What is the difference between DVDWriter and DVDReader

[zapta]

Hi
I am a complete newbie to dvd editing and authoring. Up to a week ago i only knew how to burn and author VCDs. I have quite a simple question that i can't solve..hehe..From what i understood from all the guides I could burn a regular dvd to a dvdr with a simple dvdreader. So what can I do with a DVDWriter that I can't do with the reader? Why does it cost 5 times more?

[Tommyknocker]

Sorry you misunderstood. DVD readers can read and nothing more. DVD writers can read and write. If you have a CD-RW drive with your DVD reader or writer, you can can rip movies from commercial DVDs you own and make (S)VCDs with them.

[zapta]

Sorry, I wasn't clear in my post. What I meant was a reader with a CDRW drive. That's what I saw. That I could read with the dvdreader and rip them with the CDRW drive. So the question is what does the dvdwriter do then?

[Tommyknocker]

You can make DVDs with a DVD writer, not with a DVD reader. They will only hold up to 4.7 GB per side (whether you have a single or double-sided DVD-R(W) disk). CD-R writers can only make CD-Rs or CD-RWs. A VCD or an SVCD is a CD-R(W) written a certain way.

So DVD writers can make DVDs (see the DVDR section at left)

To put a DVD movie on a CD-R, you must have a DVD reader or writer to read the DVD movie. To actually write the VCD or SVCD movie, you must have a DVD writer, or a CD-R writer.

[ZippyP.]

DVD-R: 4.7 gigabytes, CD-R: 800 megabytes
You can rip DVD's and burn to CD-R but it would take 6 of them instead of 1 DVD-R.