Well the next question is... What do you want todo... The cross post in question wants to backup large amounts of data. I would think a drive that could do DVD-RW or DVD+RW would be their choice since they could setup some sorta rotation. As for supported drives you'd want to check the cdrecord website. Now, if you want to make backups of the DVD's that you own, or convert the VHS you've got into DVD, you'll also want a drive that can author DVD disks. However you'll want to check a site like www.vcdhelper.org they've got a good matrix of what different disks DVD players supports (such as VCD/SVCD/DVD-R/DVD-RW/etc...) Personally I've had luck making backup's of my DVD's onto DVD-R media. However this was using a mix of freeware windows utilities and Nero, I'm pretty sure that that the cdrcord-prodvd utilities it would work fine. Later, Tim. -----Original Message----- From: Brian J. Conway [mailto:bconway@alum.wpi.edu] Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2002 15:36 PM To: wlug@mail.wlug.org Subject: Re: [Wlug] DVD writeable media

The message thread about DVD writers makes me think that there are many standards or types of writeable DVD media that not all drives can handle - is this true?

Yes, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM. Why share sales with a standard format when a company can make up its own DVD standard to sell and hope to take the market with?

Could somebody compare/contrast the different types?

Here's a good rundown on the different types: http://www.dvformat.com/2002/03_mar/features/dvd_standards.htm Brian J. Conway bconway@alum.wpi.edu "LINUX is obsolete" - Andrew S. Tanenbaum, creator of Minix - Jan 29, 1992 _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug