Gentlemen,
Thank you for your responses, I appreciate this forum as a venue to discuss these issues. I will admit that I misspoke when I stated that the DVD manufactures should be "reprimanded". A more accurate statement would be that the manufactures are doing their customers a disservice by releasing players that do not support DVD-R. And I will explain myself:
Why manufactures are on the hook:
Admittedly the ultimate responsibility lies with the consumer to choose an appropriate player. However most consumers do not have the time or inclination to research various debates such as DVD forums discussion on standards, and bother themselves with such intricacies as bit rates, layers, surfaces, dies etc. Therefore it is incumbent on the manufactures to create a product that will "just work". While Hollywood, stamped DVDs will continue to be most widely distributed medium, burned DVDs will be used for everything else. Burned discs are not an insignificant technology, that should merely be supported as an transitory option. We are rapidly approaching an "all digital" world and DVD-R is the medium that will be used for the next few years in any consumer level recording. Because of the burgeoning popularity of the burned disc, if a consumers machine is not compliant they will soon have to replace it with another that is. Therefore every DVD-Player that is being sold today that is not DVD-R complaint, must be replaced tomorrow.
There are set tops under $110, for example the Panasonic DVD-RV32K DVD player that offer DVD-R compatibility. Therefore there is no economic excuse not to include this necessary feature.
What complicates the issue further is that DVD-R looks and feels exactly like your standard stamped DVD. Most consumers do not understand the difference. How about the commercials from Apple computer that show how easy it is to burn a "DVD" with their imacs. A quote from their web site: "creative professionals can now write to CDs and DVDs without additional software". How can consumers be expected to know the difference between DVD (stamped) and DVD-R (burned) when even the vendors are confusing them. I believe it is the manufactures job to make their machines DVD-R compliant, if for no other reason than to keep their customers satisfied. How happy will the purchaser of the Go-Video system be with SonicBlue inc. when he discovers next month that his system will not play the DVD his brother burned on his new apple?
More on the importance of DVD-R
Because of the economics, most DVD replication houses will not stamp under 300 DVDs. Any amount under this must be burned on DVD-R. If you are interested in producing a product that will be a limited release: under 300 copies, you will have to burn it on DVD-R.
All new players are NOT compatiable!
At the bottom of this post I will list the models that are not DVD-R compliant. I can find many of them on Egghead for sale right now
try the following link for proof.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/102-1085195-9322524
or try
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/102-1085195-9322524
Additionally go to any WalMart and check to see how many DVD players identify DVD-R compatibility. Many of the players I have seen support CD-R but not DVD-R. Why should a video player support an audio format and not a standard video format?
Aiwa CSDDVMIS
Aiwa XD-DV170
Apex AD-500A
Apex AD-500B
Apex AD-600A
Denon DVD-1500
Go! Video DVS-3000
Hitachi DVW1
JVC XV-1000
JVC XV-501
JVC XV-D701
Marantz DV3100 (problematic)
Matshita UJDA710 DVDCD-ROM
Mitsubishi DD-2000
Mitsubishi DD-3000
Mitsubishi DD-4001
Oriton DVD100 (problematic)
Panasonic DVD-CV50
Panasonic DVD-CV50U
Panasonic DVD-CV51
Philips DVD 950AT
Philips DVD-400AT
Philips DVD-850AT
Phillips DVD 941 Pioneer DVL-90 (problematic)
RCA RC5910P
Sampo DVE-520
Samsung DVD-709
Sharp DVL-70TV (problematic)
Sharp DV-S200 (problematic)
Sony DVP-S3000
Sony DVP-S7000
Sony PVDV-30
Sylvania DVL 1000
Sylvania DVL 100A
Technics DVD-A10PP-N
Toshiba DVD SD-160L
Toshiba SDK-600
Toshiba MED-300AS
Toshiba SD-2107U
Toshiba SD-2108U
Toshiba SD-2109
Toshiba SD-3107
Toshiba SD-3109
Toshiba SD-5109C
Toshiba SD-6109C
Toshiba SD-9000U
Victor XV-521 (problematic)
Yamaha DVD-S510B
