DVD-R Format

[musotechy]

Hi All can anyone help.

I have just bought a DVD writer and have been looking around the net for some good sources of blank media. I have seen on many sites that they advertise the DVD-R's for use in drives that write in 'General' format. Can someone help me out here and explain what this means. Does it mean that I can't just walk into a shop and buy just any DVD-R's. I know that there is DVD-RAM and DVD-R but I didn't realise that there were different formats within the two.

Many thanks in advance.

[lattedfw]

Which brand DVD writer did you buy?

DVD-R has two flavors: general (what you see advertised) and authoring (for mastering commercial DVDs). A DVD-R/General writer cannot write to DVD-R/Authoring media.

[SLK001]

Don't worry about the difference. An authoring recorder uses a different wavelength laser, costs about $2,000 and uses media that is usually specially ordered and costs about $15 apiece (ie, DVD for AUTHORING use). Anything that you would have bought is for GENERAL use and uses the readily available media (DVD for GENERAL use). Unless you are looking for it, you will probably never see a DVD blank for AUTHORING purposes in you life.

[musotechy]

Hi,


Thanks for the quick reply. The unit is a Toshiba.

I don't think I need to worry then, as a newbie it will be sometime before I would consider authoring and by that time there will be a whole new gen of drives.

Many thanks for your help.

Gaz

[musotechy]

Thanks for the info.

At those prices, authoring won't be an issue.

Many Thanks

Gaz