Compatibility tes between DVD-R and DVD+R formats

[Elie]

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/DVDMediaFormats/

The results confirm my statement a while back with regards to most players recognizing -R as opposed to +R format.

Check it out!

Cheers,
Elie

[paulw]

I do think that the 87% compatibility of the + camp is a lot better than most people think.

Since I bought my Pioneer 106 several months ago I made up a + and a -- test disk. Both burned from the same iso file. I have handed them around to various folks with DVD players and have found 100% play back for both formats. Both media were Verbatim. However in saying that all the stuff I do is in the -- format just in case..

It's a pity in their tests that they didn't use more duel standard drives rather than single standard. Only the Sony was duel. They would have been better to have use the Pioneer AO6 rather than the AO5 model..

[DentyCracker]

Elie, that test means nothing to me. It depends on what your target market is and what compatibilty exists in your target market, which varies from location to location. The dye used on the disk also makes a hell of a difference, depending on the dvdr hardware used

[Ray Austin]

Yeah Elie, I go with the -R format too.

Just sent off 10DVD -R disks..... No complaints.

I burnt one +R and it woudn't even play with out skipping/freezing in my dvd player that I just bought last month.

That's all the tests I need to confirm it.

[Hulk]

Always an intersting discussion, but getting more moot everyday as dual format drive prices continue to drop to the ridiculous level.

As was stated in this thread, best to give clients a + and a - test disc to see what plays in their player.

- Mark

[Flying dutchman]

I bought a NEC ND-1000A DVD +R/RW burner last spring. All "+" disks play fine in all standalone players I've tested so far. A few months ago I got a new IBM R40 notebook and it won't play anything that has a "+" on it. I was mighty upset about this because I did all my backups etc on DVD.

I did some digging and found a site on the internet (http://etna.rpc1.org/nec/ and
http://forum.rpc1.org/index.php) where a group of hackers claimed that the ND-1000A and ND-1100A are identical except the firmware. In fact, except for one resistor and one condensor that seem to have identification purpose only, the hardware is identical to the dual-format ND-1300A which has much better write strategies and supports more media. One of these hackers, a guy called "etna", has brought out a modified version of the ND-1300A firmware (version 1.08 B) that will install on ND-1000 and ND-1100 drives and even allows you to change the "booktype" of DVD's.

This "booktype" is a single identification byte written on the disk that serves as an identifier so the DVD player will know what physical type of disk it is. A program like DVDINFOPRO will allow you to change this identifier if your dvd writer supports it.

To make a long story short, I took a deep breath and installed this firmware on my ND-1000A and now it has become a ND-1300A! It is now capable of handling both "+" and "-" media. This is the most cost-effective upgrade I've ever performed!

I can now burn a DVD+R with a changed booktype setting of "DVD-R" and guess what? The disks play perfectly well on my IBM notebook! The same applies to DVD+RW with booktype DVD-RW - even with packet writing my notebook will read it now !!

So my conclusion is: Some DVDROM drives will not read "+" media because their firmware refuses to handle disks that carry this identification.
It has NOTHING to do with physical properties such as reflectivity, because the same drive WILL accept the same disks if you change the booktype identification to "-R", "-RW" or "DVDROM".


Being a software developer myself, it would make sense to me if every DVD drive would default to "DVDROM" behaviour if it found an unknown booktype identifier but for some reason this isn't always so. I don't know if it's just neglect of the firmware writers or something imposed upon them by the DVD forum.

I have now changed the default settings of my drive so that every "+" disk is written with a "-" booktype identifier to accommodate my shitty notebook drive.

The remarkable thing is, I've actually tried to buy some "-R" disks last week, being curious if my drive would burn them with the new firmware, but I couldn't get any!!! A friend was so kind to lend me a few. All five computer shops that I visited said they no longer carry these disks because they consider it an obsolete format now Microsoft officially announced suport for "+"...

[wkulecz]

If any new player glitceh on either DVD-R or DVD+R back it goes!

There is no excuse for this incompatability crap in current players!

--wally.