till then, we - the consumers/users/geeks/whatever - will only have to tell the suppliers what we want . . . repeatedly, if need be. The real consistent suppliers tend to stock what sells.

[Gazorgan]

Uber Geek Here,

On my LAN at home, plugged into the 'Server-O-Doom' are the Following : LS-120, Zip 250, Jazz 2 GB, WORM optical dive, 150 MB Bernoulli drive, 1.2 MB 5 1/4 floppy, 2.88 MB 3 1/2 floppy, SCSI RAID array, hot swappable IDE drive, CDRW, DVDROM, and a omni-flash card reader. The USB drives are on my primary encoding machine.

Talk to me about media debates. The LS-120 was a pretty dam good idea ( 95/98 or Linux on a boot disk! ) but it died. WORM drives were the defacto optical medi for a very long time. Let's not even get started on tape drives.

As far as +R or -R, I'm not going to worry about it. -R has cheaper media but +R is 'faster' (2.4x versus 1x cheapo disks or even 2x not so cheapo disks) and has better on the fly aspects. So what. Whatever drives the market will win. If all 'joe consumer' can buy is +R, then +R will 'win'.

Blue-ray is the way to go, once it's affordable.

[LanEvo7]

I still can't find DVD-R media at my local Best Buy. I usually get my discs online, but sometimes I run out and its nice to know that I can stop by a local store and get one or two for the time being(even thought is 2x-3x the price). Staples usually has both formats in stock.
Besides most people that buy DVD media at these big chains, don't buy in bulk. Usually the average Joe gets a 10 or 50 pack and that would last them a couple months. People like us that actually encode video and stuff finish a 50 pack in less than a month. We buy our stuff online and the average joe buys it in stores. In the end both sell about the same amount.

[AarontheRipper]

I have to agree with jurynel. As long as there is a demand for -R, they will keep making them and selling them. Neither -R or +R will go extinct because of the other. Only new technology (blue ray) will replace them once it's affordable.