Yesterday afternoon I bought the Panasonice DMRE50s DvD-R/DVD-RAM recorder and played with it about an hour and got really frustrated, so i wen out a little later and ............. bought a DVD+RW recorder (Philips DVDr75) and played with and am still playing with it. The Panasonic is now back at Circuit City and the Philips DVD+RW is currently recording a movie of HBO. THE WINNER : DVD+RW DVD+RW (imo) should be the future format. the are tons of reasons why. "DVDplusRW.org" is a great site regarding all that is recordable dvd media, and states very clearly why DVD+RW is the better of the 2. +With DVD+RW you can ........... +name titles +give title custom index thumbnail +split titles (say its a concert, you can break down each song) +THERE IS NO NEED TO FINALIZE THE DISK +you can resume recording anywhere on the disk +make edits ANYWHERE on the disk ANyTIME +record times in 1, 2, 2.5, 4, 6 and even 8 hour incremements. etc.etc......... so if you are new to DVD recorders for your HOME THEATER, I STRONGLY SUGGEST GIVING DVD+RW a good look.
I use the -R format and have no complaints. I would say that the +R is like Betamax and -R is like VHS. In every way Beta is better except for one, price. And that is likely what will win the battle for the -R format. I pay about 1/3 to 1/4 the price for my media than I would if I was using +R.
