Like compact discs, DVD's  have made the logical jump from your home entertainment center to your computer.

After all, a DVD player connected to the TV is really just a special purpose computer and bits are bits. So, if you shop around a little, you can add a DVD drive to your computer for somewhere around $60-$90. Not a bad deal, because, like its home entertainment brethren, it also plays CDs, giving you two formats to choose from.

And, like computer CD drives, you can install a recordable DVD drive. But unlike the CD burners, a DVD recorder comes in different formats. Alas, they are not all compatible with each other. Let’s sort out what is what and which format is best for you.

If you remember the battle between Beta and VHS, this should be familiar ground. There are two competing format camps: DVD+R/DVD+RW and DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM.

DVD+R and DVD+RW are formats from Philips, Sony, Dell, Yamaha, Hewlett Packard and some other smaller companies. DVD+R, like CD-R, allows the disc to be burned once. DVD+RW is like CD-RW. Burn, erase, burn, erase…you get the picture. You can play both of these discs on the DVD decks in your home entertainment system.

DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM (also called DVD-Multi) are supported by Toshiba, Apple, Panasonic, NEC, Samsung and a few other companies. DVD-R is also like CD-R. The DVD-R standard comes in two different types: DVD-RG is the typical format that you would use in a computer, while DVD-RA is designed for mastering DVD video or audio and is used as the master copy for a commercial manufacturing process. Generally, DVD-RA is not found outside of professional mastering facilities.

DVD-RW allows for repeated cycles of writing and erasing, like CD-RW. Both DVD-R and DVD-RW discs can be read in your home DVD player.

DVD-RAM discs are rewritable, but are only supported by DVD-RAM drives. They work only in a DVD-RAM system, typically not in a DVD player. They do have the ability to be written to in the same way that you would a hard drive. They don’t require special software – you just drag and drop like any other drive.

So, you ask, what is the REAL difference, besides a little bit of alphabet soup? Good question!

For you and me (the average consumer), there’s not a big difference, other than one format group cannot write to the other format group’s media. Both format groups hold about 4.7GB of data per side of the disc, both use organic dyes for the non-erasable and phase-change material for the erasable discs. The prices are about the same for the media and drives (well, DVD-RAM disks may be a little more expensive).

DVD-RW and DVD-R are the only formats supported by the DVD Forum. But since the DVD Forum doesn’t set standards, that may not be much of an issue. Also, it turns out that most of the companies who support DVD-RW and DVD-R are members of the DVD-Forum, so they are aware of what is necessary to give their equipment the ability to read the other formats.

A ray of sunshine is emerging from the confusing field of different formats. Sony has released a multi-format drive that supports DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW and CD-R/RW, the DRU500A. Other manufacturers are following, so perhaps the dreaded format battle may never come to pass after all.

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