difference in dvd+ & dvd- rw disks/?

Question

To settle an arguement
can anyone tell me the difference between a dvd- rw disk ad a dvd+rw disk

Answer 1

The difference between + and - .



To make it easy think of them like a record but one has the dot's

and dash's burnt on to the disc and the other has the gaps inbetween

the dot's and dash's burnt ..



The pattern is the same but the format is not .

Answer 2

There’s DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, and even DVD-ROM! So what’s the difference between all of these different names, aren’t all DVDs the same? Well, it’s not quite that simple.



Let’s first start with the most obvious difference: some have R and some have RW. The “R” stands for recordable, while the “W” stands for rewriteable.



The main difference between DVD-R and DVD-RW, or DVD+R and DVD+RW is that the R disc formats can only be written to once, and then it is only readable and can’t be erased for the rest of its digital life. While RW discs are can be written to and erased many times, they are both readable and writeable.



“R” discs are perfect if they are only needed to be written to once, such as giving some files to a friend or transferring them between PCs. “RW” discs have their strength in the ability to be used many times over, which is great for routine system backups, etc. And naturally, the RW discs are slightly more expensive than the R discs, but you’ll have to decide if the trade offs are worth the money.



Now, onto the difference between DVD-R and DVD+R. As I just described above, DVD-R & DVD-RW are sister discs, the difference being one is writeable once, while the other is writeable multiple times. The same thing is true for DVD+R & DVD+RW. So the question is, what’s the difference between the plus and minus?



In order to explain this we must take a trip back in time. When DVDs were first being developed, there was no industry standard. Multiple companies were competing to develop what they hoped would be the dominant form of the future.

Answer 3

For all practical purposes, there is no significant difference. dvd- is a slightly older fomat. The disks are not compatible with one another, and a burner must be designed to work with the format of the disk you are using, but almost every DVD burner ever produced with work with either one. A few particular models of DVD burners may be able to write one or the other format slightly faster than the other.



Some older "read-only" devices, like a home dvd player may only be able to read one format, but not the other. A good example is if you are using a "swap magic" or similar setup with a sonly playstaton 2. Some of the older PS2 machines can only read DVD- formats, and can not read a "backup" DVD created on a DVD+ disk.

Answer 4

DVD-R are your best option, they are also more compatible than DVD+R. DVD-RW (in my experience) are sooooooo unreliable it is scary! Plus DVD-Rs are so cheap these days that the ability to RW is pretty my obsolete next to just doing a multi-session on a DVD-R.

Answer 5

The characteristics of DVD-RW ("dash” RW):

- developed by Pioneer, for recording DVDs for home use

- initially "write once" (DVD-R)

- first consumer format compatible with most set-top DVD players

- up to 1,000 rewrites

- linear (sequential) data format (meaning: single, continuous stream)

- lacks random-access capability

- lacks native defects management

- relatively inexpensive

- media types: "A" for Authoring (professional use, requires expensive recording equipment with a different kind of laser), and "G" for General use



The characteristics of DVD+RW ("plus” RW):

- developed by the “DVD+RW Alliance” (Dell, Hewlett-Packard Company,

MCC/Verbatim, Philips Electronics, Ricoh Company Ltd., Sony Corporation, Thomson multimedia and Yamaha Corporation)

- has many characteristics of DVD-RW

- initially dubbed "the compatible, rewritable DVD format"

- up to 1,000 rewrites

- can be formatted as sequential data streams (video) or random-access (similar to DVD-RAM technology)

- compared to DVD-RW, the DVD+RW incorporates a higher frequency wobble in the embedded microscopic tracking groove

- "lossless linking technology" (the recorder can stop and start the writing process with extreme accuracy)

- good defect management ensures data read / write accuracy

- more expensive, and distributed by fewer vendors

Answer 6

The difference between a dvd- rw disk and a dvd+rw disk is dvd-rw can read only dvd cds and it cannot write(burn) the dvd cd it can only burn cd disk.

Dvd+rw is an writer it can burn dvd disk and also read the cd.