Which DVD R for video? (To play on regular DVD player)

So I’m new to this DVD recording stuff. I want to burn a few home video clips onto DVD for use in standard “home entertainment” DVD players plugged into TVs.

Two questions:

Which is more widely compatible with these players: DVD-R or DVD+R?

What’s the difference between DVD-R/DVD+Rs with “Video” on the box and those with “Data” on the box? Do home entertainment DVD players have slightly different kinds of lasers from computer DVD players?

Thanks in advance for any information.

Doesn’t really matter these days. Used to be a problem in the old days, but I’d say every DVD player sold in the past few years will play any of those disks.

Thanks Irishstu! Quick off the mark as usual.

So what’s the difference between the disks marked for video use and those marked for data use? In 3C, you can buy DVD-Rs and DVD+Rs marked “data”, and also -Rs and +Rs for “video”.

As far as I can see they’re all just some bits of plastic and metal sandwiched together.

In Germany there are CD-Rs with AUDIO label who have some higher copyright “tax” coming with them. Audio CD-R burner for home stereo will search for a label indicating such a specially taxed CD-R.

I guess it is the same with the Video DVD-Rs. But not sure…

I think the video and data ones were the same price.

I use DVD+R

Plus has to be better than minus, coz plus means more.

[quote=“Big Fluffy Matthew”]I use DVD+R

Plus has to be better than minus, coz plus means more.[/quote] :laughing:
Well, you’d think so wouldn’t you? But what if plus actually means “plus more not-goodness”? Bet you hadn’t thought of that.

Yes, that depends if “R” is good or not, then DVD-R (without R) would be better then DVD+R (with R). You’ll have to ask IrishStu, he’s the expert in here.

I can DVD+R on my standalone DVD player for what it’s worth.

[quote=“Big Fluffy Matthew”]Yes, that depends if “R” is good or not, then DVD-R (without R) would be better then DVD+R (with R). You’ll have to ask IrishStu, he’s the expert in here.

I can DVD+R on my standalone DVD player for what it’s worth.[/quote]

Erm… I think you must be referring to a different IrishStu.

Anyway, I did used to hear that home DVD players had an easier time reading “-R”. But like I said, I think that’s no longer an issue. I use both types and they work equally well.

As for the DVDs marked “video”, I would have guessed the same as bob-honest, but just like him, I had only ever experienced the “audio” surcharge. If they’re the same price though, then I really couldn’t tell you what the difference is.

There is of course the possibility that your average Taiwanese DVD vendor isn’t paying all the relevant taxes and ‘video surcharges’ that the government/hollywood would like him to …

There is of course the possibility that your average Taiwanese DVD vendor isn’t paying all the relevant taxes and ‘video surcharges’ that the government/Hollywood would like him to …[/quote]

[sarcasm] Never![/sarcasm]

DVD-R is just the official DVD standard as decided by the DVD Forum, where DVD+R is a standard initiated by an alternative group of vendors, not part of the DVD Forum. So originally, DVD-R were the media of choice to create compatible DVD’s that work in any standalone player. But today, as others have pointed out, this is not true anymore.

Not sure what the difference would be for the video and data labled. I doubt the actual drives in standalone players are much different than the drives in your computer. So if there is no difference in price, then see it as a prelabling. If you want to make a movie, use the one labled video, so you always know, on this DVD is video material.

As has been said, most standalone DVD players will play either DVD-R or DVD+R.

My experience is that the make of the DVD’s you buy is quite important, specially if you want to burn MPEG4 or Xvid/Divx video files as data. Creating authored DVD’s (VOB files) tends to lessen any problems encountered (but not necessarily).

For example I burn DVD+R using a BENQ drive and watch them on a standalone Philips machine.

I have tried various types of DVD’s and the results are very different. BENQ DVD’s burn well, but do not play well. FUJI are good for both (usually), Samsung not so good (get bad batches), Melody hopeless (will not work at all on the Philips machine). I have found that Maxell DVD+R is best for my particular combination (and importantly also work well as “appendable” - i.e. not finalised).

It’s a case of trial and error, and price is not always a reliable guide (although more expensive generally means a better chance of success).

You should be able to google to see what makes of DVD the hardware manufacturers recommend for their products which is a decent starting point.

Hope this helps…

P.S. All DVDs can store data, video, pictures, etc. (Digital Versatile Disc). I suspect that those labelled VIDEO are higher quality discs than those labelled DATA. The spec is no different.

It also depends a lot on what kind of player you have, what kind of burner you have, and what firmware your burner has, as well as the brand of media.

I mostly use DVD+R media these days because the burners I have are faster at +R than -R. I used to use/swear by only -R media, but these days it doesn’t matter much.

My main player is a Pioneer and will play pretty much everything, except the crappiest media. My second player is a Tobishi and it will play almost any single layer media but has trouble playing dual layer recordables. Finally I have an old Samsung player from 1998 that’ll only play the highest quality media. I mainly keep it around because if something plays on it, it’ll pretty much play on anything.

My main burner now is a BenQ 16X DW1640. I also have an older Lite-On 8X drive installed in my desktop but I don’t use it much.

Here’s my current experience with recordable DVD media:

Dual Layer +R:

Excellent results with Verbatim/Mitsubishi DVD+RDL. This is sold as 2.4X speed but it’ll burn at up to 8X speed if your burner supports that speed. My BenQ drive will burn it at 8X without problem.

Mediocre to OK results with media with a RICOHJPN manufacturer code, but only supports 2.4X. (Imation and Melody branded disks.)

Bad to Poor results with RITEK manufacturer code, only 2.4X. (Ridata branded disks.)

Single Layer +R 16X:

Good results with Ricoh branded disks and Imation “Rainbow” branded disks.

Mediocre results with Imation “SO-HOT” branded disks.

Poor to OK results with Melody branded disks.

Single Layer +R 8X:

Excellent results with Maxell disks.

Usually excellent results with Ritek or Ridata branded disks, though I’ve had a few problems recently with some spindles with high failure rates.

Good results with Philips and BenQ disks.

Poor to mediocre results with Sony, Iomega, Melody and Zio branded disks.


I would recommend not buying 16X until quality is improved and pricing comes down (the reliable brands are still expensive). For 8X I would recommend Maxell for important things, BenQ for reliable lower-priced disks. For DL I would only recommend Verbatim/Mitsubishi currently.

Even so, I’d recommend buying a couple of different 10-pack spindles of different brands to see what works well with your combination of hardware. You’ll note that I have had good results with BenQ while someone else here had problems with it.

i’ve been using only verbatim for the last decade for cd and now dvd. never had any problem. the verbatim dl are easily the best on the market atm.