PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

DVD-RW

DVD-RW (Rewritable) is a newer Pioneer technology, based on DVD-R but using phase-change erasable media similar conceptually to CD-RW. DVD-RW was formerly called DVD-ER and DVD-R/W before Pioneer settled on the DVD-RW designation. Like DVD-R, DVD-RW stores 4.7 GB per disc and produces discs readable by many DVD-ROM drives and players, although the lower reflectivity of DVD-RW discs fools some DVD-ROM players into thinking they’re reading a dual-layer disc. DVD-RW discs can be read by about 65% of older DVD-ROM drives and DVD players. Recent DVD-ROM drives or players that have difficulty with DVD-RW discs can often be upgraded to support DVD-RW simply by installing updated firmware.

There are three distinct types of DVD-RW discs, all of which store 4.7 GB and can be rewritten about 1,000 times:

DVD-RW 1.0

DVD-RW 1.0 discs were used with the first DVD-RW drives shipped in Japan, are seldom seen outside Japan, and have compatibility problems with some drives.

DVD-RW 1.1

DVD-RW 1.1 discs do not support CPRM and so cannot be used for copying any CPRM-protected original DVDs.

DVD-RW 1.1B

DVD-RW 1.1B discs support CPRM, and can be used to copy CPRM-protected original DVDs (but only if the producer of the original DVD has encoded the disc to permit copying, and only then by adhering to the restrictions enforced by the CPRM encoding on the original disc). In effect, this means that commercial DVD movies cannot be copied on a DVD-RW drive other than by using special software—the use or ...