Whats up with DVD-RAM?

Whats up with this format? All I know is that its relatively unknown compared to its more popular siblings like DVD-R, DVD-RW, etc.

I've only seen Toshiba's and I think Asus's notebooks dvd burners that support writing to these discs. According to wikipedia.com, I think these work basically like hard drives and that special dvd burning software isn't needed. They can be rewritten over 100,000 times whereas dvd+-rws can only be written 1000 times.

Anybody have experience with using these discs? I bet their quite expensive and hard to find...

 

They came out a while ago... around the same time as the other DVD formats did. However, it never really caught on as well as DVD+/- did... so I think they've slowed or even stopped production on them.
I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that DVD-RAM started out as a proprietary format made by Panasonic...

 

But suddenly it is popular again -- at least with drive makers.

 

Hmm...

I though Toshiba originally came out with DVD-RAM.

 

Well burners, at least desktop ones, just started showing up 6 months ago. And now almost every manufacturer has either released one or has one lined up. They surpase any RW as mentioned by reliability and amount of rewrites. But their only problem is that they are SLOW.

Also they function as a floppy drive or HDD, so just drag and drop and erase single files.

I think they will become a norm, once they become faster and therir media more available and cheaper.

 

Actually DVD-RAM was the first DVD storage technology before +/-R. The first discs were 2.6GB is size and were housed in cartridges which make it an excellent backup media. Unitl recently it never really caught on outside of Japan. The discs were more expensive than the later released +/-R because of the cartridge and the burn speeds were slow compared to the other standards though supposedly 16x drives and media are on the way. The ability to drag and drop in Windows and better error correction are its best features. Now that the price of media has come down and people realizing it is good for backups has renewed interest. It also doesn't cost much to add the feature to a drive.

 

hmm, i thought you could read and write to them at the same time, or am I way out?

insane

 

I'm still not sure DVD-RAM will ever become as popular as DVD+RW/-RW. It's probably more expensive to manufacture, so while prices will be dropping, they'll can only drop to a certain point. And DVD-R/+R media is so cheap now, that many don't even bother with rewritables. In the future, with HD-DVD/BluRay offering insane storage capacities, few people are going to be attracted to the "portable 4.7GB hard disk" that is DVD-RAM.

I _really_ like the concept of DVD-RAM. All my DVD drives support it, and even I _never_ used it up to date. Because I can't find media, and when I can, it's soooo pricey, that I'd better just get a 10-pack of DVD-Rs. Too bad, it had potential.

 

I agree. I doubt if it going to catch again. It has been there in the market for ages, came much before DVDRs. Though it is/was popular in Japan and some enterprize backup systems, it was never caught on because of insanely expensive media even todate( another Example Sony MD, which never became popular outside Japan).

In technical perspective it is superior to DVDR technology with bad sector marking ability, much more reliable, but unfortunately it meeting the fate of beta max. ( I though of buying it 6 years ago, but media price was around $16-25 per RW disc).

Now, HD-DVDs and Blue-Ray are coming to market, there is very little chance to survive for this media. Even when HD-DVD media comes to market, it is not going to be expensive than DVD-RAM disks, so it is highly unlikely situation.

 

I used to use DVD-RAM. it wasn't really for backup purposes, more like a large floppy drive. It was really good because you could erase files, and burn new ones on without having to create a new compliation. Works just like a HDD, except it was slower.

The DVD-RAM disc I had, had a really weird dye pattern underneath it. never seen anything like it on +/-Rs.

Now i just use a mini 1inch hdd jump drive thing.

 

The number of DVD and CD formats is becoming mind-boggoling! I read somewhere that something called BleuRay or something similar DVD format is coming out. How many
times do we need to upgrade our optical drives on our notebooks, I do not have the faintest clue!

 

Well, current optical drives support all CD and DVD formats that exist, except DVD-RAM which is only supported by some. HD-DVD and BluRay aren't out yet, but I believe that devices that support these formats will be backwards compatible with previous formats.

 

Can I find DVD-RAM media in any electonic stores because I hear its pretty rare. I've only seen Asus and Toshiba notebooks have DVD burners that support writing to this format.

I also hear that some of these discs come in cartridges, so do you remove it when you go to burn the disc because I don't think it would fit in the burner.

 

The burners on Thinkpads also support DVD-RAM. So do LG's DVD burners (desktop and notebook) and most of LG's DVD readers support DVD-RAM reading.

I think that the disks can be removed from the catridge and used separately. However it is also possible to buy them cartridge-less to begin with.

I don't suppose you'll find it in every store that sells CDs/DVDs. Maybe in some. But if you are determined, you will find. Plenty of online sellers too.

 

Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are the new formats that have just come out. They are direct competitors and its going be a very bloody war with them. I think most customers will wait until one format is the undisputed winner and many are already happy with their dvd collections and see no reason to upgrade.
Both offer much more storage space than DVDs, with Blu-Ray holding more but costing more as well.
The Playstation 3 using Blu-Ray should significantly increase its popularity.
Right now, very, very few people will be adopting these new discs since for one reason, a player for both of them runs at least $1000 on average.

DVDs had a huge advantage over VHS but these two only give storage as an advantage and I'm currently quite happy with the quality of DVDs and their storage space. I won't be upgrading for at least 1.5 more years.

 

yeah we sell them here in New Zealand, we dont even keep them on the shop floor, but rather behind the counter ina draw....they are $15, each, the non cartradge type. DVD+R DL are $10, so yes they are more expensive. Most Toshiba notebooks have "super multi" drives and they support DVD-RAM.

Some of the old drives could take the while cartradge.... like a large SONY mini Disc.


Insane