The format war question has been asked many times. What is the difference between DVD–R/RW, DVD+R/RW, and DVD-Ram. Hopefully this will help those of you with these questions and concerns.

The DVD Forum supports the DVD-R/RW and DVD-RAM standard. It is made up of over 230 companies. The big names giving it support are:

Hitatchi
Matsushita (Panasonic)
Mitsubishi (Verbatim)
Pioneer
Phillips
Sony
Thomson (RCA)
Time Warner
Toshiba
Victor (JVC)

The one problem that the –R/RW community has and is apparent at this time is that only a few of these manufacturers actually make anything for PC’s here in America. The +R/RW forum has more supporters which are more PC oriented. You will notice some of the same names on both standards.

Phillips
Hewlet-Packard
Sony
Yamaha
Ricoh
Mitsubishi
Thomson (RCA)
Dell
Fujitsu

Because of this difference here in America you tend to find more PC drives are geared towards DVD+R/RW, while more standalones are DVD-R because of Panasonic.

DVD-RAM has been around for quite some time. It’s also very good for Data, but not much more then that. The only standalone DVD players that support DVD-Ram are made by Panasonic. If your intrest is STRICTLY data then this is probably the best format to use currently because of size. A DVD-Ram disc can be up to 9.4 Gigs on one side while the other standards can only be up to 4.7 Gigs.

So what are the real world differences between the disk types? They both write at the same speeds (DVD+RW now writes at 4x so it has an advantage over DVD-RW which only does 2x) so for the most part it just comes down to compatability. Check vcdhelp for player compatability to see if your player is on the list or not, and which format it supports. They have a list of pretty much every DVD player out there. Check out the user comments of others that have the same player. Sometimes a player may support a format, but not fully support it so it may have issues. Check it out here at http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdplayers.php Also please post your comments about your player there and give back to the community that helped you out. Especially if your player is new.

Most older players tend to favor the –R format while more newer players seem to support both. I haven’t seen to many standalone players that actually play DVD-RW and DVD+RW. A lot of players on the VCDHelp site claim to be DVD-RW and DVD+RW compatible when they really aren’t so be careful there.

The one advantage that I really like about DVD+RW is the ability to do packetwriting. What this means is if I am using DVD-R and DVD+R and I write to it, that’s it I can’t write to it anymore. If I am using DVD-RW I can format it and write again, but what if I have one file that I want to change? On DVD-RW that’s not really possible. I have to format the disk and reburn all the contents. With DVD+RW I can delete that one file and add it without formatting.

One other thing to watch for as far as what you buy is the price of the disks. Currently you can buy –R blanks in stacks of 100 for about .60 a disk for cheap disks. The cheapest I have seen +R discs for is 1.55 a piece for a stack of 100. DVD-R has been out longer and definitely has a price advantage at this point, and probably will continue to have this advantage for quite some time. At this point and time that is the main reason I would go with –R over +R.

For people that want the best of both worlds your in luck. Sony has a drive that does DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW. The Sony DRU-500 line (which I bought recently after my A03 started failing after several years and several hundred burns of faithful service). For more info on this drive visit here: http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=15M3Abyl8rM3JYLqBYM9CvO1uunh6aXt0nI=?Cat alogCategoryID=4.oKC0.NAQMAAADzjx39zFwA&ProductID=IKcKC0.N1DIAAADzho_9zFwD&Dept=cpu

All in all what you decide to buy is a personal opinion. I don’t really believe that one format is better then the other at this point. Just research what your player supports, and keep in mind what players you have in mind for the future. I don’t think this war will be over till at least next year, and even then its doubtful.

Would also like to point out that NEC has a dual format drive: NEC ND-1100A 4X DVD+R/RW (http://support.ap.dell.com/docs/storage/p46434/en/intro.htm)

i think if you read this page the link takes you to,you will find it does not support the writing of both formats.

but correct me if i'm wrong

That would be because NEC went and changed models on me. That one was originaly a dual format drive, but now isn't and they released the ND-1300 (http://www.nec.se/templates/NEC_ProductCategory.asp?id=2878&item=4257) as a dual format drive instead.

Some remarks: Being a member of the DVD forum does not mean that you necessarily support their recordable formats. I can assure you that Philips, Thomson etc. are not backing the DVD-R/RW/RAM formats and Time Warner probably does not want any recordable DVD format at all ;)
A more accurate list of the most important companies actually supporting DVD-R/RW/RAM would be the following imho:

Apple
Hitachi (Maxell)
LG
Matsushita (Panasonic)
Pioneer
Samsung
Sharp
Toshiba
Victor (JVC)

and for DVD+R/RW:

Benq (Acer)
Dell
HP (Compaq)
Microsoft
Philips
Plextor
Ricoh
Thomson (RCA)
Yamaha

and some companies such as Lite-On, NEC, Sony, TDK etc. support both formats a list which I'm sure will increase.

