Whenever I’m writing a short piece on consumer DVD recorders, I have to pick and choose what I will actually talk about. That means leaving out some of the things I consider are probably of less importance to the target readership.
So, for example, when I write about the differences between DVD+R and DVD-R (things are a bit more complicated with the RW versions), I usually write something like: ‘For consumer recorders, there are no particular advantages either way between DVD+R and DVD-R. Just make sure that you get the right one for whichever recorder you choose.’
But, of course, there are differences. Note that here I am talking only about consumer recorder use, not computer DVD burner use.
A minor one is that DVD+R uses the +VR format, whereas DVD-R sticks with the Video format (the same as that used by purchased DVDs). Now the +VR format is highly compatible with DVD players. Indeed, I’ve never had one not work. But it is still rather strange. For example, a duly finalised DVD+R has more Titles on it than you’d expect. Let’s say you record four programs, each in its own Title and each, therefore, with its own menu entry. But the DVD+R will hold not four, but ten titles. Titles One through Four will be those four Titles linked to by the menu entries. Title Five will be the main menu itself. Titles Six through Ten will be repeats of the first five Titles, although they often work unreliably. I can’t quite fathom why this would be. (The Titles are repeated, not the data. Titles can link to any data so the existence of a logical Title does not, in itself, ensure that there is additional data.)
I also find that DVD Bit Rate Viewer 1.4 just won’t recognise any Titles on a DVD+R. Or, rather, it recognises them but considers them all to have a duration of zero seconds.
However my major beef with DVD+R is that it won’t support a 16:9 aspect ratio. If you record an anamorphic widescreen program from, say, a digital set top box, the recorder sets a flag of 4:3. This isn’t a problem for those using widescreen displays because you can force a 4:3 program to display in widescreen. But for those who have a 4:3 display, there is no way that they can trick the DVD player to reformat the picture into letterboxed widescreen, so the result will always be distorted.