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DVD formats
DVD = "Digital Versatile Disc" or "Digital Video Disc," an optical disk that can be played on a computer or a television set via a DVD player.
You buy DVDs pre-recorded (Films, TV shows etc)
DVD = "Digital Versatile Disc" or "Digital Video Disc," an optical disk that can be played on a computer or a television set via a DVD player.
You buy DVDs pre-
The World of Computing
Here we deal with blanks that you can record upon.
A major distinction is that
o some DVDs can only be written on once by a computer or DVD recorder
o some DVDs can be rewritten a number of times
Normal recordable DVDs only record on a single layer giving 4.7GB recording space
Main types of disc are as follows:
1. DVD-
One of the most common formats.
The discs are cheap write-once-only discs.
The video is recorded onto the disc linearly from start to finish.
They allow multi-sessions, i.e. new recordings can be added later to the remaining blank section.
Recordings cannot be erased although unwanted titles can be hidden by deleting them from the table of contents.
The recorded disc has to be ‘finalised’ to be able to play in most modern DVD players.
2. DVD-
These are re-recordable versions of the DVD-R system.
DVD-RW has two different modes of recording:
2A. DVD-
Initially the recordings are recorded onto the disc linearly from start to finish.
They support multi-session – new recordings can be added later to the remaining blank section.
Individual recordings (titles) can be deleted and replaced with new recordings.
If you try to add in new titles in the space left by an erased title be careful to ensure the recording is no longer than the space so it doesn't continue copying over the next title.
It is not possible to erase and replace part of a title, though it is possible for the whole disc to be erased and re-used.
The blank disc has to be formatted before use.
The recorded disc has to be ‘finalised’ to be able to play in most modern DVD players.
Once finalised, chapters can’t be erased or re-recorded unless the disc is ‘un-finalised’ first.
2B. DVD-
This allows greater versatility for replacing and adding new recordings over old ones.
If a chapter is deleted and replaced with a new recording, the new recording will utilise the available space as normal but if the recording is longer than this gap, the recorder jumps to the next available blank space.
This format also allows more editing features to be used, such as join, crop and play lists.
The discs can be finalised, but the VR mode recorded disc is not compatible with other standard DVD players except for those that specifically support VR mode playback.
3. DVD+R
Very similar to the DVD-R discs, however the + recording systems is said to be more a robust recording format and so less likely to produce errors.
The DVD discs can be used for recording in either standalone DVD recorders or in DVD drives on computers.
The discs are write-once-only discs.
The video is recorded linearly from start to finish.
They support multi-session – new recordings can be added later to the remaining blank section.
Recordings cannot be erased, though unwanted titles can be hidden by deleting them from the table of contents.
The recorded disc has to be ‘finalised’ to be able to play in most modern DVD players.
4. DVD+RW
These are re-recordable versions of the DVD+R system.
The discs can be used for recording in either stand alone DVD recorders or in DVD drives on computers.
The recordings are recorded linearly from start to finish.
They support multi-session – new recordings can be added later to the remaining blank section.
Individual recordings and parts of titles can be deleted and replaced with new recordings. However, note the comments above about space.
It is possible for the whole disc to be erased and re-used.
The blank disc is formatted automatically before use and the recorded disc is automatically ‘finalised’ to able to play in most modern DVD players.
It is suggested that the compatibility is less reliable than DVD+R due to the different optical properties that some players cannot cope with.
Once finalised, chapters cannot be erased or re-recorded unless the disc is ‘un-finalised’ first.
5. Dual layer discs
A fairly recent addition on the market, with two layers giving 2 x 4.7GB capacity..
Only newer DVD drives can record on these.
The finalised discs should be playable on modern standalone DVD players but some DVD players appear to have difficulties.
6. DVD-
A random access disc, the video is not recorded linearly (from start to finish) and available blank space is consolidated.
DVD-RAM operates similarly to a computer hard drive or MiniDisc.
These discs are not compatible with many DVD players and DVD recorders.
DVD RAMs are frequently used in camcorders and digital cameras.
Being true random access, they offer a variety of title erase and edit facilities.
Bits and bytes from computing
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