DVD media

[expatCM]

I get very confused with DVD+R and DVD-R. This link seems to say that they are different
What is DVD?
but I do not understand why my DVD drives will only accept DVD+R for backing up data or copying a movie...... DVD-R is a no go. This even is the case after upgrading a drive .... Could anyone please give me some ideas ..

[Thrillhouse]

Sounds like your DVD burner is only a DVD+RW and not a DVD±RW. DVD+RW drives can only burn to DVD+R and DVD+RW discs. DVD-RW drives can only burn to DVD-R and DVD-RW discs. DVD±RW drives can burn to both formats. Check this article for more information.

[expatCM]

A very nice link, thank you. I thought it had solved all my problems until I then did a sudo lshw and had a look at the installed drive I use for writing. The output extract is

 *-cdrom:0
                description: DVD writer
                product: DVD-RW  DVR-112D
                vendor: PIONEER
                physical id: 1
                bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
                logical name: /dev/cdrom
                logical name: /dev/dvd
                logical name: /dev/scd0
                logical name: /dev/sr0
                version: 1.21
                capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r
                configuration: ansiversion=5
              *-disc
                   physical id: 0
                   logical name: /dev/cdrom

From reading the article I get the idea that this drive needs DVD -R media.

However, DVD -R media will not work with this drive, it needs to be DVD +R. So how does that work?