I got a ticket by @sammyrayy asking for recordable DVDs for bootleg DVDs (STYLE-1955). It seemed like an obvious good thing, but I found out that there’s not just “DVDr” (as Discogs uses) but at least two conflicting formats, DVD-R and DVD+R. But that’s all I know about the issue. I’m sure there are people here who know more about the whole thing than I do, so I’d like if some of you’d chime in with your ideas about what’s the best way to deal with these - one format such as Discogs? Two? Is it obvious from the disc itself if it’s -R or +R?
On DVD+R, you can burn in several times.
It was useful for DVD+R camcorders that could append video in multiple shooting sessions.
But DVD-R is the most compatible format, that can play in any TV hardware DVD player.
Sometimes when we don’t want to be specific, we can say DVD±R. 
But I’m not saying it would be a good idea to use that term, though…
It’s all from memory so I’m not 100% sure, but it was something like that, DVD-R has always been the most widespread as it’s the most compatible and usually you always need to burn all at once.
I have never heard of that notation, though.
2 Likes
I actually saw a great video on this oddity. it’s a bit long, so I’ll summarize what I remember.
I believe they end up just about equivalent, the main difference was in the recording/burning.
(I’ll prolly watch it again sometime today, if I’m super wrong, I’ll edit with a correction)
edit: yeah, I was correct. DVD-R drives made before around 2002 couldn’t handle DVD+R discs, but it didn’t take long for drives to just be able to handle both - and +
2 Likes
There is also the same with CDs. MB didn’t bother with CD-RW. I think DVD-R is a close enough term to cover all recordable DVDs. Especially if noted in the guidelines.
DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW. Oh, and DVD-RAM. Whoops - almost forgot Dual Layer…
Just like any standard, no one can agree and mess with the details.
DVD-R should be fine.
I might actually separate out DVD-RAM, since it’s not compatible with all DVD players.
they are also much easier to tell apart from other DVDs, they’ve got a particular pattern
1 Like
Can we tackle STYLE-1995 at the same time?
1 Like
DVD-ROM, as opposed to DVD-Video?
Well it’s like DVD-R and all these stuff.
We need to be able to have medium types that we could combine freely
- DVD-R + DVD-Video + DVD-9
- CCCD + HDCD
- CD-ROM + 8cmCD
- DVD+RW + DVD-ROM + DVD-5
- etc.
I think this is confusing things, and is a distraction from the original question. In practice, if a DVD is dual layer (a DVD-9), it’s a single medium - when playing back or reading such a disc, it’s seamless, nobody can tell that it’s bigger than a DVD-5. One doesn’t get up to flip it over, the player just does its thing.
HDCD isn’t really a format either. It’s a CD, with special encoding of the PCM, but ultimately it’s still a CD. Hence, one can find HDCD-encoded music on the CD layer of an hybrid SACD - there’s no physical difference between an hybrid SACD with an HDCD-encoded CD layer and one with no HDCD encoding. I don’t think we should actually have an HDCD format at all, and instead have a more intelligent way to differentiate between the physical medium, and the data on it.
3 Likes
Not instead but in addition to.
Why not being able to say that a CD is HDCD, a cassette is chrome or had this or that Dolby Noise Reduction type, an LP is mono?
You don’t have to set it in MB, if you don’t care, but let those who care do it, doesn’t harm.
But it’s not very important.
But medium types could be more flexible.
Here it does not really make sense how to use DVD-R instead of DVD-Video and DVD-Audio.
A DVD-R is still either a DVD-Video, a DVD-Audio or a DVD-ROM. DVD-R alone, is not really enough.
2 Likes
Also - don’t get lost in the tiny details. It is hard to tell them apart in hand. A production DVD is silver, and home DVD-R is funky colours. Just like CDs and CD-Rs. This is a dying format and we should not really be too concerned by the details. This is a music database, not a media database.
If you really need to note it was a chrome cassette - that can go in an annotation. Same if it was a DVD+R. (And they were much less common that DVD-R anyway)
Note that Data DVDs and Video DVDs will also confuse this and lay over the top of any options. ALL of the above choices can have either Data or Video written to them. (I think Music DVD kinda failed)
DVD (Data), DVD-R (Data), DVD (Video), DVD-R (Video) seems to cover enough of the differences. Especially as it has taken this long for someone to request DVD-R.
Hands up anyone who has music on a DVD format? The only DVD-Rs I have with music on are my own home burn backups. Or DVD-Video.
2 Likes
and STYLE-1277
1 Like
I added Data DVD, Data DVD-R, and DVD-R Video. Hopefully those are useful to someone!
4 Likes