DVD-R VS DVD+R: Difference between DVD-R and DVD+R

When you plan to buy a blank DVD disc for DVD burning, there are some DVD formats you should know - DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW. Technically, the "R" here refers to recordable, that is, the "R" format DVD can be written once. The "RW" refers to rewritable, so RW DVD can be erased or rewritten up to many times. As the four DVD formats adopt different technologies and standards, we’ll sort DVD-R and DVD-RW as a group and DVD+R and DVD+RW as another group. DVD+R DVD-R discs look the same on the surface and they are both 120mm in diameter and 1.2mm in thickness (0.6mm x 2). In fact, DVD-R and DVD+R are different and competing for recording on DVDs. Let's get a simple understanding of the difference by the DVD+R VS DVD-R comparison.

1. DVD+R VS DVD-R - Technical Standard

DVD-R/RW format was developed by Pioneer, and they are officially approved by the standards group DVD Forum founded by Mitsubishi, Sony, Hitachi, Panasonic, and Time and Warner. DVD+R was developed by Sony and Philips with their DVD+RW Alliance.

The DVD-R DVD+R difference of technical standard mostly refers to how the two DVD formats determine the location of the laser beam on the disc, which is about how a file is formatted and written on disc. For DVD-R, the laser position is decided by the tiny marks along the grooves in the discs. However, DVD+R measures the wobble frequency when laser processes the disc outside.

2. DVD-R VS DVD+R – Compatibility

Currently, almost all DVD players support both of the two formats. Since DVD-R/RW was developed earlier than DVD+R/W, it has better compatibility, especially for the old DVD players. But at the same time, DVD+R has adopted more advanced technology while seeking stability, which make DVD+R more competent in dealing with newly-emerged stuff. Meanwhile, for DVD recorder, the differences between DVD-R VS DVD+R are obvious, which is the result of the built-in default management, the native formatting and writing method of DVD recorder.

3. DVD+R VS DVD-R - Burning Quality/Speed

You may be confused by the technical stuff between DVD+R and DVD-R but for these differences, DVD+R has better performance than DVD-R in several aspects. For example, DVD+R/W is ahead of DVD-R/W for both the recording quality and the speed. As the system used by DVD+R format for tracking and speed control is less susceptible to interference and error, you can burn DVDs on Windows 10/11 and other operating systems more accurate at higher speeds. Moreover, DVD+R/W has a more robust error-management system than DVD-R/W.

4. DVD-R VS DVD+R – Price

Nowadays, DVD+R and DVD-R have no much difference in price yet DVD-R discs are usually relatively cheaper than the DVD+R ones. Although both DVD-R format and DVD+R format support dual layer now, there are fewer dual layer DVD-R discs are available on the market compared to DVD+R discs. Meanwhile, DVD-R is a write-once format. Once you burn files into the DVD, it won’t allow you to burn other data again even if there has available storage space. Conversely, DVD+R format makes it convenient to burn DVDs in batches. If you don’t finish the burning task, you can burn the DVDs later as long as there's enough storage space. One thing need to be noticed that for the same data, batch burning will lead to greater storage consumption.

Although DVD-R DVD+R are developed by different groups and adopt different technology and system, the difference between DVD-R and DVD+R is getting smaller as the technology progresses. At present, most DVD drives on markets are hybrid and support both DVD-R and DVD+R discs. Even so, you’d better figure out which DVD format your DVD recorder supports before buying the DVD-R or DVD+R disc.