# What arewrite-once DVDs good for - besides data storage? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 5, 2006, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489 "2006-09-05T10:54:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/1 "2006-09-05T10:54:35Z")
To make the recovery disks for my new HP laptop, the nice Tech Support man in India suggested I use DVDs. Otherwise I’d go through a whole mess of CDs. But I bought a 50-pack of the write-once variety. Dumb. The kid at Staples said they’re good only for data - not music. **Any chance he’s wrong?** (In this same, stupidity-laden trip to the store, I also bought a wireless optical mouse. Moronic move — for my purposes. Should have got a corded optical. If you can live with a corded mouse for your laptop, you won’t have to continuously buy AA batteries for it.) ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/2 "2006-09-05T11:01:27Z")
If anything, DVD-RWs are _less_ useful than one-shot DVDs, since a lot of the older DVD players have trouble with the DVD-RWs if you put movies on them… ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/3 "2006-09-05T11:04:10Z")
[QUOTE=BarnOwl] The kid at Staples said they’re good only for data - not music. **Any chance he’s wrong?** [/QUOTE] He might have meant that you can’t play them in a CD player. As far as the disk itself is concerned, music data is data. So as long as you have something that can read the disk and that understands the file format of the songs, you’re fine. **What are write-once DVDs good for - besides data storage?** Frisby! ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/4 "2006-09-05T11:08:54Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] He might have meant that you can’t play them in a CD player. As far as the disk itself is concerned, music data is data. So as long as you have something that can read the disk and that understands the file format of the songs, you’re fine. Thanks. That’s what I wanted to hear. I’ll give it a whack. **What are write-once DVDs good for - besides data storage?** Frisby! [/QUOTE] I liked that. 😃😃😃 ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/5 "2006-09-05T11:19:07Z")
[QUOTE=BarnOwl] To make the recovery disks for my new HP laptop, the nice Tech Support man in India suggested I use DVDs. Otherwise I’d go through a whole mess of CDs. But I bought a 50-pack of the write-once variety. Dumb. The kid at Staples said they’re good only for data - not music. **Any chance he’s wrong?** (In this same, stupidity-laden trip to the store, I also bought a wireless optical mouse. Moronic move — for my purposes. Should have got a corded optical. If you can live with a corded mouse for your laptop, you won’t have to continuously buy AA batteries for it.) [/QUOTE] Write once DVDs are seriously useful for backups - that way you are not tempted to re-use them DVD players are so cheap that it is not worth bothering about existing kit. For the Mouse you could get a battery charger and NMh batteries ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/6 "2006-09-05T11:32:43Z")
Write-once DVDs are more likely that RW to be supported by ordinary domestic players - in my experience, they’re also just plain _more likely to work_ - I dabble with video editing and DVD authoring from time to time and I thought buying a couple of RW media would save me money for testing the various stages of output near the final production, however, about a third of the time, burning a DVD video to RW media _just plain doesn’t work_ for me - I can see the files on the computer, but the domestic player just refuses to read it. In these cases, wiping and burning exactly the same content, to exactly the same disc, with exactly the same parameters, then works fine the second time around. I do get occasional coasters with write-once media, and I have had whole batches of discs that were unusable (I think because of a dye compatibility issue or something else in the media codes), but I have nowhere near the confidence in the integrity of RW-stored data that I do for data stored on a write-once disc. I think I could honestly make more or less the same statement about RW versus R CDs ---
**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/7 "2006-09-05T13:42:16Z")
DVDs that play DVD-R and DVD-RW (but not DVD-ROM) have been available for years, but you should chack out media compatibility if you are going to be using them. Also, be aware that what works on your machines may not work on your friend’s (e.g. for sharing video albums by mail, etc.) Check out the [ueser-reported] [database of media/player/recorder compatibility](http://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia) at [http://www.videohelp.com](http://www.videohelp.com) While I haven’t bought a new player in a couple of years, I’ve always sought out players with a broad range of file/format/media compatibility. The few extra bucks (often very few) can be a very worthwhile investment. For some reason, a lot of the ‘top’ brands don’t bother these days. I remember when Sony DVD players held themselves out as the gold standard (if a Sony couldn’t play it , it was a dud) but that certainly hasn’t been my experience in recent years. Almost anything on the market (including some years-old models by fairly well known makers, like the $50 Philips DVP-642) seems to play more home-recorded disks than the pricier once-fancy brands. Yes, it’s annoying that some brands are effectively disposable, emphasizing a broad feature over build quality to make more [and repeat] sales, but a lot of my friends have knowingly chosen that compromise, and been happy with it. ---
