Here's my question. I sometimes use -Rw disks. I mostly record tv shows in LP. Sometimes I keep the shows ...sometimes I don't. Let's say I keep one 30 minute show. Then I record three others while I'm at work. I only want to keep one of those three new shows. If I do that, I'm not going to gain any additional time on the disk by deleting the other two shows (i.e., there will only be two hours left on the disk). So what is the point of deleting the two shows? Is there any way that I could get back that recording time, other than by deleting all the content on the disk?

Here's my question. I sometimes use -Rw disks. I mostly record tv shows in LP. Sometimes I keep the shows ...sometimes I don't. Let's say I keep one 30 minute show. Then I record three others while I'm at work. I only want to keep one of those three new shows. If I do that, I'm not going to gain any additional time on the disk by deleting the other two shows (i.e., there will only be two hours left on the disk). So what is the point of deleting the two shows? Is there any way that I could get back that recording time, other than by deleting all the content on the disk?No. To do what you want to do, without a hard drive, you need a recorder like the Panasonics that will record to DVD-RAM disks.

Here's my question. I sometimes use -Rw disks. I mostly record tv shows in LP. Sometimes I keep the shows ...sometimes I don't. Let's say I keep one 30 minute show. Then I record three others while I'm at work. I only want to keep one of those three new shows. If I do that, I'm not going to gain any additional time on the disk by deleting the other two shows (i.e., there will only be two hours left on the disk). So what is the point of deleting the two shows? Is there any way that I could get back that recording time, other than by deleting all the content on the disk?

The "point" of deleting the shows is that when you finally do delete the last recording, then you'll get the space back.

Basically, I use it to signify that I have watched the show.

Though some people have said there are some recorders that will burn DVD-RW in some "nonstandard" format that doesn't work with regular DVD players, that WILL work similar to a DVD-RAM..

...Though some people have said there are some recorders that will burn DVD-RW in some "nonstandard" format that doesn't work with regular DVD players, that WILL work similar to a DVD-RAM..

I believe you are referring to VR mode. Some machines have it, some don't.

Here's my question. I sometimes use -Rw disks. I mostly record tv shows in LP. Sometimes I keep the shows ...sometimes I don't. Let's say I keep one 30 minute show. Then I record three others while I'm at work. I only want to keep one of those three new shows. If I do that, I'm not going to gain any additional time on the disk by deleting the other two shows (i.e., there will only be two hours left on the disk). So what is the point of deleting the two shows? Is there any way that I could get back that recording time, other than by deleting all the content on the disk?

-RW(Video mode) is unfortunately like that. However, if your DVD recorder supports -RW(VR) mode or -RAM then you can reclaim the deleted space right away... I am not sure how +RW(+VR) handles this.