Choosing a DVD Writer for a lot of people is still very confusing. We tried to find a decent comprehensive guide to DVD media, but failed. So by piecing it all together, we thought we would start our review with a quick overview of this confusing market.

Plus or Minus?

There are currently three competing re-writable DVD standards in use. Here is a quick explaination.

DVD-RAM

DVD-RAM was the first re-writable DVD standard to be introduced. The disks come is plastic caddies, much like very early CD-ROMs. This means that DVD-RAM disks are completely incompatible with anything other than a DVD-RAM drive. Media comes in either single sided (4.7 GB) or double sided (9.4 GB). DVD-RAM media can be re-written 100 000 times, instead of the 1000 times that DVD-RW and DVD+RW can be re-written. DVD-RAM also supports defect mangement, which enables the drive to avoid writing on damaged parts of the disk. DVD-RAM is ideal for hard drive backups, but not much use for anything else, and are effectivly obselete.

DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW

DVD-R was created by Pioneer, and was the first writable DVD standard. This was followed by DVD-RW, the rewritable version. DVD+R and DVD+RW were created by Sony and HP. Just about every burner on the market at the moment supports both standards, including those made by Pionner, Sony, and HP. Both disks hold 4.7 Gb, and cost exactly the same. With almost all burners supporting both standards, the only question is which media to buy for your dual standard drive.

DVD-R vs DVD+R

Both standards have an equal chance of being compatible with your standalone DVD player or DVD-ROM drive. They hold an identical amount of data, and cost almost exactly the same money. There are no important differences between the almost but not quite identical technologies used. There is nothing to differntiate between the two, unless your DVD player favours one over the other.

DVD-RW vs DVD+RW

There are some differences between these two standards that could be important to you. DVD-RW comes in 2x and 4x, but DVD+RW comes in 2.4x and 4x. DVD-RW does not support randomly writing to the disk, but DVD+RW does. This means you can drag and drop files onto a DVD+RW disk. DVD+RW also supports defect management, allowing it to avoid scratched parts of the disk, just like DVD-RAM can. DVD-RW does not support this. Both standards hold 4.7 Gb, just like the writable disks. Both types can be re-written up to 1000 times. Since both types cost the same amount, the DVD+RW format is the winner.

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