Tell me about DVD +r -r +-r +rw and so on.

[mycarsavw]

I hate starting a new thread for something seemingly so simple but I've searched and am none the wiser so I apologise in advance for the n00bishness of what follows

I have the following (clicky) drive and I want to start backing up films I have saved on my HDD so other family members can watch them on their home DVD players. I also want to back up photos.

Sounds simple so far and it is, but what sort of blank DVD media do I want to buy?

It would appear my optical drive can write in most available formats so I don't think I have an issue there, and I know I wont be re-using the discs so that rules out RW (+/-)

So, what would Hexus do?

Who rules in the blank DVD media market at the moment.

Finally, if it makes any difference at all, this will all be done on Vista & Ubuntu

Thanks in advance

Sam

[dangel]

Verbatim would be my choice (and they're cheap from www.scan.co.uk) too.

As to whether +/- that's largely down to which sort of discs your DVD players like - most like both but it does not harm to 'test' As a rule I buy -R but +R seems to work just as well for my devices.

[SiM]

Well if they are dual layer DVDs then you need to buy dual layer blanks...

You need to decrypt the DVDs too (since they are already on your hard drive, this is already done right?)

Good brand blanks are generally more compatible and last longer. Verbatim are a good brand but quite expensive. If you don't mind cheaper blanks then try out a few different brands and see what works best for you.

www.svp.co.uk is the best place to buy blanks imo. They often do cheap 99p shipping weekends too. Its generally cheaper to buy blanks in 50s or 100s obviously...

[Max Tractor]

Another shout for verbatim, but worth noting, batch from mbi and mit can be variable. I would either go for Taiyo Yuden, or verbatim Taiyo Yuden TYG03 or verbatim Taiyo Yuden YUDEN000T03. What burner, the link does not work for me

[b0redom]

Pretty much all commercial home DVD players use the DVD-R format. DVD+R is mainly used for home DVD writers.

Depending on the format of your films (are they DivX?) you may need to transcode them back to DVD images. I think Nero is able to do this.

[mycarsavw]

Verbatim would be my choice (and they're cheap from www.scan.co.uk) too.

As to whether +/- that's largely down to which sort of discs your DVD players like - most like both but it does not harm to 'test' As a rule I buy -R but +R seems to work just as well for my devices.

What is the difference between a +R and a -R (in layman's terms)

Well if they are dual layer DVDs then you need to buy dual layer blanks...

You need to decrypt the DVDs too (since they are already on your hard drive, this is already done right?)

Good brand blanks are generally more compatible and last longer. Verbatim are a good brand but quite expensive. If you don't mind cheaper blanks then try out a few different brands and see what works best for you.

www.svp.co.uk is the best place to buy blanks imo. They often do cheap 99p shipping weekends too. Its generally cheaper to buy blanks in 50s or 100s obviously...

Thanks, the originals are .avi and I have the correct program to convert and sync them to DVDs, my problem (or lack of understanding) lies with what media to purchase.

SVP seem reasonable.

I guess what I have to do is buy one of each and see what works best.

Another shout for verbatim, but worth noting, batch from mbi and mit can be variable. I would either go for Taiyo Yuden, or verbatim Taiyo Yuden TYG03 or verbatim Taiyo Yuden YUDEN000T03. What burner, the link does not work for me

Er, I have no idea what you just said, sorry

Link fixed

Pretty much all commercial home DVD players use the DVD-R format. DVD+R is mainly used for home DVD writers.

Depending on the format of your films (are they DivX?) you may need to transcode them back to DVD images. I think Nero is able to do this.

Excellent, that's what I was fishing for - DVD-R it is then. I presume going for dual layer just means more space to store or does it have knock on effects on other things?

[Steve B]

i got my missus a DivX compatible DVD player for her crimbo, so i wouldn't need to transcode them back

[dangel]

For transcoding... try "WinAVI" - for me, nothing else comes close

[mycarsavw]

http://www.vso-software.fr/products/convert_x_to_dvd/

I'm using that ^

Fast moving thread too, thanks guys.

[SiM]

DivX compatible DVD player

This is the best solution. There are tonnes of cheap ones around now too. Less than £30 too!

Scan even sell them (not the cheapest though)

With this you can get 6 700MB avis on one dvdr, or 12 on a dual layer dvdr

Pretty much all commercial home DVD players use the DVD-R format. DVD+R is mainly used for home DVD writers.

Sorry you are completely wrong. I use both + and - all the time they both work for data and in home DVD players.

Back in the day they were competing formats you had to buy a + burner or a - burner... Now burners do both, it doesn't matter which one you use as long as its compatible with your player.

I presume going for dual layer just means more space to store or does it have knock on effects on other things?

Forget about dual layer if you are transcoding - unless you want 2 films on one dvdr (or if you are geting a divx compatible player)

Oh and if you are transcoding - look on doom9.org to see the best way to do it (ie least quality loss)

[Max Tractor]

Er, I have no idea what you just said, sorry

Link fixed



Excellent, that's what I was fishing for - DVD-R it is then.

Buy verbatims test what writing/burning works best with the samsung. You do not have to limit yourself to -r, you can set booktype of +r, most modern players will play both

[directhex]

What is the difference between a +R and a -R (in layman's terms)

they're just different. historic considerations aside, they're just different. some players prefer one, some prefer the other - if the player's vaguely recent, both are fine

[Agent]

If your writer supports bitsetting (google it) +R media will have slightly better compatibility, but on today's players its not really the issue it used to be

[kalniel]

This is the best article I've seen on the differences:

http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Why-...rior-to-DVD-RW

In laymans terms, DVD-R has a sort of framework pre-recorded onto the disk, which you then attach your data to. This causes problems because you have to match up your data to this framework, and the framework itself can be hard to detect at high speeds etc, and there is an increased chance of error.

However, DVD-R is older, so originally there were more of them around, now it's not so much the case.