[TriLUG] Best Linux-supported CDRW?

[Jeff Jackowski]

On 15 Oct 2002, Jeremy Portzer wrote:

>On Tue, 2002-10-15 at 13:13, Jeff Jackowski wrote:
>> On 14 Oct 2002, Lisa C. Boyd wrote:
>> 
>> >I currently have an outdated CD-RW that's giving me problems. I'm
>> >looking at buying a new one and want to make sure what I get is
>> >compatible with Linux. I would love to be able to write DVDs eventually,
>> >but right now just writing CDs once would be great :)
>> 
>> I've got a Pioneer DVR-A03 drive, so I figured I'd fill in some details. 
>> The newer A04/104 drive can be had for $300 and good DVD-R's, the kind 
>> that DVD players can use, are availble for $4 or less, and cheap DVD-R's, 
>> good for DVD-ROM drives, are under $1 per disk. The lowest prices I've 
>> seen are at http://www.meritline.com/.
>
>I've seen a distinction between "DVD-R" and "DVD+R" (also spelled "DVD
>plus R".  I think maybe the "good" ones you refer to should actually be
>called "DVD+R" to be completely precise.  The whole thing is quite
>confusing...

More confusing than you think. I wasn't refering to DVD+R at all -- I've 
never used those. There are good DVD-R's, like the Verbatim and TDK disks, 
that can be played by most DVD players (assuming they are given the right 
data). There are also cheap, lower quality DVD-R's that will play in only 
a few, if any, DVD players. For under $0.75 per disk, its a great way to 
store data you intend to read from a DVD-ROM drive, just not a DVD player.

That said, it is to my understanding that the good DVD-R's are usable with 
more DVD players than DVD+R, but I could be wrong.

In case you're thinking that DVD+R is just a higher quality version of 
DVD-R, you are mistaken. The media is physically different requiring a 
different drive to write to the DVD-R and DVD+R disks. A few companies 
thought a format war would be fun and profitable. Nope. The DVD standards 
body endorses the DVD-R format.

-- 
Jeff Jackowski
        http://ro.com/~jeffj/