Most of us have some passing familiarity with the term DVD. The first DVD R format was released in 1997 and had 3.5 GB disc capacity. With advances in electronics and technology, the format has now developed to a capacity of 4.7GB.

What Is DVD?

The abbreviation DVD stands for Digital Versatile/Video Disc and DVD-R media stands for DVD recordable. If you have acquired a new computer that has a DVD burner you may be trying to figure out which kind of blank discs you must use. There are many versions available in the market such as the DVD R and the DVD RW and also the 'plus' and 'minus' versions. With so many different DVD formats in the market, the right choice appears elusive.

A Brief on Different DVD-R Media Types

DVD R is a write once format, which simply means that once you have burnt some data, the disc is forever frozen with that information. When W is suffixed to the abbreviation, it means you can erase and rewrite information 1000 times on the disc. This is certainly a significant advantage. Another format DVD - RAM t is even more accommodating. It lets you erase and rewrite sections of a disc.

Things appear to be get more perplexing when you read the '+' and '-'signs. What do DVD+RW mean? The 'plus' discs have the same capacity as the 'minus' ones. The only difference is that the 'plus' discs have greater IQ. This means DVD+RW writes faster, has better interlinking and lets you drag and drop desk tops files on the disc. It is important to remember that if your computer is compatible with DW -R or DW -RW then the '+' formats will not help you as these will not work with your drive.

Blu-Ray Media

DVD-R media has now been superseded by the Blu-ray Disc. This disc is 12 cm in diameter similar to the DVD discs but packs 25GB per layer. Blu-ray Disc Association jointly developed this optical disc format in conjunction with the world's leading consumer electronics, computer and media manufacturers. While DVD-R media relies on red laser to read and write data, Blu-ray uses the blue-violet laser. The key benefit of Blu-ray is the shorter wavelength of the blue-violet laser when compared to the red one in DVD-R media. This enables data to be packed much more tightly resulting in higher capacity of Blu-ray discs. Pioneer has recently developed a single Blu-ray disc having a capacity of 500 GB built-up on 20 layers. This extra capacity has thrown up the possibility of offering consumers an unmatched HD experience.

Blu-ray discs have already worked wonders. The list of Blu-ray 3D releases in 2010 include Alice in Wonderland, Avatar, Bolt, The Last Air bender, Monster House, and Step Up 3D to name a few. Fans can look forward to release of the following movies during March this year.

• Yogi Bear

• The Chronicles of Narnia

• Tangled

Blu-ray media has been touted as the true successor to DVD-R media with most of the studios announcing that all new releases henceforth will be on Blu-ray discs.