I have to edit a concert from 4 cameras and distribute on DVD. I have never understood the difference between DVD - R and DVD + R. Which is the better for playing in domestic DVD players ?

The vdeo from camera 4 has turned up on a SD card in MPG 4 which my Videostudio Pro x2 doesn't like. Everything else is in MPG 2. Is there some way of converting MPG4 to MPG 2 ?

Nobody ?

Hi,

DVD-R is the older format and the most compatible with standalone players.
VideoLAN Player will probably sort out conversion to a format your editor can read.

as of sometime in 2006 there is no physical difference in the two disks as such any players made since then will be able to play both.

the differences come in when you are burning the disks, but if your just burning a dvd and closing the disk (saying that disk is finished) then there is no difference whatsoever

why 2 formats?

there are 2 different dvd groups DVD Forum (mitsubishi, sony, time warner and a few others) and the DVD+RW Alliance (sony, yamaha, dell and more) a bit like blu-ray and HD-DVD except nobody won the fight so both exist

of more importance is the quality of the disks you buy (whatever the format). spend a bit more and buy Verbatim disks and you wont go wrong

Thanks Ironside and Mike.
I tried to find a download converter but the free version was limited to 3 mins and I have at least two hours
I gave in and bought Nero 11, which seems to have done the job.
I've also bought a stack ( 50) of DVD-R so that should be ok.
I think it's going to be customer quality control

I use a free application called mpeg streamclip, but it might be Mac only, worth looking though. It will pretty much convert anything to anything and also does batch conversion which if you're dealing with piles of footage is absolutely essential as this kind of processing is very time consuming. I leave all mine running overnight.