DVD-R(W) vs DVD+R(W) vs DVD-RAM

[Baldrick]

Read this

What's the difference between the various DVD recordable formats, and what should I buy?
and
DVDDemystified DVD FAQ comparison

and before you buy the writer check out our DVD Writers lists for user comments and our DVD Players compatiility list.

[Kennyshin]

Eug wrote it largely relying on the information he had acquired by April when there was hardly any DVD+R drive on the market, thus never tested even by most review sites. Even ZDNet published the first review of any DVD+R drive about ten weeks later.

[Baldrick]

if you find any newer and GOOD comparisons just post them here.

[Kennyshin]

Just an updated brief DVD recordable price comparison.

DVD-RW vs. DVD+RW vs. DVD-RAM

Drives: $235 (2x/1x) vs. $289 (2.4x/2.x) / $200 (2.4x +RW only) vs. $100 (1x -RAM only)

Media: $0.9 (1x -R) vs. $1.55 (2x -R) vs. 1.15 (1x -RW) vs. $2.8 (2.4x +R) vs. 3.9 (2.4x +RW) vs. $6 (2x 9.4GB -RAM)

Based on the lowest price of any kind I could find. Cheapest -R/-RW media by Princo and cheapest +R/+RW/-RAM media by Ritek, all made in Taiwan.

[Kusanagi]

if you find any newer and GOOD comparisons just post them here.

http://www.panasonic.com/industrial/computer/storage/dvdram/new/article/ComputerShopper_May02.pdf

http://verbatim.com/products/images/dvd-rtechnologyupdate.pdf


Kusanagi

[vitualis]

For the Aussies out there, the August 2002 edition of Australian PC User has good reviews on a number of units (DVD-R/W, DVD+R/W and DVD-RAM/R). The availability of units and pricing is quite different in Australia as compared to most international sites.

Regards.

[Kusanagi]

DVD Formats And What They Are Good For - http://www.cds.com/DVD/DVDINFO.pdf


Kusanagi

[native90210]

:P Sony plans to unveil a DVD drive for personal computers that supports both of the battling formats, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW.......

whole article is here:

http://www.idg.net/ic_939703_1794_9-10000.html

[Kusanagi]

http://www.vaio.sony-europe.com/eng/products/desktop/dvd/dvd03.html

Kusanagi

[Kusanagi]

A great article on the development and use of all DVD recordable formats, a definite read -

http://www.cdcard-usa.com/image/image.files/dvdtech.pdf


Kusanagi

[Espen_^]

[cut]

This had nothing to do with this thread. Post a new thread if you want to ask a quetion.

[Kennyshin]

http://cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=2780

Intellikey Labs:

DVD+R 90%
DVD-R 76%
DVD+RW 72%
DVD-RW 66%

Pioneer:

DVD+R 78%
DVD-R 78%
DVD+RW 63%
DVD-RW 58%

[ItsMe]

Strange thing about these result is that Pioneer actually hired Intellikey labs to do there testing for them.

[PhilipL]

Withdrawn

[MOVIEGEEK]

These reports are mixing apples and oranges,what somebody needs to do is use a multi-format drive such as the Sony DRU500 using the same
authoring and burn software on the same brand of media.

[Eug]

The DVD Recordable FAQ has been updated. (URL is unchanged - check my sig. or the first message.)

[byron23]

I've seen a lot of threads here claiming that -r and +r are virtually the same to end-user, then all come down to the media price, which favors -r format, and I think it will continue that way for a while.

Assuming most people who want to get a burner only care about copying a dvd title, be it a movie or a game whatever, then it will eventually lean to -r format. Even sony, one of the strongest supporters of +r once, seem to have realized this. Isn't that why they released dru500a?

Is this forecast too simple?

[Kennyshin]

Do most CD-R users only care about copying CD titles? You know, DVD titles are harder to copy than CD titles.

Too early to judge. Most large players have been just doing "wait and see" games so far and will soon enter the market.

There are DVD+RW media for nearly US$2 per disk and they are all recordable at 2.4x speed. For write-once media, the competition has not happened yet with DVD+R media simply because it arrived about six months later than the +RW and more so compared with -R.

Sony was not the "strongest" DVD+RW supporter. Among the DVD+RW supporters, Sony was probably the weakest link since it was the only major player in the DVD+RW group that sold both DVD-R and DVD+R drives. There were rumors that Sony was going to release such drives and players sooner or later.

