There’s DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD-ROM! So what’s really the difference between all of these different names?

Let’s first start with the most obvious, some have R and some have RW. The “R” stands for readable, while the “W” stands for writeable.

The difference between DVD-R and DVD-RW, or DVD+R and DVD+RW is that the R disc formats can only be written once, and then it is only readable and can’t be erased for the rest of its digital life. While RW can be written to and erased many times, they are both readable and writeable.

“R” discs are perfect if they are only needed to be written to once, such as giving some files to a friend or transferring them between PCs. “RW” discs have their strength in the ability to be used many times over, which is great for system backups, etc. The RW discs are more expensive than the R discs.

Now between DVD-R and DVD+R. DVD-R & DVD-RW are sister discs, the difference being one is writeable once, while the other is writeable multiple times. The same thing is true for DVD+R & DVD+RW.

The DVD-R DVD+R difference can easily be summarized by the following:

* The DVD-R/RW standard was developed by Pioneer, and is used primarily by Apple and Pioneer. These “minus” discs can only be written to in one layer on the discs surface. In addition, this format is supported by the DVD forum, but is in no way an industry standard. DVD-R/RW discs are cheaper than the “plus” format.
* The DVD+R/RW format is supported by Philips, Dell, Sony, HP, and Mcft. These discs can be written to in multiple layers, giving them slightly better and more disc storage than the “minus” format. Because of this additional capacity, they are slightly more expensive than “minus” discs.

The DVD+RW CD+RW difference can be explained by the “DVD” or “CD” prefix. DVDs, on average, can store up to 4.7 GB of data, while a CD can only store about 700 MB of data.