DVD +R vs. -R

[poman]

What is the difference between +R and -R and is there a difference in what they are used for?:confused:

[Sam!]

They are different methods for writing on the discs. One is reportedly more compatible with regular DVD players. Some +R discs won't work on DVD-R drives and some DVD-R discs won't work on some DVD+R drives. Older DVD players and DVD-ROM drives can have problems with both, I think.

So -R and +R are not used for different thigns, they are just different ways of doing the same thing. If you're concerned about compatibility, you can get a DVD+/-RW drive. There is some basic info here (http://www.videohelp.com/dvd).

[The Unknown Gomer]

I work for a place that transfers home movies to DVD, and DVD-R (Taiyo Yuden, with white inkjet printable surfaces) is ALL we use here, due to compatibility issues. That's the type you'll probably want to use if you're going to be sharing a lot of stuff on DVD. We run into very few people who can't play back DVD-Rs, although it does happen occasionally with some of the older (or cheaper) DVD players.

[Aaron]

From my A+ certification book:

DVD-R
DVD-R is a write once DVD recordable format introduced by the DVD Forum. The DVD-R format is compatible with most DVD players. DVD-R comes in two types, general use and authoring. The authoring type is a higher quality than the general type. The DVD-R type must match the recorder being used for the initial writing, but it can be read back on either type.

DVD+R
DVD+R was introduced by the DVD+RW Alliance and functions similiar to a DVD-R. There are some minor differences that are sufficient to prevent compatibility with the DVD-R format. It is also interesting to note that DVD+R is not compatible with all DVD+RW players. Most DVD players support both DVD+R and DVD+RW formats.

[Gandalf]

I've run into a few old component DVD players that read DVD+R more reliably than DVD-R, but most modern units will read both types, and most modern DVD burners will write both types (nearly all computer DVD-ROM drives will read either type), so in practice, it now mostly comes down to a matter of which media are cheaper/more accessible. I typically buy TDK +R discs myself.

[poman]

OK. I went and bought DVD-R discs. I burned a DVD project of home videos on my new laptop. I got the message that said DVD created successfully. Now, it will not play in a single DVD player in my house (3 in all). It won't even playback in my laptop that I used to create it. Any ideas?:confused:

[The Unknown Gomer]

First of all, did you finalize the disc? Forgetting to finalize the disc is the number one thing we run into when DVDs don't play as expected.

When you pop it in your DVD drive on your laptop, what exactly does it do? Anything?

Once you've got it in your laptop, go to My Computer, right click on the disc in the directory and select "explore". You should see two subdirectories on the disc - AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS. The audio subdirectory will most likely be empty, the video subdirectory should have a bunch of files with extensions like .BUP and .IFO and .VOB ("BUPs and IFOs and VOBs, OH MY!" :D Sorry. Couldn't resist.)

If you've got files that are different from that, then it created a DVD in some funky format, which would be why it won't play back on anything.

If you've got all that, and it IS finalized, I'm stumped. But let me know and I'll ask my boss, he's pretty good about troubleshooting stuff like this. If nothing else, he'll know what else I need to ask you. :)

Oh, and what software program did you use to create the DVD? I'm sure he might want to know that too.

[poman]

I used the the software that came on my new Dell. I think it's Sonic, MyDVDLE or something like that (I'm at work right now so I can't look). When I put it in my DVD drive, it makes a repetitive sound like it starts to spin then stops, starts to spin then stops, starts to spin then stops...............you get the picture. Nothing actually comes up on the screen. Just as another bit of side info, I did copy some picture and music files to a DVD for backup purposes and it worked great. It's just this DVD that I've tried to make in order to actually play on TV is what's got me puzzled. Hope that helps you help me!

Thanks, Karen

Dwayne

[The Unknown Gomer]

Just off the top of my head, it almost sounds like it's not finalized. I've never used that program, so am not sure what the process is, if you need to finalize as a last step or not. I'll try and pull up a manual for it tomorrow and see what it says.

