OT: Which DVD format to use?

[Lobster]

Apologies for the OT post, but the having had a shufti at the *.dvd.* groups they look far too scary to dip a toe into; also their FAQs seem to be not very up-to-date and/or as clear as mud. So...

Have just taken the plunge and bought a DVD re-writer for my PC (an LG GSA-4163B ). I've taken care to buy one which seems to cope with every format under the sun, but am now not sure which is the best format to actually use.

I'll be using it to back-up/store data files from the PC, plus maybe recording TV from my PC-TV card - is there any difference in requirement? ie, is there a case for different formats for different uses?

One thing I'll need to investigate is whether the old DVD player under the TV will cope with any of the formats (which format is most likely?), and that may well sway me; nevertheless I'd like to get a handle on other factors as well.

Thanks David

[ben]

uk.comp.homebuilt

[news]

no, not really.

-R

it's all a bit overly complicated

to simplify :use -R discs for compatibility

[Tim Mitchell]

In article , Lobster writes

DVD+R is reckoned to be most compatible across different stand-alone players, but there are exceptions...

The rewriteable disks tend to be unplayable on most players.

If you are just archiving, I'd use RW disks then you can update them later rather than chucking them away.

[Mr Fizzion]

I believe that multisession writing (i.e. the ability to add more files to an +R or -R disc you have already written) is easier with +R than -R.

Obviously +RW and -RW are erasable and rewritable.

Don't use DVD-RAM as nothing else will be able to read it (plenty of drives do every format except RAM)

-R works on every player I have tried. +R works on all players less than 2 years old and some older ones too.

Disks are cheap now. I recommend

Good price, fast reliable service.

Buy a few different types and see how you get on.

Mr F

[Bob Smith (UK)]

Have a look on

- you can see if anyone has your DVD player, and which media they have tried.

You may find your player does work with + or -, or with certain brands of + or -. Newer players are more likely to support more media. e.g. my 2-3 year old player won't play CD-R that is more than 32x, or DVD-R that is faster than 4x. My new one has played anything I have chucked at it (+/-R and +/-RW).

Bob

[Bob Smith (UK)]

I like the idea of buying a sample pack. Saves having to invest in a 25 pack of something and find they don't play on your player.

Bob

[PC Paul]

My lovely lovely £45 (from Asda) player will play any disc I have tried (all formats, R and RW I think) and also plays avi/mpg4/divX directly - just copy any .avi file to it and it plays - no nasty DVD encoding to do.

Bargain.

OTOH my supposedly DVD+/-R writer will only write to +R discs for some reason :-(

[conkersack]

Yeah, I've got one of those too.

I don't bother doing this myself, but I have it on good authority (a professional IT personage) that DVD-RAM is the best for this.

I use DVD-R for this, the discs are cheap enough to throw out if anything goes wrong / don't want the disc anymore. DVD-R plays on all of the DVD players I've tried.

Personally wouldn't have a clue, but start with DVD-R, chances are it'll work, and you've only lost a 20p disc if it doesn't. A lot of machines won't play DVD-RAM discs though, be aware of this. My Panasonic player will, probably because Panasonic also use -RAM as their DVD recordable format (it's capable of 'time slip' and all that jazz)

DVD formats are increadibly tedious, with small but sometimes crucial differences between DVD- and DVD+ and the like. Just give it a go with the cheapest disc/format you can find and take it from there.

If it's of any help, I would personally use DVD-RAM for the PC back-up / archiving thing though.

IMHO, YMMV, etc etc.

[Bob Smith (UK)]

I have one too - handy to get 6 films on one disk. Mine was £43 from CCL (just down the road from me).

Have you tried a firmware update? Mine did not do Dual Layer DVD+R when I bought it only DVD-R, but since a firmware update, it does both!

Have a look on

to see if anyone has your model. It may be the brand and write speed of the media that it doesn't like. Not that there is anything wrong with -R, but it is nice to have more options when shopping around.

Bob

[chris French]

In message , [e-mail] writes

I've got an older version

Well maybe. The DVD-RAM disks are potentially much more reliable that normal RW DVD's, however, this probably only really applies to the ones that come in the caddies, as was intended by Panasonic. TLG drive only takes them bare, and while they are probably still a bit more reliable than normal RW DVD's the benefits aren't as great.

That said I do use DVDRAM for some of my backup

But AIUI the these DVD players take the Caddy DVD-RAM discs, they won't take the bare discs.

TBH, I haven't a clue what format discs I use. Whatever I have tried seems to have worked fine in my cheapie DVD player

A thing to be aware of is that most PC DVD drives don't read DVD-RAM, so you have to consider the possibility of being stuck with a disc you can't easily read in the future

[conkersack]

Nah, used to be the case, but they take them bare now, I've got a two and a half year old Panasonic E50, it'll take them either way (steady!) and a friend just bought a Sharp DVD recorder which uses -RAM without the caddy.

Got to admit, I find the same, I've just noticed that I have more DVD-R knocking about. All the hooky discs I've ever seen have been -R, but again, it probably makes no difference.

True, true, but it may be just a matter of getting a free driver thing to enable the -RAM reading (I had to do this with my LG drive). Then it works a treat.

Cheers.