Choosing Between DVD-R and DVD+R

The DVD, jointly introduced by Sony and Philips way back in 1995, stands for Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc.

It's an optical disc storage that has the same dimensions as compact disc (populary known as CD) but can store as much as six times more data.

Its popularity over the years has increased resulting in numerous DVD variants. Two of the most popular are the DVD-R and DVD+R, both of which can write data once but can be read many times.

What’s the difference between DVD-R and DVD+R recordable disc?
Short answer -- Almost none.
Long answer -- There are few similarities and differences between the two types.

What are their similarities?
• They are both physically of the same size and shape.
• Their data capacities are the same 4.7GB.
• Their durability is the same (depending on the brand).

So what are their differences?
• DVD-R (and DVD-RW) media are officially supported by
  the DVD Forum organization. While DVD+R (and
  DVD+RW) media are NOT officially supported by the DVD
  Forum organization. However, the DVD+R are supported
  by the DVD+RW Alliance (Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Mitsubishi, Verbatim, Philips, Ricoh, Sony, Thomson, and Yamaha).
• The DVD+RW incorporate a higher frequency wobble (compared to DVD-RW) in the embedded
  microscopic tracking groove. This means that the recorder [of DVD+R] can stop and start the
  writing process with extreme accuracy [better than DVD-R].
• DVD+R is slightly costly that DVD-R.
• Some DVD drives specifically RARE OLD models are not  compatible to DVD+R.

Conclusions
Which of the two formats is better? For now, DVD+R is clearly the better choice especially if you’re going to burn multi-session discs.

However, you should also be keen on the brand of the disc you will buy. You can never go wrong with trusted brands as they are more reliable and are likely to keep your data readable for years.

Also consider the maximum burn speed of the disc. Higher burn speeds will enable you to back-up large amounts of data at a shorter time (but only if your DVD burner supports it).

Contributed by: Emil Baseleres