DS Forums

 
 

What's DVD RAM ?


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 11-04-2011, 16:12
Virgil Tracy
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 24,029

I've just go this panasonic dvd recorder/VCR combo DMR EZ49 and in the insructions it keeps mentioning DVD RAM , but never says what it is .

is it a disc like RW or is it some sort of hard drive ?
Virgil Tracy is online now   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 11-04-2011, 16:17
fmradiotuner1
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: TheEssexSunshineCoast Clacton
Posts: 15,224
Yes but I don't think they were ever very popular but you can still find them in the shops if you look hard enough.

I don't know if its as good as DVD RW?

They seem to be 9.4Gb so that is better than both DVD RW and DL I think.
fmradiotuner1 is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 11-04-2011, 16:18
Nigel Goodwin
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
Posts: 41,794
It's a strange kind of rewriteable DVD, mostly exclusive to Panasonic - it never really took off, there wasn't much point to it.
Nigel Goodwin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-04-2011, 16:32
BrooklynBoy
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 9,598
I've just go this panasonic dvd recorder/VCR combo DMR EZ49 and in the insructions it keeps mentioning DVD RAM , but never says what it is .

is it a disc like RW or is it some sort of hard drive ?
As mentioned it's a type of re-writable DVD and it's Panasonic only. They are actually very good. The only drawback is you can only record on them or play the recording back on a compatible Panasonic machine (unless you finalise the disc which means you can't record on it again)
BrooklynBoy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-04-2011, 16:34
len112
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3,943
It's a strange kind of rewriteable DVD, mostly exclusive to Panasonic - it never really took off, there wasn't much point to it.
It's like rewriteable dvd but you can watch the start of the recording before it's completed like with a Sky+ recording . I have one but never really used the record function much so not sure what the quality is like
len112 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-04-2011, 16:36
cnbcwatcher
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: At college, in L.A.'s office
Posts: 54,221
It's a strange kind of rewriteable DVD, mostly exclusive to Panasonic - it never really took off, there wasn't much point to it.
I don't remember many computers supported them either and I think normal DVD players with DVD-RAM support were rare. I suppose it could be listed as a "techno flop".
cnbcwatcher is offline Follow this poster on Twitter   Reply With Quote
Old 11-04-2011, 16:49
AnotherBob
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: N.W England
Posts: 356
When I bought my Toshiba RD XS30 there was a DVD RAM in a "case" included with the machine. They behave much the same as the HDD inasmuch as you can "chase play" and re-use them much more easily than a DVD RW. They were damned expensive.
AnotherBob is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-04-2011, 17:52
GaseousClay
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Worcester
Posts: 4,185
Many PCs that have a 'DVD Multi Recorder' disc drive will support DVD RAM.
GaseousClay is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-04-2011, 18:18
Stunty
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 42,423
Most of the Panasonic recorders and players support the RAM disc. Prior to HDD I used RAM discs all the time on my Panasonic units. They record, also time-slips aka watching the start of the programme whilst still recording. It also lets you edit the various recordings, the recordings shuffle up the disc when you delete, whereas I think the RW discs just record on an empty bit of disc??

The quality is fine, the Panny's have 4 recording levels EP, LP, SP, XP. On a normal disc the XP records 1 hour, the EP records 8 hours but the quality on the longest play is not great, but watchable.

For recording onto disc I found they were more functional than the RW, much preferred, in fact I must have over 100 RAM discs, and only 10 RW discs. It's a matter of preference but I have always bought Panasonic so that I could use RAM discs. They act like a hard drive but on a disc.
Stunty is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-04-2011, 18:27
mill9
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Horsham, West Sussex
Posts: 498
I've got several DVD-RAM disks floating around and have been using them on my 2 Panasonic DVD recorders for a few years. They can be used like a VHS tape but as others say they are not so compatible with other equipment.
mill9 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-04-2011, 19:19
bobcar
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 14,718
I don't know if its as good as DVD RW?
It is much better than DVD RW but has limited compatibility, for a DVD recorder an HDD is the way to go.
bobcar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-04-2011, 20:01
dmp
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,755
Both of my Sony laptops use dvd ram, also some jvc and toshiba dvd recorders use them, they're far better than a rw disc, I have loads of them as I find them so usefull.
Dave
dmp is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 11-04-2011, 21:55
tokenblack
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 110
As mentioned it's a type of re-writable DVD and it's Panasonic only. They are actually very good. The only drawback is you can only record on them or play the recording back on a compatible Panasonic machine (unless you finalise the disc which means you can't record on it again)
RAM does not need finalising.
FInalising other types of discs allows playback on other players but it does not always mean you cannot record on them again.

RAM will either play or it won't.
Many dvd recorders , even non Panny ones will play them but will not record on them.

The best way to look at them is as mini hard drives.
They can do everything that a hard drive can like watching a recording before its ended, aswell as all the editing tricks you can do on HDD but not on DVDR.

However , very few regular players will play them.
Panasonic used them before HDD became common.

Pioneer recorders support -RW(VR) which is just as clever and just as incompatible.

You can finalise a -RW(VIDEO) disc to play on other players.
You can then Unfinalise it and use it again or add to it.
Some recorders will only reformat the disc so you can reuse it but only by deleting it

Write once discs are locked when finalised so they can't be used again
tokenblack is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-04-2011, 18:14
Orbitalzone
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Sussex
Posts: 12,173
DVDram is also usually considered far more reliable than the + or - DVD versions for archiving - it's estimated that a DVDram can re-record "up to" 100,000 times and could last up to 30 years unlike a DVDrw that can be "up to" 1000 times re-written.

It probably should have been the DVD recordable standard rather than the pointless +/- DVD war.

The company I work for used to use digital audio recorders that recorded radio transmissions and saved them onto DVDRam, which back then (late 1990's) there was no real choice other than Zip disks or removable hard drives in caddies.... the idea being the user removed the DVDram when full up and put in another. In reality they let the same DVDram run on and on and it overwrote the earliest recordings. The RAM discs managed to record day in/day out for several years before needing replacing. No way on earth a DVDrw would have managed that feat.
Orbitalzone is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-04-2011, 20:40
stanandjan
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Scouser in Chilterns
Posts: 711
I have been using them all the time for 3 years.. editing security cameras a doddle ..and back and forth to the HDD..
About £2 each at the moment..

Stan
stanandjan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-04-2011, 21:59
tokenblack
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 110
But not really worth building large collections of as the number of recorders and players that supports them seems to be dropping all the time.

If long life is in doubt you can make more than 20 copies on a-R or+R for the cost of a single RAM and the chances of all 20 failing are slim.

The lifespan of any formats is all guesswork anyway and likely to be for many years
tokenblack is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-04-2011, 22:01
tokenblack
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 110
It probably should have been the DVD recordable standard rather than the pointless +/- DVD war.

.
That was Panasonics dream but they realised how pointless it would have been to make a format standard that would not play on 99% of regular players
tokenblack is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 16:58.