The Difference Between + and - ?

[Thermopylae_480]

What is the difference between DVD + and DVD -? I know that some DVD Burners will only burn + while others will only burn -, but what is the physical difference between discs? This seems to be somewhat of a mystery, and it is a question I seem to be asked by people quite often, but I don't seem to even begin to know.

[Migons]

Both have same physical dimensions, the main difference is basicly only the alliances. But in nowdays, almost every DVD burner will burn both medias (R/RW, Dual-Layer). If I remember right, there were some small differences in booktypes or something, and DVD-R can hold about 3-5MB more data than DVD+R (because DVD+R have static sector size or something like that, don't remember excactly).

[Israar]

As stated above, the only real difference is the file size writeable to the DVDs.

To clarify on what Migons wrote, it is not 3-5Mb in data size difference, it's more. DVD-R can hold upto the 4.7Gb of data writeable, obviously a little smaller than the full amount whereas the DVD+R can only hold upto 4.5Gb of data due to how the architecture is built in the DVD+R revisions.

I mainly use DVD+R's though I don't do much writing, just for storing, I should really be using the DVD-R for the storing because of the extra space but, I just like the DVD+R (the pronunciation of it) over the DVD-R hehe!

--Lee

[Migons]

Originally Posted by Israar

To clarify on what Migons wrote, it is not 3-5Mb in data size difference, it's more. DVD-R can hold upto the 4.7Gb of data writeable, obviously a little smaller than the full amount whereas the DVD+R can only hold upto 4.5Gb of data due to how the architecture is built in the DVD+R revisions.

The size difference between single-layer DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW is actually 5 701 632 Bytes ~ or 5,4375 MiB for DVD-R/RW's advantage. I have burned many times more than 4,19 GiB (if we say DVD+R can hold 4.5 GB - like you say) on DVD+R disc.

[Poisonsnak]

If you're looking for a more technical answer:

http://www.sharpened.net/helpcenter/answer.php?129

Also for those confused about the capacity of DVD-R or DVD+R:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-R
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_plus_R

Basically though the capacity is 4.7 billion bytes, or about 4450MB.

thanks for catching that, my mind was on "mebibytes" vs "megabytes" after reading those articles.

[Migons]

Originally Posted by Poisonsnak

4.7 billion bits

[snus] bytes [/snus]

[Israar]

Originally Posted by Migons

The size difference between single-layer DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW is actually 5 701 632 Bytes ~ or 5,4375 MiB for DVD-R/RW's advantage. I have burned many times more than 4,19 GiB (if we say DVD+R can hold 4.5 GB - like you say) on DVD+R disc.

Aha, I guess I was mis-informed then

Thanks for correcting me Migons, appreciate it, at least *now* I know the difference in file size allocation for both formats

--Lee

[Envo Diverter]

Realy the only difference is the file size. i know where ur coming from i get asked that alot too. its one of those stupid things that always manages to come up!