Okay, so this has been one frustrating thing to occur to me, a newbie to the DVD authoring world. -R/RW and +R/RW... I still don't understand it all... Seriously, why have two mediums that basically do the same thing?

Though, from what I've heard, -R/RW is becoming obsolete, FAST, and +R/RW is becoming the industry standard. Thank God I chose +R DVDs when I went shopping for blanks! That and the DVDs I've thrown together work on my COBY DVD player! HURRAH!

So the whole thing is fun, but very slow, and a very tedius process. I mean, for two hours of video to encode, it's like 4 hours of encoding. Then because my laptop is in the shop (with it's USB 2.0 and iEEE.1394 which are ESSENTIAL) my burner only burns at 1x because of the problems between USB 1.1 and 2.0. DANGIT! Then it takes 2 hours just to burn my DVD. So after 8-10 hours I have one DVD... I need my baby back so it'll only take maybe 2 at most.

Oh yeah, I purchase a TDK indiDVD 8x DVD+R/RW,-R/RW,CD-R/RW and all the bells and whistles for $299.99 at Best Buy with a $30 mail-in rebate. Then 50 pack of Memorex DVD+Rs for $49.99 (ON SALE!). So far I find the burner works best with Memorex, TDK, and Fujifilm. I only get coasters with Imation, so stay away!

*SIGH* If only the world of DVD authoring was as easy as CD burning ever was! SO COMPLEX!

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about 4 years ago, there were around 5 different main mediums for rw DVD.

To me, +RW, (or +R/RW as it seems to be known now) was always going to win. Other people thought so too, it's just the industry didn't see it....i guess they all wanted their standard to win!!!

+RW was always the cheapest and easiest because it's the most closely related to CD +RW.

I don't know the latest about burning them so someone else will have to carry that on.............

DVD-R/RW was created first, intended to be THE standard, and the problem was that it lacked backward compatiblity with many DVD-ROM drives and DVD players, and they'd have to basically get new drives/players. So, those who realized they could capture on this situation (Dell, Sony, HP, Philips, etc.) got together and created a standard that would be a lot more backwards compatible, and DVD+R/RW was born. Experts had tried to say that it'd lose out in the war between -RW and +RW, and they are wrong (a lot of companies are now forced to add +RW support cuz of demand).

However, this isn't over in terms of DVDs.

There's two new DVD formats... one called Blu-Ray DVD, the other just called HD-DVD. Both use a blue laser. However, HD-DVD maintains backward compatibility with DVDs and CDs, while with Blu-Ray (BD-ROM) the media and the equipment will cost a lot more.

Of course, this is all like the war between VHS and Beta.

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ThrillNetwork Webmaster/Systems Administrator -- My Official Fansite -- Get Firefox!
Everytime I ride a coaster, it valleys. I've never been on a stalled coaster or had one roll back (except Wicked Twister and what was Superman: Ultimate Escape, which does that by design).

It's so confuseing. I'am already lost in the DVD world.

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CDR's were in the same place many years ago, the only thing to remember is to get a DVD recorder that is compatible with both and you have no problems...

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Spelling corrections...CONFUSING and I'M or I AM...this is bothering me...

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Cat in the Hat Helper

Well seeing as -R/RW is seemingly out the window, I'm on with +R/RW ! That and my TDK indiDVD 8x can burn all formats of DVDs except for the new up and coming DVD-RAM... DANGIT! Oh well, I'm happy with what I have ! All I need to do is find my 6 to 4 pin firewire cable and I can burn a DVD in as little as 8 minutes (probably to coaster status... LOL!). USB 2.0 doesn't do as much justice to speed as firewire does. Heehee, I can finally see my Japan park videos on TV instead of just on the laptop! (I don't like hooking things up to my TVs... they usually tend to break them when I do!).

Now I'm bored because I've burned just about everything possible...

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Well i think they use red laser disks now. Blue is a shorter wavelength so can hold more info on a disk.

Dual (and triple, and up to 10 layers or so) will add even more information, as the laser alters it's wavelength to read each layer.

I think (but not sure) some modern players can already read dual layer disks.

About 5 years ago someone invented a 10 layer disk with over 1gb capacity - could be more with a blue laser.
A bit pointless really for most people.

Now, someone back me up here, but haven't dual layered DVDs been in commercial production for a while now? I know that some of my earliest DVDs I've bought (for verification of the fact) say DUAL LAYER on them. Also, the standard DVD holds 4.7 GB on a single layer. So having a TEN layer disc only holding 1GB?? *severely confused* Expert out there willing to step in and clear things up?

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