DVD-R and DVD+R. What's the difference?

[system7]

Having downloaded Windows 7 Beta, i now need to burn it to DVD.

I have just bought some Tesco's DVD-R. Did I do right?

Frankly I'm out of my depth here... :roll:

[NeilX90]

They're just different formats Steve. Problems only arise if you try to give someone else a DVD burned on your machine that isn't compatible with theirs. Most modern DVD devices will happily accept either, but my Sony home cinema, for example, only reads DVD-, not DVD+.

Funnily enough, I used the exact same Tesco DVDs to make my copy of Windows 7. No problems at all.

Sadly, due to driver incompatibility, I had to let W7 go after a few days - seems a shame to have SLI and not be able to use it, but I will be buying it once the final version is released and the drivers have matured.

I couldn't bring myself to go back to XP's very dated interface, so the temporary upgrade has cost me the price of ObjectDesktop and ObjectDock to get it looking very similar ! Plus, errmm, I really like the animated desktop backgrounds; I suspect the novelty will wear off within a month or two (or I'll get motion sickness, one of the two), but I'm pleased with the software, buggy though it is.

Anyway, back on track - Tesco DVDs.. great value for money. Work.... pretty much everywhere.

Cheers

[system7]

Thanks, Neil. Guess I'll give it a whirl then.

SLI not working in Windows 7 might be an issue, since I'm just starting to feel quite competitive in the DevilMayCry benchie, but there's nothing like actually doing it.

But I was a bit bewildered in Tesco tonight. Hopefully their microwave Curry Bag will also be highly compatible with my system. :D

[NeilX90]

SLI is utterly borked in Windows 7 Steve. Even the latest drivers on desktop cards won't function for any length of time. As for modded .inf laptop cards.. well... no.

I could get one card running quite happily, but with all the .inf tweaking in the world, I could not persuade the drivers to cough up the second card. Win7 disabled one of mine at boot-up due to a conflict; probably an IRQ or memory problem, but there's no current way to delve further into the problem.

You shouldn't have this issue with desktop 9600s, but if you can get SLI working, post it to the world.. we all want to know !

However... you will like 7. It is the first MS product in a long time I would pay good money for; just need the rest of the industry to catch up with it. It's a bit of a disappointment that Nvidia don't have drivers ready to run for this, but I guess that's politics. I'm guessing X-Fire will work fine !

(Question is.. will that microwave curry bag be compatible with *your* system if you know what I mean !)

[snograt]

DVD-R and DVD+R. What's the difference?

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(Er, lol?)

[cyb]

DVD-R was out first if that helps any. +R came out afterwards with a tweaked file system i think, was supposed to be to reduce the number of burn fails etc. +R discs generally have a small amount of space extra (few MB) and -R in my experience are more compatable with household DVD players, as -R was out first. Some DVD players/recorders will only accept one type or the other, so you'd have to check the manual.

[Nox]

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Lol :)

Bit like whats the difference between VHS and Betamax. In operation, nothing, in practice you can't use one in a device that only reads the other.

Nox

[Kevster]

When it comes to DVD-R's then there is no need to worry.
As stated above this was a vendor battle between the DVD Player manufacturers which in some cases meant that the laser shipped with a given player would not read + or - media.
It was a stupid thing, thankfully now pretty much an obsolete problem.
More info if you reeeeeally wanna know..

DVD-R/RW was developed by Pioneer. Based on CD-RW technology, it uses a similar pitch of the helix, mark length of the 'burn' for data, and rotation control. DVD-R/RW is supported by the DVD Forum, an industry-wide group of hardware and software developers, and computer peripheral manufacturers. The DVD-R format has been standardized in ECMA-279 by the Forum, but this is a private standard, not an 'industry' ISO standard like the CD-R/RW Red Book or Orange Book standard.

DVD+R/RW is also based on CD-RW technology. DVD+R/RW is supported by Sony, Philips, HP, Dell, Ricoh, Yamaha, and others, and has recently been endorsed by Microsoft. DVD+R/RW is not supported by the DVD Forum, but the Forum has no power to set industry standards, so it becomes a market-driven issue.

[system7]

Good answers. Thanks.

Looks like my Optiarc AD-7200 drive supports both as you say:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?OPT-7200A

Boy, I hate this sort of dual format stuff. Just makes for ISSUES... :confused:

[M4cc45]

Neah no issues really as pretty much every player in the last year will read both formats quite happily.

There is a problem with the cheaper DVD's that they use cheap dye and don't last as long or certain players have problems with them but this is just down to the media rather than the + or - labelled on them. I would check your readers can handle it if you were, for example, making a family DVD or such like.


M.

[Jonny2Bad]

Easiest way to explain it is its like the old vhs and betamax battle lol but dvd- is the vhs of dvd's more compatible over a wider range and tend to work better in most machines outside of the pc world. Try and stick to dvd- imo.

[Nox]

Boy, I hate this sort of dual format stuff. Just makes for ISSUES... :confused:

yep, me too. competition is one thing, which is good for consumers but dual formats... well just glad blu-ray one...

Nox

[TheJoe]

Cheap Tesco and cheap Asda DVDs... They won't last. Asda DVDs don't even burn properly!

I always go with Maxell, apart from anything else their DVDs are SHINY =D

[MikeV2]

SLI is utterly borked in Windows 7 Steve. Even the latest drivers on desktop cards won't function for any length of time. As for modded .inf laptop cards.. well... no.

I could get one card running quite happily, but with all the .inf tweaking in the world, I could not persuade the drivers to cough up the second card. Win7 disabled one of mine at boot-up due to a conflict; probably an IRQ or memory problem, but there's no current way to delve further into the problem.

You shouldn't have this issue with desktop 9600s, but if you can get SLI working, post it to the world.. we all want to know !

However... you will like 7. It is the first MS product in a long time I would pay good money for; just need the rest of the industry to catch up with it. It's a bit of a disappointment that Nvidia don't have drivers ready to run for this, but I guess that's politics. I'm guessing X-Fire will work fine !

(Question is.. will that microwave curry bag be compatible with *your* system if you know what I mean !)

I don't know anything about DVD+/- but I'm pretty sure my 9600GT s are running happily in sli in Windows 7 64-bit...
I didn't have any problems with it either, just installed the nforce 680 sli driver (from XFX as that's my mobo manufacturer), followed by the latest vista 64-bit driver from nvidia. During installation it detected that I was actually running Windows 7, and carried on quite happily regardless.

I haven't pushed it at all in terms of performance, but I'm due to try some benchies soon anyway, so I'll try those tonight!

EDIT: Ah, I guess you were right - it crashed about halfway through the benchmark - but posted big numbers until then.