**Author:** ![Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoundrel_Swanswater)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/8 "2006-09-05T14:34:27Z")
You can also make “backups” of movies on DVD’s, so I don’t think they are totally useless. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/9 "2006-09-05T14:41:56Z")
The one odd thing that I’ve found with DVD-R discs is that a DVD player that can read CDs with MP3 files or with JPG files cannot (or will not) read DVDs with MP3 files or JPG files on them. You’d think that adding this capability would be easy, but perhaps there aren’t enough people who burn DVDs with MP3 or JPG files. Perhaps that was what “The kid at Staples” meant by “they’re good only for data - not music”? ---
**Author:** ![Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoundrel_Swanswater)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/10 "2006-09-05T14:47:50Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] The one odd thing that I’ve found with DVD-R discs is that a DVD player that can read CDs with MP3 files or with JPG files cannot (or will not) read DVDs with MP3 files or JPG files on them. You’d think that adding this capability would be easy, but perhaps there aren’t enough people who burn DVDs with MP3 or JPG files. Perhaps that was what “The kid at Staples” meant by “they’re good only for data - not music”? [/QUOTE] It depends on the player. My Yamaha DVD-player does play DVD’s with MP3 files. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/11 "2006-09-05T15:34:16Z")
[QUOTE=BarnOwl] The kid at Staples said they’re good only for data - not music. **Any chance he’s wrong?** [/QUOTE] If you look at the DVDs and CDs on the shelf you will see that some of them are specifically designated for “Music” on the label. This means that a portion of the purchase price is designated to pay royalties to musicians and artists. AFAIK from a technical viewpoint, this means that standalone music recorders will not record on a disc unless it has this special flag embedded in it. Most (if not all) computer CD/DVD drives don’t care about this. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/12 "2006-09-05T15:42:56Z")
[QUOTE=Scoundrel Swanswater] It depends on the player. My Yamaha DVD-player does play DVD’s with MP3 files. [/QUOTE] My Sanyo DVD recorder does as well. And to my surprise, it’ll display JPGs saved on the DVDs too. And wasn’t there a DVD player advertised a couple of years ago that had a feature of displaying your “virtual photo album” on screen? It’s just a matter of time before some company begins marketing an audio DVD player for cars to pander to the mp3 player crowd who can’t imagine not having 4GB of music on hand at all time. ---
**Author:** ![Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@Scoundrel\_Swanswater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoundrel_Swanswater)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/13 "2006-09-05T16:11:18Z")
[QUOTE=FatBaldGuy] If you look at the DVDs and CDs on the shelf you will see that some of them are specifically designated for “Music” on the label. This means that a portion of the purchase price is designated to pay royalties to musicians and artists. AFAIK from a technical viewpoint, this means that standalone music recorders will not record on a disc unless it has this special flag embedded in it. Most (if not all) computer CD/DVD drives don’t care about this. [/QUOTE] This only goes for certain CD-writers. For instance Philips had a standalone cd-writer for use in your stereo-system, which would only burn on these discs. Normal writers don’t make any distinction between normal DVDs and the ones where you have to pay royalties on. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/14 "2006-09-05T17:05:07Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] **What are write-once DVDs good for - besides data storage?** Frisby! [/QUOTE] Wheel covers for a Radio Flyer? ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/15 "2006-09-05T17:19:49Z")
[QUOTE=elfkin477] It’s just a matter of time before some company begins marketing an audio DVD player for cars to pander to the mp3 player crowd who can’t imagine not having 4GB of music on hand at all time. [/QUOTE] I’m not so sure about that. People like that already use iPods in our cars. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/16 "2006-09-05T21:57:11Z")
