To those w/ Computer knowledge:

Ecchi

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OK, I'm stumped. I just updated the drivers on this thing. I KNOW it's a DVD+RW drive, it says in on the front of the damn drive and in the hardware profile. Yet I've been trying to get Roxio to burn stuff to the DVD-Rs I have, and whenever I insert the DVD-Rs into the said drive, Roxio acts as if there's nothing there, as does Nero.



WTF? Any techies here wanna tell me what is wrong with this thing?
 

mindseye

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Originally posted by Ecchi@Mar 11 2005, 06:52 PM
WTF? Any techies here wanna tell me what is wrong with this thing?
[post=290231]Quoted post[/post]​

Alas, I think I can.

With recordable DVD's, we're back in the VHS vs. Beta era. There are two* competing DVD formats, and they're not compatible with each other.

One of them is called "DVD+R", and the other is called "DVD-R" --- believe it or not, the punctuation is all that differentiates the formats! There are some dual-format recorders on the market that will record to either type of disc, but it sounds like yours is not one of them.

If your drive says "DVD+RW", then it can record on DVD+R discs as well as DVD+RW discs (the "W" indicates the disc can be erased and reused), but not DVD-R discs.

The technical difference between the two formats is that in the DVD+R specifications, the hardware is responsible for formatting blank discs, and in the DVD-R specifications, the application software handles the formatting instead.

This article describes the different formats in a little more detail.

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*In fact, there are more than two formats, but all of the other formats have a tiny niche in the market and you're not likely to encounter them.
 

BobLeeSwagger

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Mindseye is right. If your drive only burns DVD+R discs (and the documentation will tell you), there's no way to make it burn DVD+R onto a DVD-R disc. Some DVD+R drives can read DVD-R or vice-versa, but not burn them. This is a real pain in the ass, but if you keep your names straight, you should be OK. Your DVD-R blank discs are worthless with that drive.