Recordable dvd formats explained - hardware

Picking your way because of the ton of in rank free on recordable DVD formats can be a nightmare. To help you out, we've done our best to collect it into this summary.

There are five recordable versions of DVD; DVD-R for General, DVD-R for Authoring, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW. None of the formats is fully companionable with the other though there are drives which will read, and in some cases write to more than one format.

DVD-R for Broad-spectrum and DVD-R for Authoring are for all intents and purposes DVD versions of CD-R. And DVD-RW is a DVD account of CD-RW. All three formats can be read in average DVD-ROM drives and in most DVD video players. The differentiation amid DVD-R for General and DVD-R for Authoring is that DVD-R for Common is a arrangement calculated for widespread consumer use and doeasn't aid 'professional' skin tone such as piracy fortification or duplication in mass duplicators. The Break new ground DVD-RW drive which is the most all the rage PC appliance for inscription to DVD uses the DVD for All-purpose format. And as as the case with CD, DVD-RW is for all intents and purposes the same as DVD-R except that it can be erased and on paper to again and again.

DVD-RAM is somewhat assorted as it is a sector based disc which mounts on the desktop of a PC when inserted into a drive. Files can then be clich?d to it in the same way as any other mounted media. Some single-sided DVD-RAM discs can be removed from their caddy and inserted in a DVD-ROM drive which will then be able to read the at ease of the disc.

There are DVD video recorders which use the DVD-RAM format. This enables themn to pull off adroit tricks like timeshifting - where you can watch the creation of a programme you have recorded while you are still cassette the end on the same disc.

DVD+RW is the newest arrangement and not supported by the DVD Forum, the body which sets the values for DVD. However, it is supported by some of the leading electronics and laptop manufacturers, and is as a result expected to stick around.

It is also the configure used by Philips in its DVD video recorders. Even though not being authorised by the DVD Forum, DVD+RW is claimed by its supporterd to be compatible with more DVD video players than DVD-R and DVD+RW writers are found in PCs from quite a few manufacturers.

In early 2006, clothes are set to get even more convoluted with the beginning of two new formats, HD-DVD and Blu-ray, but that's a whole other story. . .

Kenny Hemphill is the editor and publisher of The HDTV Tuner, a site which aims to cut all through the chaos surrounding HDTV and give surfers with up to date, exact and easy to read information on HDTV.