Monday, February 03, 2003

DVD Media

What a confusing technology... fortunately the Sony is compatible with all of the currently competing standards. (Currently there are 3 Re-Writeable standards and 2 Writeable standards... plus the original DVD-ROM standard.)

DVD+RW - targeted at compatibility with the DVD-Video players/recorders, holds 4.7Gb. Technology is based on CD-R/RW formats. A disk can be re-written about 1000 times. Disk prices are around $5. When used with Roxio's DirectCD, the DVD is ready for files in about 5 minutes (you have to use the DirectCD format utility to prepare the disk).

DVD-RW - similar to CD-RW in that the data is stored in one long sequential track, 4.7Gb capacity per side and can be re-written around 1000 times (each sector slowly wears out). Disk prices are around $5. When used with Roxio's DirectCD, the DVD takes 90 minutes to prepare (using the DirectCD format utility).

DVD-RAM - basically is a hard-disk / zip-disk / floppy-disk that has a 2.6Gb or 4.7Gb capacity per side. It can be re-written around (more than?) 100,000 times. Requires special drives (is not compatible with anything else) to use. Disks are around $10 each now.

DVD+R - write-once, 4.7Gb per side. A competing format with DVD-R, but cost is higher then DVD-R media (around $5-$6 per disk).

DVD-R - write-once, 4.7Gb per side. Professional grade media (a.k.a authoring) supports copy protection (CSS) and "glass mastering". Most of us will want to use consumer grade, which is a good bit cheaper and more fitting to our needs ($2-$5 per disk, professional media runs $20-$40 per disk)

Links:

DVD Cookbook

DVD FAQ

So what am I using? I've settled on using DVD+RW for my data storage where I want to re-write the media (using DirectCD), and DVD-R for my longer term storage. Of course, that may change in a year or two once the format wars shake out. The DVD-RW media's requirement of a 90 minute format before using with DirectCD is a bit off-putting compared to DVD+RW's less than 5 minute prep time.

posted by Wuphon's at 7:21 PM