Could someone, please, for the love of God, explain the different DVD recording formats to me??? I'm thinking of buying one of these recorders at the end of the summer, and having a clue about what all these letters means would be nice. There's all this talk about which format will survive, and I can't get a foothold on what they all mean, because I can't find anywhere that will tell me!

I have one word for you: Betamax.

DVD-R was the most compatible a month or two ago. Media is plentiful and cheap.

DVD+R should be more compatible than DVD-R but media isn't plentiful yet, so it isn't as cheap (if you can find it at all).

Pioneer is the brand burner to get for DVD-R and HP for DVD+R. Both burners are between $300 and $400. I only know this because I am interested in writable DVD as well. I don't own either format yet. I am leaning toward DVD+R, but won't make a move until more media comes out.

I have one word for you: Betamax.

You can still buy Betamax blanks at Radio Shack and my SL-HF300 still looks great compared to VHS. Heads were replaced about 3 years ago to get it running like a champ again.

I think he should also clarify whether he's planning on buying a burner for his PC, or if he's getting a standalone consumer DVD recorder...

I should have been more clear. I'm actually looking at DVD Recorders for home AV, not a ROM for the PC.

But your descriptions of the formats still apply, so thanks for those. I had gotten an impression that compatability was a big issue with these formats, but for my uses I'm not really concerned with compatability. I'll most likely only be playing my discs on the recorder I end up buying, so I'm not sure which one to go with.

Now as for those formats, I've read that you can edit a DVD-R disc, but only before it's finalized, after which it is uneditable. So what are the RW discs?

Good call. Panasonic seems to have a lock on the consumer DVD burner market with Pioneer in second. They are the only players last i checked. For me, consumer units are not an option until they get hard drives in them for advanced editing. I am quite sure Pioneer has a hard drive unit coming out.

So what are the RW discs?

The RW discs the Panasonic uses can only be used in the same unit you burn it in. There is a non-removable plastic cartridge around the disc.

In regards to the Panasonic RW discs, again, I think these are computer drive deals. There are RW discs for consumer players out there.

Also, Philips has 3 players out. You should check them out too. They don't have the editing features due to the lack of a hard drive, but the DVDR985 is on the less expensive side of the market, and therefore a little more attractive.

The big problem with these players for me is that the companies that are making them seem to be targetting them as PVRs. As the owner of a Tivo, that annoys me. Most of these DVD recorders have their own TV tuner in them. Why would I want that? Why not spend that money on a hard disk like you said?

Hopefully, in the future, there will be more varied models out there, including one that is simply a DVD player that records editable video.

do all these different formats have the same capacity ?

I believe so. everything I've seen has 4.7GB

it's 4.7 per side right ?

Yes, but for DVD+R/W that's not that important right now because I don't believe there are any double-sided discs.

In regards to the Panasonic RW discs, again, I think these are computer drive deals.

The Panasonic uses DVD-RAM as its RW media and DVD-R for write once. DVD-RAM media is in a cartridge as in the pic below.

Settle down class, settle down....Lets begin.

We have 5 basic formats of consumer DVD writing abilities.


DVD-R
DVD-RW
DVD+R
DVD+RW
DVD-RAM

First to the market was DVD-RAM, good for data backup and thats about it.

Next came DVD-R (write once) and DVD-RW (re-write) drives (think of it like a CD-r CD-RW drive).
Compatability rates for DVD-R and standalone DVD players I believe are at about 90% (thats what seems most people want out of DVD burners, ability to burn DVD's like Videotapes).

Next came DVD+RW (competeing format with DVD-RW and somewhat DVD-R) Offered a few features beyond DVD-RW and DVD-R, but compatability was not there.

Finally combo drives with DVD+R and DVD+RW came along (think last month to be exact). DVD+R supposedly offers better combatability with home DVD units, but the price of media is still more expensive.

This is another good sign of the 'ole Betamax vs. VHS battle that happened in the late '70's early '80's. Who will win is anybo*riinnggggggggggggggggggg*

Class dissmissed and dont forget I want a 100 word essay on why that 'no name' media is not good for overburning!

Thank you teacher!

It looks like if I were going this route today, I'd go with the Philips brand. It's a +R and +RW machine. It supposedly can play all of them, but records on those.

Here are the specs for it.

nice......here is a good site + forum for +RW and +R info...
http://www.dvdplusrw.org/

Thanks! That's a really helpful site. I had been wondering what the difference between the models of Philips players were, and the FAQ there basically told me that the more expensive unit is not worth it, especially since I already have a Pronto

glad to help, good luck....

This site has the lowest DVD+RW media I could find. Frankly, I don't think it's that bad.

Their Sony media is $12.50, their own media is $7, and they've got another one for $5. Well, I'm not sure I'd trust the other brands, so I'd probably go for the Sony, despite its almost double price tag.

At the beginning, Tower Records sold blank Minidiscs for $17. Now we're talking about a format that plays on a wide base of existing players. I don't think this will have nearly the problem that MD had. Of course I could just be missinformed