Comments on: What discs should I buy for my DVD recorder? Ask the Editors

CNET answers a reader's question about what discs she should use for her DVD recorder.

[xZero2007x]

That was an excellent response, Panton. You went over every bit of detail and left it in a form easy enough for most to understand. Very thorough work, and I look forward to using some bits of your article the next time I'm asked a similar question.

[RDO CA]

I would still use -r's for a while as alot of cars with DVD players won't read a + as I found out when I burned several movies for a friends Honda van and they would not work and had to do them over----dash will work everywhere but not plus

[sugarhillgang]

I know Sony DVD players require -r which sucks because I bought 25 DVD+r and had to give them away to someone. Curse you Sony for being all high and mighty!! Okay i'm better know.

[RRosal]

With the hundreds of different DVD media, you're expecting any off-the-shelf DVD player to play EVERYTHING out there? Too many variables in your scenario, including the specific brand of media that you bought and what your player is capable of playing, that would've affected the playback on your DVD player. I have a Sony DVP-NS77H 1080p upscaling DVD player and I play both DVD+R's and -R's with no probs whatsoever. And I'm using TDK and Sony blanks. But glad you're feeling better now that you've vented.

[webterractive]

I always use DVD-R and they seem fine on Toshiba DVD players. I've also backed up movies on DVD+R DL and burnt them at lower speeds to make them work universally on everything I have that plays DVDs and not problems there. I found that burning DVD-R at a lower speeds makes it compatiable with everything. I burnt a movie at 16x and had issues on my DVD player, but then burnt another movie at 8x and it was fine, burnt that same 16x movie at 8x and it was fine. The 16x burnt movie plays well on the computer and Xbox/Playstation 3/60.

[Frank Rizzo]

Your article conflicts itself, when you state early in the article: quote "Look for DVD+R--the most compatible, cheapest option out there.
And then near the end you quote: "The question, however, remains: which is better? If you still have a decade-old DVD player, you will need to use DVD-R media; it's the oldest and thus most compatible format of the two. DVD+R media will probably not play."

Personally, here in Canada I have never seen any price difference between the -R or +R.
Also, because -R is the oldest format it will virtually work on anything, from my experience. Although I've had several headaches with the +R.
As for making alot of coasters in the early days, as you talk about. Yes I agree, I made my share back then. But that was a combination of cheap early DVD-Rs, in combination with the early slow burners, which had crappy, if any "buffer underun protection". Add to that our computers were slower, far less ram, and burning software was just born etc.
Fast forward to today. I still only buy DVD-R, and have made zero coasters in the last 5 years I would bet. My only rule of thumb when burning a disc, is to never exceed 4x.

[obryannet]

If you can bitset, DVD+R are the most compatible because they will report as dvd-rom. I have never had a bitset dvd+r fail to work on any dvd player no matter how old.

[Nighteye19]

That's what I was going to say. I have old DVD players that refused to play both -R and +R, but when using +R in combination with setting booktype to DVD-ROM then they work fine.

+R with booktype DVD-ROM I think is more compatible than -R.

[warlene]

I HAVE TWO PANASONIC DVD RECORDERS AND USE THE RAM DISCS. I LOVE THE RAM DISCS BECAUSE OF THE EASE OF RECORDING, PLAYBACK AND ERASING. i PURCHASED MY RAM DISCS ABOUT 5 YEARS AGO AND AT THAT TIME THEY WERE FAIRLY INEXPENSIVE. i DO NOT EVEN SEE THEM IN STORES ANYMORE!

[Karl J.]

Mr. Panton's answer should also have advised that when distributing DVD's one should ALWAYS use DVD-R due to the older unit compatibility issues he cited. A church pastor learned this lesson after distributing over one hundred DVD+R discs to his congregation, only to have many returned to him (especially by older folks) because some drives could not read them. In addition, I believe the dash format error issue is overblown. I burn DVD-R's almost exclusively and at speeds up to48x without any problems and find that "dash" stacks of 100 discs are the cheapest to buy at my local Staples store.

[Karl J.]

PS You don't have to own a "decade" old computer drive or DVD player to have problems running Plus format. This is because it was only Sony and Phillips that broke from the forum and created Plus back in 2002. Most other electronics manufacturers remained loyal to the forum and it wasn't until late 2004 that some gave in and you could run plus on non Sony or Phillips drives. But in reality it wasn't 'till 2005 or so that it became common on computer drives and even later for some inexpensive DVD players. So...you could possess something relativity new and have problems - and changing the book setting is sometimes hit-or-miss, at least in my cases.

[pphawkeye]

Curious to understand what is meant by "book setting"?
My wife has problems with DVD+RW disks produced by Pinnacle Studio to be read on couple of years old Sony DVD recorder... depending on whether or not she puts a menu on the diaporama :-(

Sceptical on the author statement on +RW and -RW as it would seem to imply that you can only erase a +RW by accident and not the -RW ;-)

[lschonbe]

My Toshiba combination VCR/DVD is about 6 years old and accepts the DVD-RW format. Recently I bought a set of 25 DVD-RW at an office supply store for $2.00. They work fine but I wonder why they were so cheap. Is this format going away?

I do not finalize my DVD-RW recordings. What problem if any will this cause me? If I finalize am I still able to record new material or erase old material?

[cabrrtt]

I have not had any problems with + disks on my different brands of equipment, but did with the -. I just wish that the printable disks would be easier to find and as cheap as the regular + disks.

[cabrrtt]

I have not had any problems with + disks on my different brands of equipment, but did with the -. I just wish that the printable disks would be easier to find and as cheap as the regular + disks.