# What format DVD will work in most domestic players? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2004, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-format-dvd-will-work-in-most-domestic-players/270374 "2004-10-21T09:49:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [October 21, 2004, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-format-dvd-will-work-in-most-domestic-players/270374/1 "2004-10-21T09:49:40Z")
I’m creating some animation and graphics stuff which will be used as back-projection for a theatrical production. The sound&light guy will be using an ordinary(although professional quality) DVD player (into a video mixer and on to the projector). I’m buying a DVD RW drive that writes to all formats, but if I want to create DVDs that will play in ordinary domestic players (that is to say not DVD drives installed in a computer), what kind of DVD media do I need to buy? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-format-dvd-will-work-in-most-domestic-players/270374/2 "2004-10-21T10:11:03Z")
After a long and not too fruitful search, I found [this site](http://www.videohelp.com/dvd), which makes the claim (backed up by my experience) that DVD-R is the more compatable format. (Presuming you mean the difference between DVD-R and DVD+R.) ---
**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:** [October 21, 2004, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-format-dvd-will-work-in-most-domestic-players/270374/3 "2004-10-21T10:24:45Z")
Thanks. Heh. Yes, I _guess_ I mean the difference between +R and -R, but as a newcomer to DVD authoring, it’s all a bit perplexing. There doesn’t seem to have been a Betamax/VHS watershed-type event for DVD formats and it looks like that can’t actually happen now (although I realise some other formats such as +RW and RAM are different simply because they offer different features). ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-format-dvd-will-work-in-most-domestic-players/270374/4 "2004-10-21T10:32:52Z")
However, it’s worth noting that the site claims compatibility rates of 93% and 89% for DVD-R and DVD+R, respectively, and 80% and 79% for DVD-RW and DVD+RW, respectively, so, assuming the numbers are accurate, there really isn’t much difference between the two. Still, might as well make discs that are as compatible as possible… ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-format-dvd-will-work-in-most-domestic-players/270374/5 "2004-10-21T12:54:07Z")
If you can, find out what specific models of DVD player your discs will be played on, then look them up at [http://www.videohelp.com/](http://www.videohelp.com/) to see that types of disc they can read, and make discs specifically for them. ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-format-dvd-will-work-in-most-domestic-players/270374/6 "2004-10-21T18:18:46Z")
If the burner supports it, DVD+R discs can be “bitset” to match the DVD-ROM booktype. I’ll spare the gory details, but it basically means that the format matches standard, pressed DVDs instead. A DVD-ROM player will treat is at a -ROM disc. DVD-Rs, however, do not support bitsetting. I’m pretty sure about that anyway. The ability to use bitsetting ought to increase the compatibility of +R discs. ---
**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:** [October 21, 2004, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-format-dvd-will-work-in-most-domestic-players/270374/7 "2004-10-21T18:37:32Z")
> [@audilover](#): > > If the burner supports it, DVD+R discs can be “bitset” to match the DVD-ROM booktype. I’ll spare the gory details, but it basically means that the format matches standard, pressed DVDs instead. A DVD-ROM player will treat is at a -ROM disc. > > DVD-Rs, however, do not support bitsetting. I’m pretty sure about that anyway. The ability to use bitsetting ought to increase the compatibility of +R discs. My understanding is that the incompatibilities of burned DVDs with some DVD players is due to the fact that the colorization process does not produce quite the same distinctions as the pressing process, and that some older DVD players just can’t _read_ the burned disks at all. So changing the bit alignment (is that what bitsetting is) wouldn’t make any difference. For example, my DVD player (which is about six years old), will happily play pressed DVDs and burned DVDs of both types, but it can’t read burned CDs at all. It complains that there is no disk in the drive. It shouldn’t matter if the player is at all recent, though. ---
**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:** [October 21, 2004, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-format-dvd-will-work-in-most-domestic-players/270374/8 "2004-10-21T21:33:10Z")
I know that used to be the case with CDRs - not that the data was necessarily arranged or represented any differently on the medium, but that the dye technology meant that the reflective properties of the pits and lands, or the contrast between them, weren’t good enough for the sensor. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-format-dvd-will-work-in-most-domestic-players/270374/9 "2004-10-21T21:57:49Z")
I did the research about a year or so ago when I was shopping for a DVD burner. Funny I enough, I hit the same websites, and came to the same conclusions as **Tengu** did. DVD -R Btw it’s “DVD minus R” not DVD “dash” R ---
**Author:** ![browolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@browolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/browolf)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-format-dvd-will-work-in-most-domestic-players/270374/10 "2004-10-21T22:10:28Z")
i discovered recently that 8x dvds that i burnt at home didnt work on the dvd rom drives at work. For most usability this indicates to use slower discs. ---
**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:** [October 22, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-format-dvd-will-work-in-most-domestic-players/270374/11 "2004-10-22T01:19:15Z")
Personally, I use DVD+R for just about everything. I have some DVD-Rs just in case, but I’ve had no trouble getting +Rs to work. The compatibility differences are pretty slim, and new DVD players will play both formats anyway, so I just buy +Rs because they’ll work in my single-format DVD burner at work. DVD-RW vs. DVD+RW is another story. I bought one -RW disc, and after seeing how slow it was to use, I’ve stuck with +RW. > [@iamthewalrus(:3=](#): > > My understanding is that the incompatibilities of burned DVDs with some DVD players is due to the fact that the colorization process does not produce quite the same distinctions as the pressing process, and that some older DVD players just can’t _read_ the burned disks at all. So changing the bit alignment (is that what bitsetting is) wouldn’t make any difference. Some DVD players are physically capable of reading the discs, but they refuse to play if they see the wrong book type. There’s an area of the disc that says which standard the disc adheres to, and some players don’t know they can play DVD+R discs, so changing the book type makes the disc work on those players. > [@World Eater](#): > > Btw it’s “DVD minus R” not DVD “dash” R I’ve heard the opposite: ([AnandTech](http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=1864&p=2)) > [@](#): > > One interesting item we found was that Plextor’s 60-page manual continued to misidentify DVD-R as “DVD minus R” (it’s “DVD dash R”, according to the DVD-R forum).