If you compare price of the media you'll have to remember that the cheapest DVD-R only record in 1x speed vs. 2.4x for the cheapest DVD+R.

There are a lot of errors in dvdrhelp's DVD player list but I think the overall compability of around 85 % for DVD±R media and 70 % for DVD±RW media is not very far from the truth.

I have about 6 dvd players. None of which play DVD-RW or DVD+RW movies. I really don't believe that 70% # at all.

No SH@@. I tried DVD-RW in 4 different players (One of which was a PC DVD-ROM drive and it didn't work there either) and the only thing it has ever played on is my Cendyne(Pioneer) DVD Writer. I have never liked any of the rewritable formats for thier additional cost and significantly lower compatibility. Now my curiosity has been satisfied and until they release a rewritable format that is as compatible as the write once I will never invest in any RW media of any kind.

Make sure you read http://www.dvdrhelp.com before buying a DVD burner, its very much a possibility that your standalone might not be able to play the backups you make :(

Peace

I got a +RW with my Sony Dru500a and so decided to drop a movie onto it straight away. It worked flawlessly on my Sony 336 stand alone. I've now bought some 2* +RW Imation for data backup and these also work fine with movies. Neither media worked on my un-modded XBOX though.

Maxell and Bullpaq +R 2* caused skipped and freezing at the end of a movie and didn't work in the XB.

Datawrite classic -R 2*. 2 out of a 10 pack failed and ok on the XB.

Panasonic -R 2* Video. 0 out of 10 pack failed and ok on the XB.

Ritec unbranded (silver top) -R 2*. On my 3rd pack of 25 and no failures. All work fine on the XB and PS2 and various other makes and models of stand alone players.

I'd have to say that -R seems to have slightly better compatibility during my testing. If and when +R becomes as cheap as -R, then I may return to using those. Ritec dyed -R gets my thumbs up.

Connie.

Back to the beginning:

"The one advantage that I really like about DVD+RW is the ability to do packetwriting. What this means is if I am using DVD-R and DVD+R and I write to it, that’s it I can’t write to it anymore. If I am using DVD-RW I can format it and write again, but what if I have one file that I want to change? On DVD-RW that’s not really possible. I have to format the disk and reburn all the contents. With DVD+RW I can delete that one file and add it without formatting."

I'm interested in doing this, and have been through the wringer and now discovered that it cannot be accomplished on the Macintosh platform. So naturally I'm skeptical.
Can you confirm that you've done this? What platform, operating system and software are you using?

My application is data, and am leaning towards DVD RAM format. However I have this Sony 510A drive that I should probably use if possible.

I have just bought DVD+R/+RW drive for my pc. I was wondering can you still burn DVD-r on it or just DVD+R. If you cant bugger as i have just bought 25 DVD-R disks with ritec dye as i just didnt think until i got home what i had done, They will now have to be sold on ebay............gutted

If it could burn DVD-R discs then it would be a DVD+R/RW -R/RW drive. If it is a +R/RW only then that is what it can burn, other than CDR/W's of course.

Thought as much sorry i am such an amateur at all this, does it make really any difference

I love this site, just for the knowledge that rishardc drop at the beginning. Thank You...

What are the technical differences between the two?

Does DVD+r disc have a different way that data is stored on the disc to DVD-R.

or is the difference like NTFS and FAT 32 format HDs?

Just wondering because when any one asks me the difference, i can't explain in a single sentence.

I have a few pioneer 106s and burn to both +r and -r discs with no problems.

If you want to know all the technical details/differences then I am sure you can download some whitepapers from both sides.

Thanks m8, I'll check some out.

I take it there is no simple explanation of the difference.
If i find one i'll post it here.

this site does a good job of explaining the differences between +R and -R:

http://www.orinc.com/faq/dvd+-differences.html

Nah, looks to me like they do a good (highly biased) job of trying to push the + format.

They apear to be only talking about standalone recorders anyway.

Is packet writing on DVD+RW reliable? I don't have a DVD writer (yet anyway) so i'm juts curious. In the past, when i used my CD writer to write to CD rewritable discs, a few times when i went back to use those cd-rws (to access files/write files etc) i found that the data had disappeared (entire disc) - it happened a few times, so i completely stopped using cd-rws. Do DVD+RWs have this kind of problem?