We have, however, found that DVD+RW is a more compatible and useful format for video. You can also use DVD-RW media to create video discs for distribution. Home-burned DVD-R discs are not any more, or less, compatible than DVD+R discs.ĭVD-RW is a rewritable format that is good for data. Blank DVD-R discs are also the cheapest and most widely available media format. One of the first (relatively) inexpensive burners to burn DVD-R was the Pioneer DVR-103, the next-next-generation of which (the DVR-105) is currently well below $200 on the street. You will find standalone living room DVD burners using the DVD-RAM format, and even some camcorders, but you should not consider DVD-RAM to be a general-purpose distribution format for video.ĭeveloped by the DVD Forum, DVD-R was the first write-once format that was compatible with DVD-Video for standalone players. Some come in a plastic cartridge or housing that makes them physically incompatible with many devices, but DVD-RAM discs are not generally compatible with living room DVD players anyhow. As a rewritable format for data on a computer, DVD-RAM discs are great. DVD-RAM discs can hold 4.7GB per side (for a total of 9.4GB on a dual-sided disc), although other sizes and capacities are available. That means doing a little research (like you are doing right now) to understand a bit more about the technology.ĭVD-RAM was the first recordable and rewritable standard to hit the market and was defined by the DVD Forum (), which is composed of over 220 companies. So what are content producers to do? Of course we should try to make our discs as compatible as possible. In other words, when we’ve tested a $50 MegaMart DVD player and found that it plays DVD-R discs, we’ve found that it tends to play DVD+R discs as well. In fact, the player effectively overrides any differences we’ve discovered between DVD-R and DVD+R, for example.
#DVD STUDIO PRO COMPATIBLE FORMATS SOFTWARE#
The software you use, the computer platform, the brand of burner, the format of the discs and the brand of media all have less to do with compatibility than the standalone living room player used to play back the disc. Compatibilityīefore we get into any technical details about the DVD format, let us put your mind at rest with a simple statement: the factors that determine DVD compatibility rest almost entirely with the DVD player. The good news is that we can clear things up with one short article. Some confusion still exists about the various flavors of DVD available to the consumer and how this affects compatibility. In fact, for most professionals shooting weddings and events, DVD is a required distribution format.