did i buy the wrong format

[vance43211]

dvd player don't last long. my $1000 toshiba (sd 8109 i think) has been gone. it did lasted about 3 or 4 year (it stopped switching to the second layer)

my $2200 pioneer dv-09

i hardly play that it much for reasons above

i got about 5 dvd players laying around the house (not count the 4 in my 2 computers)

guess what? they cheap and plentiful

i don't care if one of my cheap ones go out (actually a couple of cheap one did go out) i'll buy another one

and the cheap one really don't last so everybody with a older dvd player will eventually be buying a new one.

guess what it will be compatible with?


BOTH FORMAT.

let it die

txpharoah

[jdizzy40]

I say let's get the guy who started all this. No just kidding. I'm a Sony guy. I support both formats....so take that! I burns what I burn and plays what I plays.

[version20]

DVD-R is a non-rewriteable format and it is compatible with about 90% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs.
DVD+R is a non-rewritable format and it is compatible with about 85% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs.

whoop di do!!! a 5% difference....and that's most likely considering the older dvd players out there.... most current DVD players will either support both formats or none at all...

Couple things to consider:

1. People only buy VCRs, TVs, and DVD players a few times a decade, at most. Those are the stats. So people with "old" players still have years to go. Why do you think HDTV is not catching on faster?

2. This is technology. The compatibility list changes every day. But then again, this site is a NON-SCIENTIFIC poll, so it is actually quite a bit off. The difference is around 12% at the moment.

2. Going off the number I gave above, 80,000 DVD discs, if it were a mere 5% as you said, it means almost 4,000 of my discs wouldn't work if I opted to use +R over -R. That's not good. This is a business attitude here. Sorry.

In order:

1. Yes, but unlike VCRs and TV's, DVD is a (relatively) new format. It was not widely accepted until within the past 2 years, at which point 99.9% of players being manufactured probably already supported both formats, that share of the market is also waaaaaay larger than the share of the people who bought DVD players as soon as they were available. Your percentages in favor of DVD-R still apply only in a lab setting, not in the real world. I covered this in my post above.

2. The compatibility list does change every day, in favor of dual format capability. If you could grasp that this began two years ago, you would see why the % thing doesnt count in the real world. Again, outside a lab, your 12% means nothing.

2. (lol) That 5% would go the other way too sparky. By burning only -R you are alienating only +R capable people, guess what, they exist. 4000 customers who cant watch your DVD's. You are hiding behind a business attitude that you are basing on imaginary numbers that you are skewing to make it seem as though you have a favorable argument. Whats so hard about admitting that both formats are good? Do you have a personal stake in it? If you do, bad news, the battles over and there is no clear victor.

Its Pepsi vs. Coke at this point, and even though I KNOW Pepsi is better, I can at least concede that others may disagree, and at the end of the day, I lose no sleep and both companies proliferate. Get it?

-v20

[txpharoah]

We don't do "lab" tests. We run scientific random samples that have a margin of error of less than 2%. Our results are 14 percent with a 2% margin of error, so I said 12%. If you don't believe in samples, find yourself a statistics professor or talk to a stats man. Mine'll probably give you a headache just explaing his methods (he sure gives me one).

The +R-only machines are a VERY small minority. We probably lose a few hundred by doing only -R, but not thousands as +R would have done.

I don't care about any of the 5 formats (-R/-RW/+R/+RW/-RAM). But from a business perspective, this is why WE have picked what we picked.

You pick whatever you want, and use whatever you want. As long as it does what you want, their is no "wrong" format.

[vitualis]

I am going to lock this post since the original question has already been answered and we don't need another format wars.

My personal opinion is similar to that of txpharoah's actually so I'm going to answer some of version20's questions.

1. Yes, but unlike VCRs and TV's, DVD is a (relatively) new format. It was not widely accepted until within the past 2 years, at which point 99.9% of players being manufactured probably already supported both formats, that share of the market is also waaaaaay larger than the share of the people who bought DVD players as soon as they were available. Your percentages in favor of DVD-R still apply only in a lab setting, not in the real world. I covered this in my post above.

That is somewhat speculative really. 99.9%??

The situation is changing now with new DVD players, but not everyone that has a DVD player has a "new" one. I'm heartened to see that the new Sony units are rated as both +R/RW and -R/RW compatible which is excellent.

However, if you are talking about the DVD players sold in the last two years, a good proportion are rated as DVD-R compatible in the spec, and a few are rated as DVD-RW compatible too, again, in the spec. Very very few are rated as +R/W compatible.

For even older players, they may not even be rated for CD-R/W compatibility of course.

Now you may ask what does it matter when most players can play both anyway and that is a fair question. However, if you are talking from a business point of view where you are going to be distributing thousands of discs, even a few percentage points difference in compatibility can be (and is) a significant issue. This was txpharoah's point.

2. The compatibility list does change every day, in favor of dual format capability. If you could grasp that this began two years ago, you would see why the % thing doesnt count in the real world. Again, outside a lab, your 12% means nothing.

It [b]began[/] two years ago. That is, someone thought that it would be a pretty good idea. However, very few players sold in the last two years are actually specifically rated to be both -R and +R compatible BUT most ARE rated as -R compatible. Even now, most DVD players are not rated as +R compatible. Now, we all know that +R will almost certainly work anyway, but "ALMOST CERTAINLY" is still quite different to "DEFINITELY" -- again from a commercial perspective.

If you were making low volume disc production or making discs just for yourself, it doesn't matter, but if you are making large volumes of discs, I think it is quite a valid concern.

2. (lol) That 5% would go the other way too sparky. By burning only -R you are alienating only +R capable people, guess what, they exist. 4000 customers who cant watch your DVD's. You are hiding behind a business attitude that you are basing on imaginary numbers that you are skewing to make it seem as though you have a favorable argument.

You are obviously completely missing the point in the numbers. Yes some proportion of the people who can't play -R discs may be able to play +R discs. However, the total number of people who can't play -R discs is 5% less than +R discs. Thus, unless you are suggesting that he makes two copies of every disc, one on -R and one on +R for his customers, your argument is actually pointless.

Whats so hard about admitting that both formats are good? Do you have a personal stake in it? If you do, bad news, the battles over and there is no clear victor.

Well, I can't answer for txpharoah on this one, but I agree with you. Both formats are good. There is no clear "victor". You should be happy with whatever system you invest in.

Regards.