Function

• A DVD is a disc that contains video and audio information. When a DVD is placed in a DVD player or drive, a laser reads the information on the disc and the information is transferred to a connected output device such as a television. A DVD-R is used to record information. It can record video and audio for future playback or it can act as storage media for computer files. If a DVD-R is used to record video and audio, it can be played like a regular DVD in most players and drives.
  
  

Features

• As technology has advanced, the storage space of DVDs has increased. The most advanced DVDs can store about 15.9 GB of information through the use of double-sided capacity. Additionally, each side is double-layered. In contrast, DVD-R discs can only store 4.7 GB of information.
  
  

Benefits

• DVD technology offers clearer audio and video as well as greater storage capacity when compared with previous technologies like VHS. DVD-R discs offer the additional benefits of storage. You can use DVD-R discs to record home movies and other video such as downloaded video from the Internet. Conversely, you can also use DVD-R discs to back up important files.
  
  

Considerations

• You can burn many kinds of information to DVD-R discs, however you cannot overwrite the information once it has been stored. Also, while DVD-Rs can be played on virtually any device that plays DVDs, there are some players that only play regular DVDs. It's a good idea to keep both DVDs and DVD-Rs in protective cases so that they don't get scratched. The information stored on DVDs doesn't degrade like the information stored on tape or film, but a scratch can cause skipping or make the disc unreadable.
  
  

Geography

• Regular DVDs are commonly encoded with region information. This information is also present on most DVD players. The result of this practice is that DVDs that are sold in a certain geographical region can only be played on players that are sold in the same region. DVD-R discs do not contain region information, so generally they can be played on any DVD player.