Types of DVDs

Question

What is better quality, Dual layer or double sided? I need to burn some movies that are too big for normals. And can you get both of these in re-writable? What's more common?
Another question, what is the difference between re-writable, re-inscriptable and i think there's another one?
Thanks

Answer 1

1. no difference in "quality"; they are functionally different in that a double-sided disk is effectively 2 separate single-layer disks and you need to manually flip it to access the other side; the dual-layer disk merely has 2x the capacity of single layer, but at the cost that some older equipment might not like dual-layer recordable media (then again, those same players often have issues with any recordable media).
2. Of course. DVD players don't flip themselves. Further, you need to create an entirely separate disk image for both sides (two different iDVD projects).
3. "-R" and "+R" standards differ mostly in the specification of tolerances for the laser and properties of dyes in the disks. "-R" is intended to most closely mimic the properties of commercially produced DVDs, whereas "+R" is focused on making the disk reading and writing as fault-tolerant as possible.
4. "-R" may be better than "-R" in that you can't overwrite it, and it's more likely to be readable in older players. "-R" has the benefit that you can overwrite it several times (and not waste disks).
5. The recommendation depends on what you want to accomplish. Use the best format for the job. For general purposes, I tend to use DVD+R if the target is a contemporary set-top DVD player or a computer, though I often use DVD-RW or DVD+RW to prototype disks (because, if I don't like them, I simply write over them). My church has a DVD player that's very old (ca 1998) player that won't play most recordable DVDs, but can be coaxed to play DVD-R disks made by a particular vendor. So, if I make DVD for them, I use that.