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What is the difference between factory produced and writebale DVD-R?


A "factory-produced" DVD is pressed much the same way vinyl records were (and CDs are). It's very fast & cheap in volume, and every copy is nearly as good in playback quality as the original (which is usually, but not always, good).

Recordable DVDs are like regular DVDs except that only blank "channels" or grooves are pressed into the disc. A layer of organic dye is placed over this. During recording the DVD burner follows the grooves and burns the pattern of dots into the dye. A DVD player can later read the recorded DVD's dye layer just like it reads the "pits" and "lands" of a pressed DVD.

With a recordable DVD you're dependent on the quality not only of the pressed part of the DVD (grooves) but also the burner is making a quality pattern in the right places.

A recordable DVD costs a lot more to make & burn. Extreme isn't saving any money this way at all. It means their volume is very low or they can't afford the NRE up-front fees to make a pressed DVD. Pressed DVDs may require a couple thousand dollars NRE but cost much less to make per disc.

Quality problems would show up as macroblocks, freezes and other problems in playback. Also it's relatively cheap to do DVD-9 on pressed DVDs to get twice the data capacity and hence higher quality MPEG compression or more extras that can be had on a recordable DVD, which only has as much space as a DVD-5.

A pressed DVD has a layer of aluminum to reflect the laser but is otherwise transparent and so appears silver. The dye layer in a recordable disc has some color and is often bluish or green.

Some recordable CDs are almost silver and some red or even completely black. I don't know if this can be done with recordable DVDs.

PS. There are dual-layer recordable DVDs now which I'm not familiar with. They're similar in storage to a DVD-9 and much more expensive than an ordinary recordable DVD.
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