Hardware DVD+R Question

[Knarf]

Alright I was at CVS pharmacy and I saw in the clearance section a 25 pack of windata DVD-r and a 50 pack of windata DVD+r. They ended up costing me $6 for all 75 of them. I tried the DVD-rs and they worked great, but I havn't used any of the DVD+r since I'm afraid It'll destroy me wii's laser. Does anyone know if it's safe for me to use Windata DVD+R DVDs? Thanks.

 

[SpikeyBryan]

It wont destroy your laser, it's just that some games tend to not work well with DVD+R's, and the compatibility rate with DVD-R's is slightly higher

 

[Knarf]

Really? I've heard that DVD+Rs tend to to ware out the lazer.

 

[SpikeyBryan]

A disk wont break your laser, the only thing that can break your laser is something touching it, and ruining it, or it just losing its life due to old age.

 

[Knarf]

Can anyone else confirm this?

 

[lll]

Optical drive lasers (and the Wii's drive follows the same principles as any other DVD drive) are not worn out by certain media, they're worn out through use. Bad media will cause lots of retrying when the drive can't read a crappy disc, leading to it having to do more for reading the same data - leading to it wearing out faster.

I don't know of any particular problem with the Wii's drive reading +R media that would cause it to have more difficulty than with -R - the issue with +R media with the Wii's drive and DVD drives in general is a firmware compatibility one, one that is largely fixed by setting the booktype to DVD-ROM instead of DVD+R.

The Wii's drive is more picky about burned media in general than it should be, and I suspect your media isn't very high quality. If you're paranoid about your Wii's laser, use good quality discs (e.g. Verbatims or Taiyo Yudens.) Otherwise don't worry about it, +R or -R, as long as the Wii reads it OK.

 

[Knarf]

thank you III.