What is the difference between DVD-R and DVD+R?

[Copperman]

I bought 25 DVD-R and now the Nero burner is asking for DVD+R media. What gives?

[ormonde]

What make and model is your DVD burner? "Nero" is a burning application (NeroVision for authoring) and has no trouble accepting (-, +) media to my knowledge. Your burner on the other hand, might not be compatible with -R media.

[Copperman]

NEC DVD+RW ND 2100AD
The CD is a Sony CD-R
Does that mean it takes a different type of media as well?

[Copperman]

Also what is the difference between the media? A minus R and plus R?

[ormonde]

"Does that mean it takes a different type of media as well?"

Your drive is not compatible with -R, -RW media. It appears that you can only use +R, +RW disks.

"Also what is the difference between the media? A minus R and plus R?"

Nothing much as far as the overall quality that either format yields, but different manufacturers design the firmwares of their drives to only accept certain types of media formats. This largely has to do with the competition within the industry. There are some drives on the market that accept just about all the main types of media (super drives). Pioneer comes to mind as one.

[Copperman]

Thanks. Sort of like a light bulb that doesn't fit your socket. One would think they would get on board and make all the media R or RW instead of making subtle insignificant changes.

Guess we should write the manufacturer to get with the program. Now I have a stack of 25 disks that CompUSA probably won't take back. All because of (-/+).

Thanks Ormonde for clarifying for me. Are there any articles on this issue?

[sfheath]

lots of useful info here: http://www.dvdrhelp.com

[ormonde]

"Thanks Ormonde for clarifying for me"

Glad to be of help

"Are there any articles on this issue?"

Not specific ons that I'm aware of, but check out these two links as they could provide some helpful informatiom:

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdplayers

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdmedia

[Necropolis]

Originally posted by ormonde
"Does that mean it takes a different type of media as well?"

Your drive is not compatible with -R, -RW media. It appears that you can only use +R, +RW disks.

"Also what is the difference between the media? A minus R and plus R?"

Nothing much as far as the overall quality that either format yields, but different manufacturers design the firmwares of their drives to only accept certain types of media formats. This largely has to do with the competition within the industry. There are some drives on the market that accept just about all the main types of media (super drives). Pioneer comes to mind as one.

I use the same kind of DVD Drive, and I couldn't get it to work either, I bought a 10 pack of DVD-R, and it wouldn't recognize DVD-R as a cd at all, so I surfed found out I had to Change it to a DVD+R, so I bought a 5 pack of DVD+R, now it says I have a CD in the Drive but the DVD CD has no 0 bytes disk space, 0 bytes free space.

Should I just try a DVD+RW now? Buying all these different DVD Cd's is costing alot.

[ormonde]

"now it says I have a CD in the Drive but the DVD CD has no 0 bytes disk space, 0 bytes free space."

What is the make and model of your DVD burner, and are you sure that the drive will recognize regular "CDs" in addition to the DVD format that the drive supports. Also, I would check and see if there has been a firmware update for the drive.

[Necropolis]

The Device Manager reads _NEC DVD+RW ND-2100AD

I have burned Cd's and made Data disks on the 700mb disks, I have no idea if they wheither they are CD-R's or Cd+R or whatever. I have even watched the Spiderman 2 DVD using it, so I know it can read them.

It's just burning DVD cd's that I am having a problem with.

Oh, and I have tried downloading Firmware from Dangerous Brothers, the zips came up as corrupt, I even turned off the firewall to download like they said and the zips they were offering, still came up as corrupted.

[TRI0N]

You should only download your firmware from the manufactur. Big security risk to download something such as firmware and install it unless it comes from a reliable source.