DVD-R stands for Digital Versatile Disc Recordable . DVD-R is pronounced as “DVD dash R“. It is 120 mm in diameter and 1.3 mm in thickness, comprising two poly-carbonate substrates of 0.6 mm each . It is supported by most DVD players and is approved by the DVD Forum, which was founded by Apple, Pioneer, Mitsubishi, Hitachi and Time Warner . The DVD-R format was developed by Pioneer and was released in 1997.
DVD-R can be used to record data. Once DVD-R has been written to, it cannot be written to again. Data is written to on disc by a laser. DVD recordable uses dye to store the data. During the burning of a single bit, the laser’s intensity affects the reflective properties of the burned dye. By varying the laser intensity quickly, high density data is written in tracks.
Characteristics of DVD-R
- DVD-R is most common DVD writable formats and supported by most of the DVD players.
- DVD-R can store 4.7 GB on single sided, single layer discs and 8.5 GB on dual layer discs while 9.4 GB on double sided discs .
- DVD-R uses “land pre-pit” method to provide sector address information .
- DVD-R can be written to only once and read arbitrarily many times .
- DVD-R uses dye to record data
Advantages
- Can be used to store large amount of data .
- Available in different storage sizes to increase flexibility.
- It has a broader playback capacity than DVD+R .
- Supported by most of the DVD players .
- DVD-R do not have to be formatted before being recorded.
- It is less expensive than DVD-RAM and DVD-ROM.
Disadvantages
- Can be written to only once .
- DVD-R is not able to locate data by byte accuracy.
- High failure to read chances due to differences in the reflective properties of dye .