The current state of recordable DVD media formats - Tape/Disk/Optical Storage

Computer Technology Review, March, 2002 by Tim Clatterbuck

Other problems occur because the player or drive's capabilities and firmware are marginally designed to meet minimum specifications. As DVD format specifications have been finalized, many drive and player manufacturers have enhanced their read mechanisms to improve compatibility with the various media. By making sure that the media has been qualified by the drive manufacturer, users can avoid having to deal with these types of issues.

Because DVD format specifications have been finalized at various times since 1997, it is difficult for drive, player, or recorder manufacturers to completely eliminate compatibility issues for Recordable DVD media with all legacy DVD-ROM drives and DVD players. Similar problems existed in the early days of CD-R/RW technology development. Compatibility is improving; and eventually, peripheral manufacturers and users won't have to worry about the compatibility of the recordable DVD format they use to store data, videos, and music.

Recognizing that no single format currently offers everything users want, drive manufacturers have introduced combination drives that support both write-once and rewriteable DVD media--DVD-R/-RAM drives, DVD-RW drives, and DVD R/ RW drives. By combining a write-once DVD format with a rewriteable DVD format, the drives provide a single solution for sharing and archiving on broadly compatible DVD-R or DVD R media and the ability to use rewriteable media for files that can be edited and recycled.