Difference between DVD formats?

I'm looking into buying a DVD recordable drive. I already know which one, the Sony DRU500A because it's the only drive to support all current "standards".

The problem is that I don't know which standard is the best. With which standard will I get best results if I want to use the disks in my living-room DVD player ? I know one format works better with older DVD players, but I don't know wich one.
Also I want to use it for making backups of my system. Also here : which disks to use? DVD-R(W) or DVD+R(W)? Or will both formats be easily read by all DVD-ROM drives in other PC's?
Then for creating the disks : the way I see it, the drive always uses the same writing software (I'll probably use Nero), wether I use DVD + or - only depends on the media that I put into the drive. Is this correct ? Or do I need different writing software for different media ?

Thank heavens for "standards" !

Reading the DVD is entirely up to the DVD-ROM drive. As long as the drive is working correctly, the only thing you need to worry about is the specs of the DVD drive. You can look them up for your model, I'm sure. I was doing that for mine when someone gave me a DVD they burned to check out. But of course, the easiest way to see if it will read a particular type of DVD (-R or +R) disc is to toss it in and see what happens.

As for DVD players (the component type for your TV), you would want to look up the specs in the manual. Ideally all of the drives and players you would use would support the same format. But somehow I don't think that will be the norm.

And when there's more than one, the term "standard" obviously doesn't apply.

From what I remember, DVD-R is the slightly more compatible format. It's best to get one of each and just try it out on whatever hardware you've got. They're both not guaranteed to work in all DVD-ROM drives or DVD players.

You just put whatever media you want into the drive. The actual data on the disc is identical.

So now there is DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM... any others I've missed?

- Trevor

I have the Sony DRU500a. Works great. No complaints so far and has worked with all the media I have bought so far. Right now their kind of pricy because they are on backorder. Only place I know where to find them right now is ebay.

I thought +R was supposed to be the more compatible format ?

I have a +R drive and the +RW disks work in the 3 players I have tried (a toshiba one, Xbox, and PS2)

I think it's best just to get whatever kind works on the player you want to use it on like tman said.

I have the external version of the drive you are considering - the DRX-500UL and its excellent. I'd recommend that you do a firmware upgrade from the sony site before writing discs as I had a lot of coasters until I did this!

My standalone dvd player recognises DVD-R and DVD+RW and thats all I have tried so it may work with others.

DVD+R is the newest format out, so for compatibility DVD-R is the best at the moment for standalone players that I have found.

You don't need different software for each format - Nero will automatically recognise the media. I'd go for DVD-R as these are the cheapest I have found and have no advantage over +R (that I can tell) , but if you want to packet-write I'd go for +RW over -RW. The RW discs are dearer though.

Hope this answers some of your questions!

It's not so important on newer drives/players. DVD-R/RW is more compatible with old equipment as it's the standard has been out for longer and is slightly closer to the normal DVD specification than DVD+R/RW.

DVD-RAM isn't compatible with much else so don't get it if you're not sure!

- Trevor

You may wish to also consider the NEC ND-1100A as seen on http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2123994,00.html

Its the same price as the sony internal drive but is a bit faster.

Here's a thread on the subject. Not much has changed since then.

I've got the Sony drive coming sometime this month. I'm not as interested in playing discs on DVD players, so it doesn't matter as much, but it's nice to have the freedom.

The DVD Player Compatibility list at http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayers has helped me recently. You can lookup the formats supported by your current player and also specify media criteria and it will show you a list of compatible players. The master spec's appear to be derived from user's reviews which while error prone appear to be based upon real experience of the device in question, the manufacturer's published spec's are usually a little cautious in this respect.

I was looking at getting the Plexcombo CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive but maybe I'll get the Sony instead though it's twice as much. Might come in handy being able to burn DVD's besides CD's.

Right now I'm behind most people and can't burn anything.

Rue, that is a great site. I have already passed it on to a couple of other people who are considering DVD related purchases. Thanks a bunch.

DVD players that will play DVD-R/DVD-RW : 487
DVD players that will play DVD+R/DVD+RW :368

Wow! Thanks a lot for all the answers guys! (and girl! ) It has made things a lot clearer for me.

Als, thanks Rue for that great site. I'm sure that one will come in handy.

AFAIK the Sony DRU500 is still in the shops over here, so no shortage that I know of. I look into in getting one next week. I've still got that Christmas bonus that's burning a hole in my pocket!

Again, thanks all!

I just ordered one myself but it is on backorder. I could have spent $40 more and gotten it next week but I'll wait. Hopefully it will come sometime this month.

You won't be disapointed!

Oh goodie

how much are they going for nowadays? i got it from dell @ 270$. was planning to put it on ebay, but i figured that it would be better if i used it myself. shouldve ordered 2.

About £250 - £280 is about the norm.

As always, you guys are pretty lucky when it comes to prices. Over here the darn thing costs +/- $380 !
*sigh*

I got mine for $318 but after sales tax and shipping it's going to be $340. On ebay they were going for more than that. I found a couple of places that had them in stock and it would have been about $380 total cost but I'll wait just to save $40.