Differences between DVD5, DVD9, DVD10 and DVD18 [Infographic]
DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc. It is essentially a bigger and faster CD that can hold movies, audio files which are better than CD quality and computer data. When the DVD technology first appeared in the households, users were simply popping the DVDs into their players and watched movies or listened to music. But there was a large scale evolution of DVD technology which led to the birth of multiple formats of DVDs. Users can now record, erase and re-record into DVDs just like they used to do with the compact discs.
There are many DVD formats and this is actually based on the standard the manufacturer adheres to. Different manufacturer supports different standards and the situation is similar to the VHS tape wars. This is also known as the format war and the industry is eagerly waiting to see which format emerges as the industry standard. It is important to note that the different variations of the term DVD simply denote that manner in which the date is written on the disc itself. DVD-ROM was the first DVD standard that hit the market and it is a read-only format.
The video or the game is burned onto the DVD and the disc will run on any device which is equipped with DVD-ROM. The DVD-ROMs and CDs are very similar in nature. To play the DVD videos on computer or tablets without DVD-ROM, you can use Aimersoft DVD Ripper to convert DVD movies or games to streaming video format like WMV, MOV, FLV and so forth. If you want to burn videos to DVD but don't know which kind of DVD discs can be used to store your files, you can have a look at the table below. It compares the differences between DVD discs:
| DVD Disc types |
DVD 5 |
DVD 9 |
DVD 10 |
DVD 18 |
DL DVDs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic nature | It is a single sided single layer disk. | It is a single sided dual-layer DVD disc. | It is a double sided single layer DVD. | It is a 2 sided disc that holds DVD-9 on both sides. | Here two layers of standard DVD-5 are joined together with a transparent spacer. |
| Capacity | It can store 4.7 GB. | It can contain up to 8.5 GB or 7.95 computer GB. | It can store up to 9.4 GB or 8.7 computer GB | It can contain up to 17 GB or 15.9 computer GB. | It holds 8.5 GB. |
| DVD formats | It is supported by DVD+R/RW & DVD-R/RW formats. | Supported by DVD+R & DVD-R formats. | Supported by DVD+R/RW &DVD-R/RW formats. | DVD+R format. | DVD+R & DVD-RW. |
| Play features | Can be used on DVD-ROMs & DVD burners. | Can be used on DVD-ROMs & DVD burners. | Can be used on DVD-ROMs & DVD burners. | ||
| Price | Cheap | Costly | Expensive | Expensive | Moderate |
| Reusable (Y/N) | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
DVD+R & DVD+RW
These formats are supported by big brands like Philips, Yamaha, Ricoh, Dell & Hewlett-Packard. DVD+R is similar to CD-R as it is a recordable format. It can record the data only once and then the data becomes permanent on the disc. These cannot be recorded for the second time.
DVD+RW is a re-recordable format which is very similar to CD-RW. The data can be erased and recorded many time without causing any damage to the medium. It is important to not that DVDs which are made with the help of a +R/+RW device can be easily read by most of the commercial DVD players.
DVD 5 or DVD 9: When do you use each?
It goes without saying that DVD 5 and DVD 9 are the two most popular formats of DVD. But the choice of format is very much dependant on the source movie. If the source has a high bitrate then a high amount of compression will give much better results than a movie with a low bitrate.
The DVD 5 format is mainly used for movie titles and to reduce the amount of compression, one can easily remove the end credits. DVD 9 is generally used for those movies which use a lot of interactive menu and the TV series which normally has around 7 episodes per disc.
As you read this, you may have already received a comprehensive understanding about the differences between DVD disc like DVD5, DVD9, DVD10 and DVD18. If not, check them from the infographic below one more time:
Download
Download
I never knew that there was a DVD18. Maybe that is because like you have stated the DVD5 or 9 is the most common. Why do they not name them in order? Like for instance is there a DVD 6? Or 7? Or what about say a DVD15? Just odd that they would jump like that from 9 to 18 if there was not ones in between.
Wow I never knew that there were so many different formats for DVDs. And to tell you the truth I never knew what DVD stands for(don't judge, lol). This is a great way to compare the different kinds of DVDs to know that you are indeed using the correct one for the various projects you might be working on.
I never really knew all the differences to these dvd discs. But I do know now. There are quite a few differences. I guess I usually only thought of differences being how many images one could hold. But there are quite a few differences for all of these DVDS.