XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11   
   From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On Sun, 2/16/2025 12:01 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:   
   > Rick wrote:   
   >> On 2/16/2025 8:39 AM, Daniel70 wrote:   
   >>> I've got a PVR who's HD is getting pretty full (90%+) with programs I'll   
   want to watch some day ... so I was thinking about coping some of the 'Keeper'   
   programs onto DVD which meant buying a spool of DVD's.... but then needed to   
   check if I needed DVD-   
   R or DVD+R disks. (It is DVD-R)   
   >>>   
   >>> Which got me thinking ...... What's the difference between DVD-R and   
   DVD+R??   
   >>>   
   >>> (Note ... I'm not discussing R v RW, just the -/+.)   
   >>>   
   >>> Back in the day (70's/80's), I used to do some Digital work where 'they'   
   talked about Positive Logic (Ones = +5V, Zeros = Zero volts) and Negative   
   Logic (Ones = Zero Volts and Zeros = +5V or even Ones = -5V and Zeros = Zero   
   Volts), so I can    
   understand/accept that there are differences ..... but with DVDs??   
   >>>   
   >>> On a +R DVD, are the 'Ones' high points on the disk whilst on a -R DVD are   
   the 'ones' the low points on the disk?? (Or, rather than 'highs' and 'lows',   
   is it a case of the orientations of the 'North Poles' and 'South Poles' of the   
   Domains??)   
   >>   
   >> I haven't done a lot with DVD discs in years, but I agree with those who   
   say that if you are using modern equipment there is not a big difference   
   between them.  I had a slight preference for the +R, but usually based   
   purchase decisions on prices and    
   deals.  I would normally look to spend around 25 cents US per disc (100 for   
   $25 was a good deal) but have no idea what prices are like nowadays.   
   >>   
   >> A far bigger issue in the old days was the brand of disc.  While I   
   eventually tended to buy Verbatim, I used several other brands at different   
   times, and there were a few like Magnavox that were pretty bad and I tried to   
   avoid them.  Nowadays, with    
   external drives being so cheap and having such large capacities, I rarely use   
   DVDs and would probably have to hunt around to find an external DVD drive if I   
   needed to create one.   
   >   
   > I've used Verbatim -R for decades; and never had a fail. Seldom used these   
   days, but the other day I needed one for a downloaded OS.iso. I got one from a   
   package in the cupboard (been there for well over 12 years) and it went just   
   fine.   
   > I also have wallets with recorded Verbatim -R discs from over 20 years ago.   
   I try one now and again; and never a single fail.   
   > Some of the players are old, some only 5 or so years.   
   > I think I'd give Verbatim a 10/10 rating.   
   >   
   > Ed   
      
   Considering they are mostly a middle-man, that's a high compliment.   
      
   To their credit, they use a five digit part number. If someone on the   
   Internet were to say "their 12345 product gave a good result", if   
   you bought the 12345 product you would see the same. They likely source   
   all of a particular SKU, from a single manufacturer. So if the product   
   was made by Ritek, and was 12345 Verbatim, then buying that a year   
   later it would still be Ritek and with the same media tag.   
      
   Verbatim seems to own some physical facilities now. They may have   
   acquired a company that makes jewel boxes for housing discs. They may   
   have acquired M-Disc factory (only part of it). A few other things   
   would still be the arms length, buy-a-lot-from-a-factory type business.   
      
   It's unclear, why more of the foreign suppliers did not do direct marketing   
   of their own. Ritek could easily have purchased cake boxes and packaged up   
   their stuff, shutting down innumerable middle-men as a side effect. But   
   they didn't do that.   
      
   That's why, one year, Ritek was only available as stacks of bare   
   discs, *wrapped in Saran Wrap*. Surely the most stupid packaging exercise   
   ever practiced by my computer store. And that's because Ritek never ever   
   put their stuff in a cake box. When the end came, they sold raw discs,   
   and the store didn't have cake boxes either, so they used Saran Wrap.   
   Did the users buy those that way ? I don't think so. You can't hump   
   Saran wrapped piles of DVDs around your livingroom. They will spill   
   all over the floor.   
      
   At least Verbatim has cake boxes. But the media itself comes, most   
   of the time, from someone else. It's only at the collapse and end   
   of the industry, that Verbatim has acquired small factory setups of its   
   own. Because, no other supplier could stretch themselves to take   
   these factories "into the fold". One of the factories, has   
   competing employees working elbow to elbow, as a "joint venture",   
   until the market is gone at least. More cats sleeping with dogs.   
   Rather than throw the equipment away, the factory doubled up,   
   the employees went with it (because the chemistry is a trade   
   secret and some of them know how to make discs).   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)