[QUOTE=FRDE] DVD players are so cheap that it is not worth bothering about existing kit. [/QUOTE] I disagree. Sure, I can upgrade my own DVD player for cheap, but I’m not about to bring it over to my friend’s house when I bring a movie over, nor do I want to deal with the inevitable tech support if I loan a DVD to someone. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/17 "2006-09-06T05:27:19Z")
> [@Barn Owl](#): > > To make the recovery disks for my new HP laptop, the nice Tech Support man in India suggested I use DVDs. Otherwise I’d go through a whole mess of CDs. > > But I bought a 50-pack of the write-once variety. Dumb. The kid at Staples said they’re good only for data - not music. Any chance he’s wrong? Yes and no. You can put anything on a DVD-R that you can on a DVD-RW. As other posters have said, some DVD players are more compatible with write-once discs than rewritables, but these days, even the cheapest players should be able to play anything. But he’s right in a larger sense: DVDs aren’t much good for music at all, whether they’re rewritable or not. There’s a standard for music on DVDs, DVD-Audio (which is why DVD movies always have an empty AUDIO\_TS folder), but no one really cares about it, and it’s hard to find the players or the discs. You can put MP3 files on a DVD, and many DVD players will play them, but some will only play MP3 files from a CD. Car MP3-disc players typically only read CDs, not DVDs. > [@Mangetout](#): > > Write-once DVDs are more likely that RW to be supported by ordinary domestic players - in my experience, they’re also just plain more likely to work - I dabble with video editing and DVD authoring from time to time and I thought buying a couple of RW media would save me money for testing the various stages of output near the final production, however, about a third of the time, burning a DVD video to RW media just plain doesn’t work for me - I can see the files on the computer, but the domestic player just refuses to read it. Sounds like a problem with the player, not the media. I’ve had no trouble with DVD+RWs in my Philips DVP-642, or the Norcent DP-300 before it. Perhaps it’d save more money in the long run to get a $40 unit that can play rewritable discs? [QUOTE=FatBaldGuy] If you look at the DVDs and CDs on the shelf you will see that some of them are specifically designated for “Music” on the label. [/quote] Only CDs. > [@Scoundrel Swanswater](#): > > This only goes for certain CD-writers. > For instance Philips had a standalone cd-writer for use in your stereo-system, which would only burn on these discs. > Normal writers don’t make any distinction between normal DVDs and the ones where you have to pay royalties on. Normal writers also don’t qualify under the Audio Home Recording Act as “digital audio recording devices”. The main reason to use standalone CD recorders and the expensive “music”-labeled media they require, other than convenience, is that the AHRA allows you to legally copy CDs for noncommercial use as long as you use the right devices and media. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/18 "2006-09-06T07:24:25Z")
[QUOTE=Mr2001] Sounds like a problem with the player, not the media. [/QUOTE] How could it be? - take a RW disc and burn authored DVD content on it, and it won’t play, take the same disc back to the computer, wipe it and burn the same content on it again, using exactly the same processes and maybe it will play. I know my player is fussy about some dye types. It’s more likely to be a problem with the writer (although it shouldn’t be, because mine is fairly new and is a good make). ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/19 "2006-09-06T07:31:10Z")
My mack-daddy digital video camera takes 3" dvdrw. But they’re a lot more expensive than regular DVDR. Also, the camera won’t work with “regular” 3" dvdr because it needs to be finallized before it’ll work in your average home DVD player. So I just transfer it all over via USB then open everything up in TMPGEnc and remake everything on cheap-ass dvdr blanks. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489/20 "2006-09-06T07:35:04Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] How could it be? - take a RW disc and burn authored DVD content on it, and it won’t play, take the same disc back to the computer, wipe it and burn the same content on it again, using exactly the same processes and maybe it will play. [/quote] If your computer can read it, the data is there, and a DVD player should also be able to read it. I suspect your DVD player just has trouble reading the less-reflective RW discs… you might even be able to get it to read one just by ejecting and reinserting the disc instead of burning it again, but perhaps you’ve tried that already. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-arewrite-once-dvds-good-for-besides-data-storage/371489.md?page=2)