Which is better DVD-R or DVD+R? And why?

[flip69]

I want to get the best price and the greatest useablity in different standalone DVD players. Is it better to get -RW or +RW instead?

[gd_nimrod]

DVD+R/+RW and DVD-R/-RW are all rewritable DVD formats, however, only DVD+R/+RW is designed from the start to be compatible with existing DVD-ROM drives and DVD-Video players. This means that a DVD+R or DVD+RW disc recorded in a DVD+R/+RW video recorder can be played in virtually all DVD-Video players or DVD-ROM equiped PCs, and that any DVD+R or DVD+RW disc recorded with data on a PC DVD+R/+RW drive can be read by most DVD-ROM drives.
Most dvd players these days play a whole bunch of formats, check out www.vcdhelp.com and the dvd players section for info on a specific dvd player.

[fivehours]

DVD-R is cheaper :
specially the blank media price is less than half the price of DVD+R

the advantage of DVD+R format is
DVD+RW has the same rewrite speed as DVD+R, and faster reading speed

it can be read just as usual DVD-Rom
while the DVD-R can be read only 2x speed.

i personally like the rewritable format DVD+RW, it is useful for back up or data storage.

for the compatiblity refer to the following research by Intellikey Labs

Format Compatibility
DVD+R 90 percent
DVD-R 77 percent
DVD+RW 72 percent
DVD-RW 66 percent

the interesting thing is this research was supported by the pioneer(DVD-R maker)
the pioneer website anounces slightly different result with the same source but still DVD+RW is slightly more compatible than DVD-RW format

but most of present DVD-Rom or player support officically the DVD-R format while DVD+R is not officially supported

i just suspect my old DVD drive and player regarad DVD+R as just DVD-ROM


there are also some drives like sony which supports DVD-R 4x, DVD-RW 2x, DVD+R/RW 2.4x

but if you wait more
DVD+R/RW 4x will be available soon.