Reformatting DVD-RW, DVD+RW ?

Came across this 4 year old advice at http://dvdxcopy.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/22219

 

Good question. It took me a while to buy a DVD burner because I wasn't sure if my home DVD player would playit. Why does there have to be all this +-r/rw business. I never did come to a conclusion so I bought a burner that will work with all formats. So to add to this post, what really is the difference in +R, -R, +RW, and -RW. I understand that RW is read write, so is the only differnece in - and + the rate at which it saves information? If so, why are all burners not for all formats? And some players will not play all formats?

 

I guess it started like VHS and Beta. 2 different standards, incompatible with each other) with one standard popular, although Beta is apparently better from a quality point of view.

Onto CD's and DVD's with all the different combinations of + and -, and R and RW.

Different makers / standards trying for market domination. Most modern equipment will burn and play all formats, but read the fine print more than once, before spending $$$.

Next battle is Blu Ray and HD high capacity DVD burners and players. I think whichever one is backward compatible with current DVD's will win out for me. I forget which one, but we will have to wait and see. Bazza

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DVD-R was developed with movies in mind. The error correction codes are minimal at best, and should only be burned at 1x speed. For reliable data storage use DVD+R. Also, keep in mind that older DVD players that hook up to your TV, aren't likely to be able to play DVD+R. So, for showing movies and slide shows, you'll need to burn them to DVD-R disks. This applies to DVD-RW (good for movies- bad for data) and DVD+RW ( good for everthing but only newer DVD players can use them).
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Returned my DVD-RW's for cash refund.

No use asking most salespeople what's the difference between DVD-RW and DVD+RW. Most don't have a clue, on the technical (spec) differences.

Looked just about everywhere for DVD+RW's.
Only ones I could find were in a spindle of 25.
Why you would want 25 DVD+RW's beats me.confused

I found a pack of 5 in a local music store, quite unexpectedly, so now will try these as a weekly backup of My Documents and C:\Downloads folders.

Will label these as Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4 and End-of-month, and back up to them each weekend. Bazza

 

Another gotcha!

Don't buy 8X speed disks thinking these will be twice as good as 4x speed.

8X are for 4x-8x burning speeds.

4X are for burning UP TO 4x speed.

Carefully check out your DVD burner specs manual, to see what speed your DVD burner WILL BURN AT (maximum).

Luckily, my DVD burner, SHOULD handle either 4X or 8X dvd's.

Bazza