[TriLUG] Best Linux-supported CDRW?

[Jeff Jackowski]

On 16 Oct 2002, Jeremy Portzer wrote:

>On Wed, 2002-10-16 at 11:36, Jeff Jackowski wrote:
>> 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.
>
>Hmm.  I now see why web sites like meritline.com are pretty useful in
>determining which media works with which players.  Annoying how the
>manufacturer's descriptions are just about equivalent for every brand --
>they all say their DVD-R's work with "most" DVD players, but apparently
>the cheap ones don't do that at all!

I have even observered that if some cheap disks are written with 
Panasonic's DVD-R (and DVD-RAM?) drive, it won't work with my DVD player, 
but when I write the disk with a Pioneer drive, the result plays back fine 
on my DVD player. Really strange.

>> 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.
>
>Thanks for the clarification.  Despite the fact that you say DVD-R was
>endorsed by the "DVD standards body,"  it seems that DVD+R is much more
>common at stores like meritline, and CompUSA, which has a TON of DVD+R
>media (and DVD+RW), but just a few kinds of DVD-R.  (The DVD+R stuff
>seems to be much more expensive.)  I don't think the war's won yet!  :-)

You may want to look again. Meritline's selection of DVD-R's is larger 
than their combined selection of DVD+R and DVD+RW. They also have double 
sided DVD-R's but no such thing for DVD+R.

While the silly format war might not be over, I think the DVD-R/RW stuff 
will be supported for a few years. It looks like it has the needed 
support, especially from the Mac users. So I'm happy since I bought a 
DVD-R/RW drive  :-)

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