What about the directory structure of the disc, IS it VOBs, etc?

[poman]

I'm not sure about the directory, I'll try to look when I get home from work in the morning (I'm a 3rd shifter). Maybe it does need finalizing but I think after it finished burning it said "project completed successfully" and then it ejected automatically. It doesn't look like it would do that if it still needed to be finalized.:confused:

P.S. What's a good tool for ripping audio from a DVD into mp3 files?

[The Unknown Gomer]

I found the forum that may be able to help you with this.

http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showforum=91

Several suggestions there, from rebooting and trying to play the DVD (although if it won't play on a standalone player either, that's probably not the issue), to trying to reburn the project, to burning the project to a subdirectory on the hard drive first and making sure your DVD software will recognize it there, to trying a different brand of DVD-R.

Re the audio rip software, I'm sure there are better programs that actually rip the audio file directly from the disc, but I usually just use Audacity to capture any DVD audio that I want to keep as an audio file.

[Gandalf]

Re the audio rip software, I'm sure there are better programs that actually rip the audio file directly from the disc, but I usually just use Audacity to capture any DVD audio that I want to keep as an audio file.
That's probably actually the easiest way to do it. It's possible to strip the audio from the VOB files (which are simply MPEG-2 encoded with multiple audio streams) - there are probably some free programs out there that'll do it, but by the time you find the right VOB, parse the file, find the selection you want (probably looking only at video frames), get it to save the audio stream separately, etc... you probably could've recorded it in Audacity and compressed it to MP3 (using LAME or whatever else you may prefer) and listened to it a few times. :)

[poman]

SUCCESS, SUCCESS, SUCCESS!!!!!!!!

I just made another DVD with a clean disc and it worked. There must have been a problem with that first disc I used. Thanks Gomers for your help!

Now, regarding ripping audio from DVD to mp3, I downloaded Audacity and now I can't figure out exactly how to use it. Can someone tell me how to get started?

Where are you Karen?:)

[The Unknown Gomer]

Glad your DVD reburn worked. That's probably the first thing I should have thought to suggest, since usually when we run into problems at work with DVDs not playing correctly, a defective disc or a flawed burn is usually the problem. That and people having really old or really cheap DVD players. (Just reduped a 7 DVD job that played fine on this one lady's DVD player and laptop, but the discs were for her parents, and her parents' player was so old, it couldn't read them. THAT happens a lot.)

Re Audacity... usually I just start Audacity, get the DVD cued to the point where I want to pull off the sound from it, go back to audacity, hit the red record button, then go back to the DVD player and hit play on that. You end up with a little silence at the start of the recorded track while you're switching windows (unless you've got them in windowed mode, can see them both on screen, and just go click click to start one and then the other), but since trimming ends is easy, you can just trim the beginning afterwards. Then just hit the yellow stop button in Audacity when you're finished, and export it out in whatever format you want to keep it in.

A few notes... make sure that your email program (or any other program that automatically generates sounds) is OFF since Audacity will pick up ANY noises that your computer is making at the time, including any "You've got MAIL!" sounds, or mouse clicks while you're surfing (I was recording an online 3D interview one time, and was surfing at the same time, and as a result, you can hear every single mouseclick I did while I was recording :o ).

Also, you might need to go into preferences and specifically tell it that you want it to record in stereo. Each time I've installed Audacity on a PC, it seems to default to low end mono settings.

And make sure the little drop down box on the right is set to "WAV OUT MIX". And while you're recording, watch your volume levels (one of the little bars in the middle of the toolbar). I've had to go back and re-record audio because I had it set too loud and it just distorted the heck out of it. If the little input level meter is constantly banging into the high end, drop the Audacity volume slider down a bit.

That's the basics anyway. There's lots of other settings that are tweakable, but most of that is pretty much greek to me. But this might be enough to get you started. :)

[poman]

Thanx Karen! That does help me alot.:D

[The Unknown Gomer]

You're welcome. Glad I could help. :)