What’s The Difference Between DVD+R and DVD-R?
Whenever you go out to buy writeable DVDs, you always have the choice of +R or -R. Is it marketing hype or are they really different in the way they work?
The answer is yes, they are different.
Pioneer developed DVD-R and is based on CD-R. However it is important to note that DVD-R is not an industry standard like CD-R is (labeled “Red Book” and “Orange Book” standard).
DVD+R also stems from CD-R. But this is not industry standard either. This is why the + and – formats compete with each other and you see them side by side on store shelves wherever you buy discs.
DVD-R is the older format.
Basically put, DVD-R is the legacy format and you don’t really need to use it.
However..
Is there any reason to use DVD-R at all?
There are only three instances I can think of where DVD-R is required:
- The on-the-shelf price is sometimes cheaper than the +R’s. So if you’re trying to save a buck, the -R format may be a little less in price.
- You have an older (or cheap) DVD player that will not read +R burned movie discs but will read -R discs.
- You’re making a home movie for a friend and need to be sure the disc you give will actually play on their console player. DVD-R is the legacy format and even the cheapest 30-dollar Maganavox DVD player at Wal-Mart will play DVD-R burned movie discs.
For everything else, use DVD+R.
And if you wanted a plain English description of the technical differences:
- A single-layer (what the vast majority of us use) DVD-R holds more data than a DVD+R does. The -R will hold 4,707,319,808 bytes while the +R holds 4,700,372,992 bytes.
- A dual-layer DVD-R holds less data than a DVD+R does. The -R holds 8,543,666,176 bytes, the +R holds 8,547,991,552 bytes.
- The data rate for both formats is the same, however DVD-R does have a higher top available speed. The fastest DVD+R is 16x. The fastest DVD-R is 20x. However if you were to pit +R vs. -R at 16x for each, the data rate is the same (21.12 MB/s).
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8 thoughts on “What’s The Difference Between DVD+R and DVD-R?”
http://netforbeginners.about.com/cs/multimedia/a/DVD_explained.htm
Most pages say the same things pretty much. I have heard that dvd+r also supports longer file names, but don’t quote me on that as I can’t remember where I read that. Since I have never had filename length issues on dvd-r, I’m guessing it wouldn’t matter to 99% of people even if it were true.
DVD-R was first released in 1997 by Pioneer, and proved by DVD Forum, and 5 years later, year 2002, DVD+R released by DVD+RW Alliance as the compete formats. DVD+R is a non-rewritable format and it is compatible with about 89% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs.
I also found a cool articles about the difference between DVD+r and DVD-r, More information about this topic:
In fact, these figures are probably transversed. I found out because I have a 4,700,421,808 byte .ISO (4.3776 GB) that would not fit on either manufacturer’s DVD-R but did fit on the DVD+R.
For example, a toolbox disk containing useful utilities. When a utility is updated, just update the RW disk instead of burning a new one.
Or Linux install disks – unless you really want to keep copies of every version, just reburn with the latest image.
Write-once disks are cheaper to buy, but their disposal is not environmentally friendly, so they should ideally be reserved for long-term storage.
Better yet, use USB memory sticks instead. However DVD may be required for some situations.
( http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/dvd/product.asp?model=rs-tx20 ). Sometimes a 1 hour TV show contains only a 10 or 15 minute segment I wish to hang onto. I burn from the TIVO hard drive to a DVD-RW in the TIVO DVD burner, then walk the DVD-RW over to my computer to edit the show down to what I want to keep on my computer in a wmv, mpeg, avi, etc format. At one time DVD-RW might have been a backup media solution, but not in these days of multi terrabyte hard drives
Very interesting about the differences in data capacity!
And yes it’s true, the +R format is usually more reliable for data storage. But bear in mind track following errors are usually indicative of a hardware or media fault (i.e. bad drive and/or bad disc) rather than disc format. This is why I tell anyone never to buy Sony brand DVDs (trust me, there’s a reason why they’re always on sale). :-)