It seems to me that VCDHelp has the only influential CD/DVD recording forum that still concentrates on discussing which format standard is better.

[anticowboyism]

Assuming most people who want to get a burner only care about copying a dvd title, be it a movie or a game whatever, then it will eventually lean to -r format.

How is it that -r format is better for dvd copying when general use -r media is encrypted to prevent such copying?

[herbapou]

New drives support both standards, so its pretty simple: Best price will win.

[Seraphic]

If we can look at the speed at which the CD-R /RW market increased read/write speeds in such a short period of time I conclude this.

Why pay over $350 now for duel format drives like Sony or NEC since they are still just max 4x.

THE SMART thing to do is buy a cheap one format Drive now like the an OEM Pioneer 4x at half the price.

If ever one format ever wins over another it will be just a good excuse to get an 8x, 10x, 12x, 16x, 24x,48x DVD writer.

Who really cares about future proofing a slow 4x drive?

Who still uses their old 4x CD-R ? haha no one

[energy80s]

Who really cares about future proofing a slow 4x drive?

Who still uses their old 4x CD-R ? haha no one

Well I have an 8 speed CDR drive and wouldn't want anything faster. I use 20 speed drives in work, but always slow them down to 8 or 12 speed to write with. Fast CDR writing is not that reliable and I can't be bothered with coasters!

[LanEvo7]

I agree with seraphic. Why pay 350+ for a sony dual drive when you can get an cendyne dvr-105 for 200? Assuming DVD+R wins, by the time it does and phases the DVD-R out, speeds will be 8x and higher. And frankly, I don't even like to burn cdr at 4x anymore. I don't know why some of you are getting coasters at high speeds, but I burn at 24x all the time and never have gotten a coaster because of that.

[SaSi]

Mind you about the recording speed for DVD's. Any speed numbers should be multiplied by approximately X8, since X1 for CD mean 150kbps and X1 for DVD means 1380kbps. I would not expect to see a X48 speed DVD recorder. Such speed should mean more than 60MB/sec. Well, Computer technology proves anything will be done and don't want to be quoted like Bill Gates for the famous "Who wants more than 640Kb anyway?" back in the 80's.

However, a X4 drive will burn a full DVD in 15 minutes or so. My bet is that this performance will not be broken within 2003 and we should expect X6 drives in early 2004 with X8 by the end of 2004. This means that for the next two years or so, anything we buy now will have no excuse for replacement, so better buy safe.

An extra point for DVD+RW. It burns a whole lot faster (at X2.4) compared to a DVD-RW (at X2). It's not the X.4 speed that makes the difference. The DVD+RW doesn't need to be finalized (a step that takes quite a few extra minutes on DVD-RWs.

[jacknjt]

y get da sony for more than 300, u can get da nec1000a at office max for less than 200 or 217 at sam club.

[Kennyshin]

LG-Hitachi (or Hitachi-LG) GMA-4040B can write to DVD-R(W), DVD+R(W), DVD-RAM, and CD-R(W). When the drive flood both the OEM and retail markets...

[DereX888]

I used to say "who cares what format is it ("-" or "+")? As last as it plays everywhere its all good"... but when I had sony dru-500 i made few dvd+r which i took to the largest electronics store in my area (the kind where you can browse aisles by aisles and not be bothered by pushy salespeople) i had big surprise.
Me and my friend tested 34 dvd players at this store (there were 3 more, but they were unhooked).
Only 19 of them played correctly DVD+R discs, and 31 played correctly DVD-R disc. Additionally 4 other ones somewhat start playing DVD+R discs, but had all sort of problems (froze at skip, froze at FF, etc).

I dont know where they get all those figures about wide compatibility of +R format with standalone players, but from what I could see at the stores majority of players on the market doesnt play +R discs at all, including sony's own models (lol).
19 out of 34 is not even 70%, its just barely more than half of the players. To me +R is still obscure format at this moment, and I burn only -R discs.

[andydd]

I also saw posted somewhere tht MS have said in future they will support ALL recordable DVD formats whereas b4 they firmly jumped in the + camp, which seemed rather an odd thing to do as they already supoorted the RAM format so why not - ?

[PhilipL]

Withdrawn

[andydd]

I would of thought that a large percentage of people who go out n buy DVD Writers n esp. DVD recorders just go into a shop n buy whatever is there..im sure they have no knowledge of + or - n only discover about it at a later date.