DVD+RW

[Milenko]

On the main page this morning there's an article on HPs new DVD+RW drive. <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/12/10/1747209" target="_blank">Read it here.</a> They note in the article that the drive cannot read DVD-RW discs. Note the - instead of a +. What's the difference between DVD+RW and DVD-RW?

[Shard92]

I read something on that awhile back, sorry don't remember where. There are like Three different "standards" to the rewritable DVD drives. The two you mentioned and one more. Hp kicked things off before a standard was chosen and others followed. It's kind of like the deal with the 56k modem when it first came out. There was Kflex and X2 and they used different standards. Now we have V90 which is the standard. Eventually "the powers that be" will dicide which is the standard and everyone will have to change but till then......

I hope this helps!

GLSmith

[Poseidon]

". . .Using phase-change media similar to CD-RW technology, DVD+RW can be formatted for sequential data streams (video) or random access similar to capabilities of the cartridge based DVD-RAM technology. Compared to DVD-RW media, DVD+RW incorporate a higher frequency wobble in its embedded microscopic tracking groove. Proponents claim that DVD+RW's increased wobble frequency will provide more accurate timing information and thus DVDs that are even more compatible with older set-top players. . ."

The entire article can be found

<a href="http://www.techtv.com/products/hardware/story/0,23008,3359252,00.html" target="_blank">here</a>