Types of DVDs? -R +R Etc. Which one is most standard?

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Davej

Need to start burning DVD's. Which one has the most burner support?
Seems odd that there are like six different types.
 
Davej said:
Need to start burning DVD's. Which one has the most burner support?
Seems odd that there are like six different types.
Click to expand...

There are a couple web sites that specialize in optical media.

This is an article, comparing some of the differences, but it
doesn't address compatibility that well. In the comment section,
compatibility gets a mention. One kind of disc, isn't read well
by a variety of home readers. So you may burn a disc, then
try to run it in a standalone player, and have problems.
Your choice of media in that case, may be different than
if your objective is to be able to read the disc again
on the computer you made it on (data archival storage).

(I think this is the former cdfreaks.com web site, renamed)

http://www.myce.com/article/Why-DVDRW-is-superior-to-DVD-RW-203/

I don't do much burning, or have a lot of DVD players, but
the few +R, +RW, +R DL I've tried here all worked well. The
only media I had trouble with, was CD-RW, and that looks
to have been a chemistry problem (flaky in a matter of
a couple months, and can't be re-burned, with new discs
from the box being bad as well). At the time I bought my media,
I didn't do any technical analysis - I just picked whatever was
available in the aisles of the big box stores.

If you have an old DVD player, you may already know it has
"preferences" in terms of the media it will play. But if
you're not trying to make DVD movies that play in all your
players, and just want archival storage for data, then
you can use more of the technical input on formats to
make a choice.

Paul
 
Davej said:
Need to start burning DVD's. Which one has the most burner support?
Seems odd that there are like six different types.
Click to expand...
Gasoline, or alcohol in an emergency.
Or powdered aluminium and oxygen.
 
Need to start burning DVD's. Which one has the most burner support?
Seems odd that there are like six different types.
Click to expand...

I burn and distribute DVD video discs to a small group of people around
the US. Here is what I have learned as far as keeping errors and
complaints to a minimum.

Use the best media. I use Tayo Yuden almost always, had only one coaster
in 5 years. I buy the white "inkjet printable" versions. Easy to label
with a printer, a Sharpie pen, or The Brother brand thermal printed
label tape.

Discs for others to use:
DVD-R single level. These seem to be the most compatible with various
home decks and assorted computers.

Discs for you to use: Take your pick, whatever works for you. DVD+R seem
better (but not on "the other guy's player").

I can't send dual layer because most users can't play them. Same with
anything else fancy.

All of my discs are burned on fairly new drives with updated firmware.

All of my discs are burned from ISO files and I am now using ImgBurn
freeware for this. It works great.

More than you asked for but that's the truth and I'm standin' by it.

Wilby
 
wilby said:
The Brother brand thermal printed label tape.
Click to expand...

Marking a CD with the pen is okay, or using lightscribe, but I
would never stick something on a CD. Too much risk of having the
thing go off balance and explode.
--
 
Marking a CD with the pen is okay, or using lightscribe, but I
would never stick something on a CD. Too much risk of having the
thing go off balance and explode.
Click to expand...

You are correct, and I have a simple method to avoid that problem.

The Brother label tape (TZ) is 1/2 inch wide and usually about 1.5
inches long. It is very thin and is very light weight.

I find that if I put the label very near the inner hub, I can't detect
any vibration. The mass of the label times the distance from the center
gives me a very small number. Try it some day, just for fun.

I also tried making 2 labels and placed them 180 degrees apart. That
worked but no better than a single one near the hub.

By the way, the TZ labels have never even looked like they are peeling.

Wilby
 
Need to start burning DVD's. Which one has the most burner support?
Seems odd that there are like six different types.
Click to expand...

IMHO it has always been DVD-R as standard!
 
Need to start burning DVD's. Which one has the most burner support?
Seems odd that there are like six different types.
Click to expand...

These days any burner supports any type. You pick the type for the
task at hand.

DVD-R and DVD+R: These are write-once disks. Once you've burned it
that's it, no erasing. They're the cheapest. My impression is the
DVD+R format is slightly superior.

DVD-RW and DVD+RW. These are erasable, although in time they do wear
out. Here the DVD+RW format is definitely superior as you can burn
new data on it without erasing but the DVD-RW disk has to be erased
first. They cost more than the DVD-R and DVD+R disks and burn much
slower.

DVD-DL. Write-once but they hold twice as much. Note that you pay
more than twice the price to get this doubled capacity, only use them
when you actually need a single disk to hold all the data. I have
seen a lot of quality problems with them, also. No rewritable version
of these exists.
 
Marking a CD with the pen is okay, or using lightscribe, but I
would never stick something on a CD. Too much risk of having the
thing go off balance and explode.
Click to expand...

What about with the harddrive. A friend didn't know it, but by chance
I guess, all his files were written on the left side of the platters.
The computer started to shake violently and knocked itself off the
desk.

Is there a utility that will space the files out evenly to prevent
this?
 
mm said:
What about with the harddrive. A friend didn't know it, but by chance
I guess, all his files were written on the left side of the platters.
The computer started to shake violently and knocked itself off the
desk.

Is there a utility that will space the files out evenly to prevent
this?
Click to expand...

You're making a joke, right?

Chris
 
mm said:
What about with the harddrive. A friend didn't know it, but by chance
I guess, all his files were written on the left side of the platters.
The computer started to shake violently and knocked itself off the
desk.

Is there a utility that will space the files out evenly to prevent
this?
Click to expand...

Troll. But a funny one.
 
You're making a joke, right?
Click to expand...

Yes, but who knows? Electrons have weight. I don't know what would
happen if there were millions of extra electrons on one side of the
disk and none on the other.
 
Yes, but who knows? Electrons have weight. I don't know what would
happen if there were millions of extra electrons on one side of the
disk and none on the other.
Click to expand...
We've got to April 1st pretty quickly. Don't walk near any strong
electric fields, mm; the electrons might get sucked out of your body
and just leave an unsightly pile of nuclei behind. Could be quite
scary for a kid to see.
 
Yes, but who knows? Electrons have weight. I don't know what would
happen if there were millions of extra electrons on one side of the
disk and none on the other.
Click to expand...

Actually, no. There is no weight difference whatsoever. The
electrons are already there.

Going a level deeper the argument also exists that a 1 bit stores a
little bit of energy and thus there is a weight gain due to e=mc^2.
Even this doesn't work, though--while it's true a 1 does store a bit
of energy a zero does also.

The only true weight gain from writing to a hard drive is when you
take a truly blank drive (one that doesn't even contain any tracks,
let alone data) and do a low-level format on it. It takes energy to
organize a magnetic domain and e=mc^2 applies just as much to this
energy as any other. (Yes, anything that stores energy also gets
heavier in the process, and then gets lighter as it's discharged.)
 
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