View Full Version : Advice on DVD recording hardware...



okcpulse
07-19-2004, 12:12 PM
Having built my own computer, I purchased a DVD-RAM/-R mulit-recorder to include with the entire package. Until I recently completed a project for my brother and sister-in-laws that was a gift for their wedding, I had no idea that my DVD recorder was built to burn only one kind of DVD, which is DVD-R (DVD dash R). Before hand, I had purchased DVD+R, not knowing the my recorder didn't even accept that version. In addition, there are multiple kinds of blank DVD media, which can throw a consumer into a world of confusion. That includes DVD-R/-RW; DVD+R/+RW; DVD-RAM; DVR (haven't seen that one yet) HD-CD (not that one either) and, of course, VCD and SVCD.

To make matters worse, there is no universal standard for which home component DVD players are built to read recordable DVD's. As it turns out, each model from different manufacturers are built to read only certain types of recordable DVD's. Some only read DVD-Video (manufactured DVD movie) and VCD.
Some can read DVD-R only, some DVD-R/-RW and so on. Thankfully, almost all DVD players can read a VCD, but not SVCD (Super-Video CD), a higher resolution version of Video-CD.

I find that DVD players are now where CD players were four years ago. Not all CD players could read CD-R's, and not all DVD players could even read CD's. However, most DVD players can read DVD-R, but you would still have to check the owner's manual just to be sure. As far as PC's go, you must still have decoding software like InterVideo WinDVD before you can use your DVD player, even if it is a Video CD.