Re: [Dvdrtools-users] DVD+R/+RW support

[Bryan J . Smith]

Volker Kuhlmann wrote:
> You're a member of the DVD-R standards group?

I've been a DVD Recorder/Rewriter Consumer for 8+ years.
And I have been deploying both standards-based and proprietary MO for 
over a dozen years.
MO is very *unreliable* without either software or hardware 
verification.

Furthermore, I've just seen Sony/Philips overpromise and underdeliver 
themselves into lawsuit after lawsuit.
By the time they finally got their 3GB DVD-R+W out in Japan,
Pioneer had its 4.7GB consumer drives in public prototype.

I am no fan of the DVD Consortium, but Sony/Philips has overpromised and 
overdelivered continually.

> The compatibility of DVD+R is not any worse then DVD-R for any DVD 
> drive manufactured 2004 or later.

"2004 or later" is the key phrase.
Sony/Philips has been marketing DVD+RW and, more recently, DVD+R as the 
"most compatible format" for 3+ years.
It's a bogus claim, and it was really humorous when DVD+R wasn't even 
compatible with their own drives.

Geez, even Matsushita/Panasonic made DVD-RAM compatible with their own 
drives and it isn't even a "consumer" format (other than high-end video 
equipment").

Sony/Philips first promised WORM/DAO in the first gen 4.7GB DVD+RW 
drives.
Then when they came out without WORM/DAO compatibility, they promised a 
compatible DVD+R "equivalent."
Then DVD+R came out and required new 2nd Gen DVD+RW drives.

HP was none-to-happy with it's Sony/Philips licenser when the lawsuits 
started on its DVD100 series drives which didn't work with the promised 
DVD+R.

>  I only use DVD+RW for rolling backups, and never had a problem. If 
> nothing else, they don't have this annoying feature of having to be 
> erased before further use because they are read-write media.

So is DVD-RW, although its CLV so not as fast.
I would *never* use DVD+RW or DVD-RW for backup.
MO's error-rate is piss-poor, 1 per GB.
Unless you verify in software, you could be putting bogus data bit down 
every GB.
And at 100-1,000 re-writes, anything short of UDF kills the disc rather 
quickly.

DVD-RAM is the absolute best for rewritable backup.
I have been deploying it with Linux since 1997.
It's firmware was the same as Matsushita PD-CD, so it worked in Linux 
with a ID patch from day 1.
30-year lifespan, 100,000 re-writes, it's not consumer, but damn if it 
ain't the standards bomb severely needed for optical archiving.

That's why DVD-RAM was first below $1,000 and in quantity.
Because while consumers weren't ready, many MO users for optical 
archiving were sorely needing a solution.

> For how long do they provide firmware updates after the drive first 
> comes to market?

For awhile I've seen.
Especially my older DVD-RAM drives.

> Pioneer is lousy, their's is about 12 months, and after
> that you start to find that the currently available media can no longer
> be burnt by the Pioneer drive (and the older media is no longer on the
> market of course).

Sorry, haven't run into this myself.
I have a 4 year-old Matsushita 3rd-Gen DVD-RAM/R that still does both 
quite well with 4x DVD-R media.
And my LG GSA drives (except 1 refurb that didn't last) have done quite 
well.
The only thing LG was guilty of was the ATA flush command, and that only 
affected CD-RW drives.

But I'm used to this kind of "you must work for the DVD Consortium" 
non-sense and arrogance.
I've been using MO for over 12 years and I've seen Sony/Philips deliver 
far less than promised.

--
Bryan J. Smith   mailto:address@hidden
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