If you can record both, and have a choice of disks, what are the advantages/disadvantages of each type?

I've wondered about this for years, and I'm sure there's a chap or two on here with a view!

I've never found there to be any difference, they are read back in any drive I've ever tried, even the chepest of ALDI special DVD players.

The quality of disk is much more important, so try to buy ones from decent makers, such as Verbatim, and you should never have a problem.

I have seen it said that DVD-R/-RW have inferior error detection and correction as compared to their +R/+RW cousins. But I think that's mainly a concern for data storage as opposed to video applications.

I don't really know enough about the technicalities to argue the point however. If you want a technical analysis of the two formats you can find it here. A heavy article!

Whether Joe Public would notice a difference for archiving episodes of Eastenders is another matter, however. Should anybody be mad/sad enough to do such a thing that is.....

Jeez! well, I got about 25% through that article, then skimmed it, then got about the same way through the arguments. I think I'll stick with +R as they wobble faster.

Yeah, that was more or less what I thought.

You can rarely beat wobbling as fast as possible, in my experience.......

There is no real difference to the write once disc of -R and +R.
If you are recording or copying from HDD there's little between them.
But -RW and +RW have significant differences.
-RW(VR) allows proper HDD style editing ,but at the cost of compatibility,although -RW(VIDEO) allows for a compatible rewritable but no editing.
+RW allows you to "hide" chapters but thats it,and it does not need finalising to watch on another machine