After reading this article, I will never buy another DVD-R disk again, only DVD+R.

I hope this saves some of you a headache down the road, keeping you from transferring data to an inferior disk format that may not last very long.

How To Choose CD/DVD Archival Media » Ad Terras Per Aspera

Very interesting read! Most of my DVDs are -R. Looks like I've got some re-burning to do.

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My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind
Albert Einstein

Speaking of Discs... a little off topic but I've decided to stop storing Games in their original cases... our brand new Guitar Hero 2 for Xbox360 cracked right in the center (where it goes back in the case ).. thankfully Gamestop exchanged it ( we just bought it last week!)... I went online and people recommend that you don't put them back into the original cases.

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" You've Been Thunder Struck ! "

Speaking of re-burning, I'm glad you brought that up. Maybe you or someone reading this can help.

I recorded my DVD-R's off the TV on a Panasonic DVD recorder. Nothing special there.

I have a SONY DVD recorder in my PC with bundled NERO software. I have had trouble trying to use their DVD copy feature when it involves copying from one type of disk to another.

What I want to do is simple. I want to put a DVD-R into my PC (using the NERO software) and copy it to a DVD+R

Has anyone else out there tried that, either using NERO or anything else? Thanks.

I would not use anything other than a DVD-RW because you can erase and re-record (I hate the expression "burn."). With DVD-R, you are stuck. Make an error, and it can not be repaired.

You pay a premium for the option to reburn, which only makes sense if the data has to be updated often. Also, if you are backing up and you get a virus between backups, you will end up backing up the virus or other issue and have nothing to fall back on.

Personally, I backup and store to an external HD (500GB) and then periodically burn permanent DVDs and file them away in the fireproof safe.

I don't think the article I cited did justice to the other anecdotal evidence I read on the web about how "not permanent" some of these DVD's are! That's one of the reasons I posted. People were reporting that DVD-R disks, and especially some of the bargain brands, were not even readable after one year!

The article I quoted cites a website that sells the best brand of DVD's, and wonderfully enough, they are as cheap to buy in bulk as it is to buy them locally.

The other question I hope readers can answer is the one about copying a DVD-R to a DVD+R. I'd like to get my collection migrated from DVD-R. I don't trust those disks anymore.

When I copy DVD to DVD (regardless of the +/-) I simply hook my DVD player to my DVD player/recorder. Put your old DVD-R in the player and a blank DVD+R in the recorder.

I find there is more fault in the DVD product and not the DVD-R technology. A properly made DVD-R should last a very long time. The problem is that too many consumers put too much emphasis on price over quality.

We'd rather pay $1,200 for a flat TV and have to toss it in 3-6 years than pay $3,500 for one that lasts 10 years.

if it's an option, the best way to go from disc to disc is to copy the data to a hard drive and then burn it to a new disc. the data transfer rates on a dvd drive aren't going to be nearly as good as those from a hard drive.

while it's likely that nobody's entertaining the advice... anderson really doesn't know what he's talking about. it would be a waste of time and money to use dvd-rw unless you really had to. chances are, you can store the content that you may or may not want to keep long term on a hard drive. burn the stuff you want to keep or back up onto +r or -r media.

-M

You are so close to answering my question, maybe you've tried this. Are you able to take a DVD-R, copy the image to disk, and then turn around and burn that image onto a DVD+R ? If so, what burning software are you using?

I tried something similar with a DVD-RAM disk, attempting to copy to a DVD-R and it was a miserable failure.

I also tried copying a DVD-R that refused to finalize to a new DVD-R, but the copy was so faithful that the new disk wouldn't finalize either! (say it with me...Crap!)

I'm getting tired of throwing away my disks, so I wanted to ask someone who has done it.

copying files to make a data dvd readable on your computer should be straight-forward and there shouldn't be any weird anomalies...

however, it sounds to me like what you're trying to do is copy a dvd so that it's viewable on any dvd player, which is a more involved process. simply copying the files to your hard drive and then dragging the files over to a nero project probably isn't going to cut it. i'm pretty sure nero comes with a utility to make a disc image. i'd use that utility to make an image of the disc you want to copy. then when making the new dvd, provide that disc image as your source... nero has a burn from image option. of course, this won't work with a commercial dvd movie.

-M

I haven't tried it yet (I need to get some +R disks), but this is what I'm going to try first:
Put the DVD-R in the PC's burner, open Nero and choose the option to copy a DVD. Make your source drive and the destination drive the same. Begin a copy. When it prompts you for the disk to burn to, put in the DVD+R.

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My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind
Albert Einstein

I was in the mood to sacrifice the life of yet another DVD disk today, so I used my NERO Express Version 7 that came bundled with my Sony DVD recorder.

I used the COPY DVD function in NERO and inserted a finalized, DVD-R disk to copy.

After the temporary transfer to a hard-disk image was made, I was prompted to insert a new disk, which was a DVD+R.

NERO did the old Monty Python Frenchman in the castle routine on me, it basically told me I couldn't use that kind of disk, and to "Go away or I shall taunt you a second time".

So far, no luck copying DVD-R to DVD+R with Nero Express 7.

Anyone that finds software to do this will be in my Geek Hall of Fame and forever immortalized on OKCTalk.

did try writing a permanent image (bin/cue or iso) to your hard drive? i really think that'll work. -M

This afternoon, I actually tried doing the DVD COPY function to a disk image, then copying to a DVD in a separate step. The problem is when you use a DVD-R for the source disk and eventually try to use a DVD+R disk as the target, NERO gets all bent out of shape and says "No way".

How disappointing. We can put a man on the moon, we can broadcast TV in Hi-Def over the airwaves, yet we can't copy our DVD's from one format to another.

My search continues for the Holy Grail of DVD copying software.

And thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions. If I stumble onto the solution, I will certainly post it here.

Everyone needs to get off of DVD-R disks, they are horribly inferior in format and error tolerance compared to DVD+R.