DVD Types - DVD-Video, DVD-, DVD+

First, DVD stands for Digital Video Disc and the DVD format became hugely popular almost as soon as it was launched. The quality was just amazing compared to the previous VHS format. Almost as soon as DVDs came out, people wanted to record to DVD. They were much smaller than VHS tapes physically, and held a much higher quality (and more long lived) video.

Movies on a DVD are called DVD-Video. All movies you buy in a store are in DVD-Video format. You can't record on these DVDs, you can only watch them. DVD-Video is in standard 480 resolution - i.e. the resolution that standard TV sets can display. They are digital, so they exactly match that TV resolution and give the best possible display that standard TVs can show.

For recording, two competing standards came out. Think of it like the old VHS vs Beta war that came out when there were the first VCRs. One group supported the DVD -R format, another supported the DVD +R format. They both are "recordable DVDs". The +R and -R don't mean anything as far as "recordable" or "writeable" or such. They are just different group names. On these DVDs, you can record once and then the DVD is done and can be played. It can't be recorded over. It's like carving grooves in a record - it can only be done once.

Next came the RW DVDs, which of course were in matching DVD-RW and DVD+RW formats again based on the sponsoring group. With a RW DVD, you could write it MULTIPLE times. This means you could write a birthday video on it in one month, then write a Christmas video in it. This is similar to how VHS tapes work - you can record over them multiple times if you wish.

If you get a DVD player, it's important to make sure it plays both DVD-R and DVD+R formats. That way if friends and family send you home-made DVDs, you know you can play them no matter which format they choose to send you.

Note that high definition TVs can support a much higher resolution - 1080. There are 2 new DVD formats coming out (of course, there have to be 2) to show this higher level of detail. They are Blu-ray and HD DVD.

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Note - Lisa Shea wrote this content for the genealogy site at BellaOnline.com - you might still find this content there as well. That's fine :) I gave permission!