DVD Format Question

I saw some DVD disks for sale today at Staples today and almost picked up some but.....They had DVD+RW and DVD-RW formats for the same price. My Sony DVD player will read and write either. My question is which format is the most widely used and likely to remain so, + or -? (I'm old enough to rember thr Beta-VHS war way back in the 1980's )

Thanks

IMSA

 

Q: What is DVD+R/+RW media? ​

A: It is just a name that company that initially design the "Plus" formatted disc use to differentiate themselves from the -R formatted industry. The +R formatted media usually runs at a higher price comparing to -R media, but the volume of sale has dramatically increase during the past few month due to the price decrease.

Q: What is the difference between DVD+R and DVD-R? Is DVD+R better than DVD-R? ​

A: Pioneer produced the first DVD writer in 1997. It used the DVD-R format. The DVD-RW came later. In 1999 the DVD Forum was formed. It embraced the DVD-R format.
In the summer of 1997 Philips lead a group (included Sony and Hewlett-Packard) that split away from other disk manufacturers because of disputed over DVD writing standards. They formed the DVD+RW alliance. Since then Dell, MCC/Verbatim, Mitsubishi, Ricoh, Thomson, and Yamaha have joined the group. They developed the DVD+RW DVD writing format and later the DVD+R format which was derived from the DVD+RW format.

CDRInfo ran some compatibility tests on both PC and home DVD drives. They found the following:
DVD-R=96.74%
DVD+R=87.32%

Today some manufactures just make either + drivers or - drivers. Others produce both types. Last September Sony produced the first drive that wrote both + and - formats the DRX-500UL. Now there are several drives that can write both formats. If this trend continues then the answer may be that both formats will continue. Also if DVD read-only drives are all made to read either then it won't make any difference which format you use.
It comes down to this:
1) DVD-R disks seem to be cheaper now
2) DVD-R disks seem to be more compatible with read-only drives
3) Current writers can write DVD-R/-RW at 2.4X while DVD+R/+RW at 4X
4) If you make disks for yourself then it does not make any difference which format you use
5) If you make disks for someone else then you make disks that they can read


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