DVD-RAM 5X media

[kdawg]

Does anyone know if 5X DVD-RAM media exists yet? And if so where could I get some. And also, if you have a double sided 9.4GB DVD-RAM disk does that mean 9.4GB each side? or a combined total of 9.4GB?

[Gen-An]

4.7GB per side on 9.4GB DVD-RAM. As far as 5x -RAM goes, we'd have to know what country you are in to tell you if and where you can get some.

[kdawg]

Thanks. I'm in the US.

[jman98]

DVD-RAM is a dead format and I would advise anyone to not get too attached to it. Very few manufacturers support it now and I see no evidence that this will change. Nobody in the industry is really interested in it except for 1 or 2 companies that won't let it die. Note that I did NOT say that nobody supported it, but please also don't list the 1 or 2 companies that do and think that it speaks for the rest of the industry who ignores this format, such as Philips, Sony, etc.

[OneSickPup]

DVD-RAM is a dead format and I would advise anyone to not get too attached to it. Very few manufacturers support it now and I see no evidence that this will change. Nobody in the industry is really interested in it except for 1 or 2 companies that won't let it die. Note that I did NOT say that nobody supported it, but please also don't list the 1 or 2 companies that do and think that it speaks for the rest of the industry who ignores this format, such as Philips, Sony, etc.

I don't have the industry knowledge to refute your comments but I do find them surprising! I just checked Newegg and they currently have 27 different listings for drives supporting DVD-Ram 5x. Most LG burners have supported dvd-ram for sometime now. But what about Benq DQ60 - Pioneer DVR110 and DVR 111 - NEC 4550, 4551, 4570 - Samsung SH-W162L - LiteOn 165P6s and 165H6s just to name a few. Seems to me that there are way more manufacturers supporting this format compared to 12 months ago.

[piano632]

Both Panasonic and Maxell have 5x RAM, just that it isn't easy to find. And when you do find it, it's usually more money than you want to pay.

Supposedly 16x RAM is on the way, but won't be compatible with existing drives.

[kdawg]

I think DVD-RAM drives do have a place. I think their ability to mount like rewritable drives makes them a better solution for back ups. So you can edit something on a backup without having to burn a whole new disk. I also use one in my settop DVD recorder. I've been using the same RAM disk for a couple years now with no problems.

[garryheather]

Three manufacturers that I know of off the top of my head have just picked up production of DVD-RAM - Asus have just added it to their existing lineup of DVD-ROM drives, and Pioneer and NEC all have recently added writers supporting it to their range. Hardly a dead format. Sure it's not widely used in the consumer domain (ie home users), but it's popular for incremental backups, database archiving and so on, due in part to its inbuilt fault tolerance and defect management that goes on in the background.

OK, so maybe you don't hear of many people trying to write video to them (which is all some people think DVD is good for, and remember the V stands for Versatile...) but data is data. If you want rewritable media and be sure the data will still be there when you get back from lunch, you could do a lot worse than DVD-RAM.

DVD-RAM discs can be re-written to more times than any DVD-RW media, offer 30+ years data retention, does not require specialist recording software to use, and has fast and reliable access to many files, most noticably smaller files where the more accurate addressing offered by the format and inbuilt reluctance to fragment files across large areas of the disc comes into its own.

Sure, it's not very quick when it comes to writing data to it (you'll never confuse it with a hard disk, even though your computer handles it like one), but speed alone hardly makes it a dead format. New media and protoype drives in the laboratory are already touting figures of 16x - although whether or not it will come out at a user friendly price any time soon remains to be seen.

I do not believe DVD-RAM is a dead format. It may be a niche market compared to say the general purpose variant of DVD-R but it is quite widely used in industrial applications and CAD bureaus from my experience.

I'm a great fan of it too - I don't trust my archived photos to anything less.

[kdawg]

Yeah, what he said! I dont' think DVD-RAM is dead either.

[smearbrick1]

Since DVD+/-R packet writing is pretty much a non-existant joke, DVD-RAM is a great alternative to DVD-/+R for data backup.

Can't be too dead, Panasonic supports it their DVD recorders.

[trhouse]

Sony's new DRU-820A supports dvd-ram, X5.

[kdawg]

I have an LG GSA-4167B that support it as well. I just can't find any media to try it out.

[garryheather]

If you can't find it locally in the stores, can you not use the likes of Amazon or some other online retailer ?

[kdawg]

I was looking for 9.4GB double-sided 5X. I can't find any online either.

[OneSickPup]

Hard to find dvd-ram of any type online. Supermediastore.com doesn't carry it afaik. Rima has a fairly slim lineup:

http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=R&Category_Code=DR3

[kdawg]

Meritline.com has some too but not the ones Im looking for. I'll have to settle for 3X.

[piano632]

Here you go... Panasonic 5x 9.4GB in cartridge:

http://store.ourstorespecials.com/pa9dv5xmepca.html

[kdawg]

Bingo!

[piano632]

Or if you want 4.7GB 5x Maxell without the cartridge:

http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?sku=5236709&SourceID=k4158

[trhouse]

I recently bought a Sony DRU-820A drive which supports X5 dvd-ram. At the moment, I only have Panasonic X2-3 dvd-ram. On the back of the Panasonic package it states that the record/playback maximum transfer rate is 33Mbs which X3.

Here is a DVDInfoPro speed test of this media. DVD InfoPro reports that it reads at X5 which is a surprise.

[whitejremiah]

while i dont think that it will ever hit the popularity of + and -r, i do think that ram has a few good use, particularly with buinesses......as for home use, it does have some use, such as editing an already burned disc, ect.....i think the home useage is rather limited, even so though, i wouldnt mind picking up a ram compatable burner just for those rather limited home uses....