OP pretty much says it. I’m pricing two DVD recorders. One uses DVD-R, and is 139.99. One uses DVD + R and is 79.99.
Are there limitations on what players can playback a DVD-R, once it is “burned” and finalized?? What’s the difference in the formats?
Cartooniverse
Real simplistically, they are different formats, like VHS vs. Beta video tape formats.
The experts in this can tell which is better, technically. (But remember, the VHS-Beta battle was NOT decided on technical superiority.)
At this point, I don’t think there is a concensus on which will win out in the end. I even think there is still another competing format out there (DVD-RAM?).
But on players, we have an advantage over the days of the VHS-Beta wars. Current electronics make it possible to buy players that read BOTH these formats. They cost more, but will not become obsolete when one of these formats wins out. Personally, I’d only look at players that can play back both formats.
For recorders, I think you have to pick one fomat – the reasonably priced ones can’t record in both formats. But in most cases, you’re recording backups for your own use, so that doesn’t matter. And if all your friends & relatives that you send personal DVD’s to have multi-format players, it doesn’t matter in that case either.
If this is for your computer you can find many DVD+/-R recorders. I wouldn’t bother with one that doesn’t record both formats.
If you’re shopping for a stand-alone deck, go with the -R.
You’d do best recording the bulk of your DVD videos as a -R because more standard players can read them.
Two earlier threads on this:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=326471&highlight=format
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=291930&highlight=format
Well, not to be contrary or anything, but I just bought a Mad Dog brand multiformat, dual-layer DVD and CD writer from CompUSA for $79.99. I’d have to say that was pretty reasonably priced for a drive that records in every possible format in use on the market in 2006.
Last time I was looking, the multi-format ones were over $200. They’ve obviously become much more reasonable since then!
So at these prices, I’d agree with Seven – don’t bother to consider any recorder that isn’t multi-format. So that would exclude both of your original ones.
So true. I found a multi-format stand along recorder at Radio Shack ( whodathunk?? ) for $ 99.00 after rebate. Tempting… I like this model because it does have the mini-dv wire input connector on it. Nice, to output from the Mac, straight into the recording device.
The last DVD burner I bought was an NEC model that writes both -R(W) and +R(W), single and dual layer, at up to 16X. The OEM version was only about $60, but of course it didn’t come with software.
Here’s a technical article on the differences between + and - that I posted in one of these other threads.
+RW discs are faster to erase, so I never use -RW. I use +R at work because my computer there won’t burn -R; I also use +R instead of -R at home, but not for any real reason. I’ve never had any problems with compatibility.
Er, I wouldn’t say that. VHS and Beta were completely incompatible, but the difference between DVD-R and DVD+R mainly only matters when you’re recording the discs. When you play them back, pretty much any DVD player that accepts one recordable format will accept both. The only DVD players that prefer -R over +R (or vice versa) are antiques, and even when the formats were new, most players worked with both of them.
Ex-optical recording engineer signing in. You’ll forgive me if I contradict any previous posts in this thread, but here you have it straight from the horse’s mouth:
DVD+R/RW was designed right from the very start to be backwards-compatible with ordinary DVD players, an advantage that DVD-R/RW initially didn’t have. This is because +R/RW had the juiciest patents on the seamless linking technology that allows this, and it took the -R/RW camp a while to work around this and come up with a solution.
DVD-R/RW discs originally weren’t backwards compatible with ordinary DVD players at all, but now they’ve come up with an engineering solution to make this format more backwards-compatible, like +R/RW, and most DVD players and recorders are now multi-format, if only for marketing reasons.
DVD-RAM discs aren’t compatible with anything, though they do have the advantage of being able to read and write (seemingly) simultaneously.
+R/RW is the best system, followed by -R/RW, followed by RAM.
2r.
Fridgemagnet, I wasn’t addressing re-writable media in my OP. ( in fact, I didn’t even think about re-writable media when I wrote the OP ! )
Do your comments regarding - or + apply to single-use media as well ? I use my DVD recorder for updating media from VHS and for exporting from FCP III Edit Software so I can show finished video product, and for dubbing straight from Mini-DV tapes.
Thanks for all of the input- I’ve been off boards for a few days, but didn’t abandon my thread. 
Cartooniverse, the rewriteable media are subsets of the parent standards, so DVD+R and DVD+RW can for most intents and purposes be seen as the same thing. Same as for DVD-R and DVD-RW.
RW discs aren’t quite as robust as their write-once counterparts, and will contain more write errors and will be more prone to corruption and ageing. They may have playability issues in some DVD players, as the reflectivity of RW discs is much lower than write-once discs or stamped discs.
Here’s some compare-and-contrast tech specs for DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW, albeit with a vested interest in the +R/RW camp.