DVD Alphabet Soup Demystified

What is a person to do standing there in the aisle at the computer store being confronted with an alphabet soup of DVD discs? You simply want to move your home movies on your computer to a DVD and are now bewildered by all the "flavors". Which DVD is best for your purposes and what do all those letters and symbols mean anyway?

Just like school, lets start with the basics. You probably already know what a DVD is used for but do you know what DVD stands for? Nothing! Most people believe it stands for "digital video disc" and it has been argued that it also stands for "digital versatile disc" since the disc can handle all sorts of data, not just video. However, there is no universal, industry accepted definition for DVD. Keep that in mind next time you are playing a trivia game.

Now what do all of those -R and +R's mean? They represent two different formats, or types of DVD's that were competing to become the industry standard several years ago. It was all very similar to the battle between Blu-Ray and HD DVD that played out with Blu-Ray the winner a little over a year ago. However, in the case of DVD-R and DVD+R, there was tie. Both became accepted and widely used. The type of disc you use is simply dependent on the type of DVD hardware you have.

However, it is now almost universal for hardware to be capable of handling both types of DVD's thereby minimizing the danger of purchasing the incorrect format. Optical drives for your computer that handle both formats will be denoted as DVD+/-R. Incidentally, both formats are very similar in quality although +R format has been represented to have slightly more and better storage than the -R format. Unless you are a techno wonder geek, consider the formats equivalent.

The next alphabet mystery is the "RW". This notation indicates that the disc can be recorded to multiple times. If you get tired of watching your spouses square-dancing lessons, you can record your nail-biting tiddlywinks championship game on top of it. Discs with just an "R" can only be recorded onto once. As a general rule of thumb, RW discs are useful for general computer files and data while R discs are good for music and video.

The real take home message is to make sure you purchase discs that are compatible with your hardware. The best way to make sure this happens is to equip your computer with a DVD burner that will handle all of the formats. This way you can avoid the indigestion that alphabet soup can cause.

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