DVD+RW vs DVD-RW

GEPPERT

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What's the difference between DVD+RW and DVD-RW. The +'s seem to be twice the price?? Are both campatible with the Mac drives (G4 dual-1g and G5's)?
 
Oooohh. And I thought I had a handle on it before...

This page makes it look like there is a format called DVD-RW, another called DVD-R/W (note the slash.) Also DVD+RW and DVD+R/W . Is this true? Or just an ill-advised bit of artistic license on the site?
 
Hey Bob .... thanks for the site reference however here's what they say about these 2 specific formats.

DVD-RW is a rewriteable format and it is compatible with about 75% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs.

DVD+RW is a rewritable format and is compatible with about 75% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs.

OK .... unless I'm blind .... this says the exact same thing about both ... ???
 
Not a lot of difference

From that site;

DVD-R/W and DVD+R/W have pretty similiar features.

DVD-R/W was the first DVD recording format released that was compatible with standalone DVD Players.
DVD-RW is a rewriteable format and it is compatible with about 75% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs

DVD+R/W has some "better" features than DVD-R/W such as lossless linking and both CAV and CLV writing.
DVD+R is a non-rewritable format and it is compatible with about 86% of all DVD Players and most DVD-ROMs.

From Apple;

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58770
 
You're right, it does say the same about both. However, I think you can safely assume that it's not the exact same 75%. (Remember set theory? Nah, me neither.)

The actual nitty-gritty difference is pretty esoteric (and behold, this info contains an answer to my own earlier question):

"DVD-RW (formerly DVD-R/W and also briefly known as DVD-ER) is a phase-change erasable format. Developed by Pioneer based on DVD-R, using similar track pitch, mark length, and rotation control, DVD-RW is playable in many DVD drives and players. (Some drives and players are confused by DVD-RW media's lower reflectivity into thinking it's a dual-layer disc. In other cases the drive or player doesn't recognize the disc format code and doesn't even try to read the disc. Simple firmware upgrades can solve both problems.) DVD-RW uses groove recording with address info on land areas for synchronization at write time (land data is ignored during reading). Capacity is 4.7 billion bytes. DVD-RW discs can be rewritten about 1,000 times.

In December 1999, Pioneer released DVD-RW home video recorders in Japan. The units cost 250,000 yen (about $2,500) and blank discs cost 3,000 yen (about $30). Since the recorder used the new DVD-VR (video recording) format, the discs wouldn't play in existing players (the discs were physically compatible, but not logically compatible). Recording time varies from 1 hour to 6 hours, depending on quality. A new version of the recorder was later released that also recorded on DVD-R(G) discs and used the DVD-Video format for better compatibility with existing players."

"The DVD+RW format uses phase-change media with a high-frequency wobbled groove that allows it to eliminate linking sectors. This, plus the option of no defect management, allows DVD+RW discs to be written in a way that is compatible with many existing DVD readers. The DVD+RW specification allows for either CLV format for sequential video access (read at CAV speeds by the drive) or CAV format for random access, but CAV recording is not supported by any current hardware. DVD+R discs can only be recorded in CLV mode. Only CLV-formatted discs can be read in standard DVD drives and players. DVD+RW media can be rewritten about 1,000 times (down from 100,000 times in the original 1.0 version)."

This information and a lot of other stuff can be found at:

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html
 
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