Posted by joeu2004 on 07/02/06 23:25

These are probably just an academic newbie questions, with little
practice use. But I'm curious....

Are there any physical differences between "-" and "+" DVD media of the
same type (R or RW)?

Are there any physical differences between R and RW DVD media of the
same type ("-" or "+")?

I understand (that is, guess) that there are differences in recording
format -- that is, the content and/or the encoding format. But is
there any physical reason why, for example, I could not record +RW
format onto -R media, if my equipment permitted it?

The motivation for my question is....

I often find price differences between "-" and "+" media of the same
type (R or RW) and between R and RW media of the same type ("-" and
"+"), all of the same brand. Is there a legitimate reason for the
price difference? Or is the industry taking advantage of my ignorance,
presuming that I will assume that "+" should cost more than "-" and RW
should cost more than R because of an illusion of increased capability
(due to the format, I presume)?

On a practical level....

If there are no physical differences, is there any way to coerce my
equipment (Sony RDR-VX530) into writing a particular format onto media
that is marketed for a different format? For example, writing -R onto
+RW media or vice versa.

It does not seem so. The DVD recorder seems to automagically recognize
the media type and formats it accordingly. The only choice seems to be
between VR and Video formats for -R/-RW DVDs. But I am new to all of
this, and perhaps I overlooked an option or a trick.

Finally....

I believe that some DVDs of the same (+RW, for example) are marketed as
"2x", "4x", "16x", etc. I guess this refers to the supported maximum
recording speed. Right?

Is this yet-another marketing ploy ("the naive customer will pay more
for the illusion of greater capability")? Or is there truly something
physically different between, say, a 4x and a 16x DVD? If so, what is
the difference?

TIA.

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