DVD+R or DVD-R

[Victor Hen]

I shot some video with a high def camera (at 1080i) and would like to burn to DVD to distribute to others. I have about 100 copies to make, but want to make sure all will be able to use the DVD's. Which one of the two should I use?

[yoda313]

There is no safe perfect disc unless you get it professionally stamped and not home burned. And these days as long as their players aren't among the first dvd players made it shouldn't matter at all as far as - or + is concerned.

But whichever you do buy get either verbatim or taiyo yuden discs for the best.

edit - but I'm not saying you can't make good home discs just use imgburn to burn the discs and use good media and you should get good results. You just can't expect them to be perfect on every single player as if they were factory pressed.

edit 2 - also are you keeping these in high def? Are you wanting to show it off in hd? Can they play them in high def?

You'll have to convert them to dvd format if they can't play your original files directly. You'll have to use something llke avstodvd, or multiavchd to make a standard defintion dvd.

If you want to keep it high def and they can't play it on a computer but DO have bluray players you can make avchd discs with multiavchd and the avchd disc output mode.

[Calidore]

To the best of my understanding, -R plays on everything, while +R plays on almost everything. I had a Toshiba player a few years back that didn't like +R discs, but my current Panasonic is fine with them.

I'd say, just use what you already have handy, and if anyone tells you they can't play it, use the other one.

Best,

Calidore

[mrswla]

+R media can be bitset to ROM which is the most compatible with dvd players.

[hardy]

-R was first of course, but +R is the standard now

Pretty much everything plays them both so that's not really an issue.

[PuzZLeR]

Think logically,

It was first "-". Then when "+" came out, we had "finger-crossing compatibility" since the DvD Forum refused to accept it. As a result, most current players back then either didn't support it, "may" support it, or did take a chance and add it to the support list. Regardless, all players HAD to support "-", and did.

Common denominator then? Use "-".

Today? Sure, the DvD Forum finally accepted it by 2008 as "standard" and most new players today will support both since it's simple for them to implement hybrids. But "-" is still standard too, and if any player incorporated "+" compatibility would there be any reason to drop "-" compatibility when the technology and costs are frivolous? Nope.

We've all heard of players that don't support "+", but I have yet to hear of one that doesn't support "-".

Least common denominator? Again, use "-".

Not saying "-" is better. In fact, I'd prefer "+", especially for data storage, but for wide compatibility of DvD Video as the O/P is desiring, "-" seems to be the only guarantee to burn to at the consumer level.

[Noahtuck]

We've all heard of players that don't support "+", but I have yet to hear of one that doesn't support "-".

Well there have been players that would not play Either + or - yet would play + when the booktype was set to DVD-ROM so it would be read by players the same as if it were a pressed dvd.

I have experienced it personally and there have been people that have posted here in the past years with the same issues.

Rare but it does happen, but i also prefer +R, and the only time i ever had an issue with that not working, the player would not play any dvdr regardless of what type or if the booktype was changed.

And seeing as you can not change the booktype on a "-R", that alone changes the odds and favor to +R

(edited because i read it and some of it did not make sense, that's what bourbon does to you, things get lost between your brain and fingers, LOL!!)

[PuzZLeR]

Well there have been players that would not play Either + or - ...

Thanks for pointing that out.

Sure, there might have been some, or have been some, rare or not rare. The point is that those, if I may call them "rogue", players weren't really standard. And I would say that such players served a niche crowd, certainly not the masses. (Maybe a crowd you'd appreciate... )

I can't see someone's "only-want-a-dvd-player-so-I-can-watch-movies-today" techno-phobic grandmum having one of those.

[jman98]

Well there have been players that would not play Either + or - ...

Thanks for pointing that out.

Sure, there might have been some, or have been some, rare or not rare. The point is that those, if I may call them "rogue", players weren't really standard. And I would say that such players served a niche crowd, certainly not the masses. (Maybe a crowd you'd appreciate... )

I can't see someone's "only-want-a-dvd-player-so-I-can-watch-movies-today" techno-phobic grandmum having one of those.

There are a LOT more of those players still around then you realize. Just last week we got a post from newbie who was STILL using a DVD player from 8+ years ago looking now after all these years to try to make it region free. We get posts regularly from people still using DVD players from 5+ years ago.

Victor - No matter what you use, out of 100 people there will almost certainly be a few who cannot play anything you make. They will blame you even though the real problem is that they have very old and crappy DVD players. My advice would be to burn to either Taiyo Yuden or Verbatim (anything but the Life series) and hope for the best.

[Calidore]

Think logically,

Not saying "-" is better. In fact, I'd prefer "+", especially for data storage, but for wide compatibility of DvD Video as the O/P is desiring, "-" seems to be the only guarantee to burn to at the consumer level.

This seems a good time to educate myself. What difference is there between the two that would fuel a preference of one over the other?

Best,

Calidore

[16mmJunkie]

https://www.videohelp.com/dvd has that info here







If the Light ain't Bright, It ain't Right!

[hech54]

What difference is there between the two that would fuel a preference of one over the other?

Fanboy is a term used to describe a male who is highly devoted and biased in opinion towards a single subject or hobby within a given field. Fanboy-ism is often prevalent in a field of products, brands or universe of characters where very few competitors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_%28person%29#Fanboy.2Ffangirl

[PuzZLeR]

Think logically,

Not saying "-" is better. In fact, I'd prefer "+", especially for data storage, but for wide compatibility of DvD Video as the O/P is desiring, "-" seems to be the only guarantee to burn to at the consumer level.

This seems a good time to educate myself. What difference is there between the two that would fuel a preference of one over the other?

Best,

Calidore

Maybe it's my burner, although hybrid, but I find "+" more solid and stable and less errors with burning. As well, with RW media for data storage "+" is more flexible in adding, deleting and re-inserting content hassle-free while "-" whines all the time and needs a re-burn of the whole thing. As well, if a disc is ever not finalized, or damaged, it's easier to retrieve content with ISOBuster and even NeroVision. With "-", I haven't rescued a single one.

[PuzZLeR]

@@@Noahtuck and jman98: Thank you for enlightening me.

Here's my thinking though. Players before 2008 can be forgiven for not honoring "+". It was never a rule till then and they had no obligation to it as DvD players. But they always had to honor "-".

However, I'm surprised that there are more-than-rare amounts of DvD players defying/had defied "-", which was always a standard. A player without "-" can't be considered a "standard DvD player" IMO at any point in the timeline. Either it's a flaw in design or I can't help but believe it serves a niche crowd.

Or shall I say, it's a Fanboy's player?

[fritzi93]

Well, the reflectivity (nice pretentious word) varies between pressed discs and burnt discs, not to mention phase-change rewritables. I've had players that never did play the latter. An aging player may still play pressed discs and not play burnt ones at all. In which case you're screwed.

[Victor Hen]

Since I posted the original post, I have had several more people want copies. In fact, I now have to burn 300 copies. Luckily I have access to a burner that burns 3 discs at a time. I did purchase the blank discs, and decided to get 200 of the DVD+R and 100 of the DVD-R varieties. Thanks for all who helped with this.