dvd-r v dvd+r

[anotheoldgit]

Why are there 2 types of DVD recording discs, DVD-R & DVD+R is one any better than the other? Does it make a difference what speed they are 4x 8x 16x ? These are for use in a stand alone DVD recorder with 80GB hard drive that can play and record in any format.

Although they have been on the market quite some time, it still seems to be a hit and miss exercise to record successfully on these machines, and then play the recording back on other machines . What type of disc do the Professionals use?

[fo3nix]

Just two formats with similar names that essentially do the same stuff. -R is the official format, from the DVD consortium. +R is another format developed by some other manufacturers that aren't in the consortium. Both do stuff equally well. Technically the -R has some small part of the disc reserved for a checksum type of information, but this doesn't really matter.

The speed ratings are only relevant to your drive's speed: if you have a 16x dvd recorder, then it'll be able to record at that speed only with discs marked 16x. Note though that sometimes other players can only read discs well if written at much slower speeds, e.g., 2x.

Go for whichever format you like, as long as your players can play them. It may be a little experimental to find this.