Bend Weekly Community Forums

[sufi]

What is the difference between DVD-RW and DVD+RW disk? Can anyone explain? Do they have storage space differences? Do they work on normal DVD-Rom drives (Which do not support DVD Write option)?

[Priceless]

im not too sure about it but i think the difference would be that 1 drive only consists of writing and the other consists of writing and reading the disk

[brent4745]

Well I'm going to go really indepth with this question so get ready =):

DVD+R is a dvd disc (of course), but allows multiple layers or you can also say that the DVD can be written multiple amount of times. The downside to DVD+R's they cost more in relation to their counterpart, the DVD-R. Another plus side to DVD+R's is that they offer faster writing, better internal linking, and support for drag-and-drop desktop files.

DVD-R is virtually the same to its partner (DVD+R), but allows only a single layer of data or you can also say that the DVD is a write once format. With the write once downside the price of the DVD-R is considerably cheaper compared to it's counterpart, the DVD+R

To sum it all up:
Here's a quick list I set up for ya:

DVD+R offers:
Written Multiple amount of times (till the capacity on the disc is gone)
Faster Writing Speeds
Better internal linking (the DVD drive can read the data on the disc a lot better)
Support for drag-and-drop of files (goes with Writing Multiple amount of times)
Higher price compared to the DVD-R

DVD-R offers:
Written only once (once you put X amount of files, that's it)
Slower writing speeds compared to the DVD+R
Not as good internal linking (chances on having the data unreadable increase if the disc isn't properly taken care of)
Doesn't support the drag-and-drop feature because of the write once mehtod
Lower price compared to the DVD+R

I hope this will give you an idea on the difference between DVD+/-R