It is somewhat ironic that we are video services company that does not produce a single product that is delivered to the customer on video tape. It is true that we still shoot our original content on digital video tape, but we then capture it digitally to hard drives and it never sees tape again. The word “video” has come to mean “captured via a camcorder or device” instead of meaning physical tape.

Our deliverables to our customers are either in Digital Video Disc (DVD) or in computer-readable files. One problem that arises from time to time has to do with formats and standards. Some of you are old enough to remember the Sony Betamx vs. VHS battle of the VCRs. Ultimately the “superior” Betamax went the way of the T-Rex as it lost the format and standards battle to the “inferior” VHS format. More recently, high definition optical disc storage makers fought a similar battle as Sony’s Blu-Ray Disc defeated the Toshiba-backed HD DVD. Just a few months ago Toshiba and other HD DVD manufacturers cried “uncle” and ceased production of their units.

When it comes to the content ML Casey Video Services delivers to our customers on standard DVDs, we have two choices to make about format because there are two primary DVD formats available. There is DVD-R and DVD+R. Those little signs before the R are significant. Viewers must have a DVD player capable of playing a -R or a +R for your content to be seen. So, as a producer of videos, which format do we create? Without getting into arguments over which format is best, we typcially favor the -R format because there is a greater likelihood that most DVD players can play them. We have the capability of producing +R DVDs as well, and do that upon specific request by our customers.

Wikipedia has a balanced entry on the DVD format issue that provides more detailed information and links.