History (1997): DVD-R

This article was published by the Museum of Obsolete Media.

DVD-R (1997-)

DVD-R is a recordable optical disc format based on DVD and developed by Pioneer in 1997.

It is supported by most DVD players and is approved by the DVD Forum. It is similar to, but incompatible with, the newer DVD+R standard.

A double-sided DVD-R typically has a storage capacity of 4.7GB but a dual-layer double-sided version with a capacity of 8.5GB, DVD-R DL, was released in 2005.

DVD-R is generally used for non-volatile data storage or video applications.

A smaller 8cm version of DVD-R (miniDVD-R) is also available for use in camcorders.

Double-sided DVD-R discs are composed of two 0.6mm acrylic discs bonded to each other, one containing the laser guiding groove and coated with the recording dye and a silver alloy or gold reflector.

On single-sided discs, the unused side is simply a blank to make up the thickness to 1.2mm.

Many DVD drives are hybrid drives (normally labeled DVD±RW) and can read and write to both DVD-R and DVD+R. However, because the DVD-R format has been in use since 1997, it has had a five-year lead on DVD+R which wasn’t introduced until 2002. As such, older DVD players are more likely to favour the DVD-R standard exclusively.

Unlike DVD+R, DVD-R discs do not need to be formatted before being recorded by a compatible DVD video recorder.