PhilipL . Question about your recent DVD-RAM post

[carlosn]

Posted: Aug 12, 2003 13:15

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Hi

Quote:
You don't have to delete the WHOLE disk as you would with a DVD+-RW


This isn't completely correct; you do not have to erase the disc to replace the data provided you are using a UDF file format and software that supports writing that, which is normally the same software that DVD-RAM uses. DVD-RW/+RW authored this way are playable on the majority of DVD-ROMs but require a UDF reader (as would DVD-RAM if the DVD-ROM was compatible to play it). These RW discs can be treated just a hard-drive (like DVD-RAM) and have files deleted or added at will.

You only need to erase a RW disc if you author to make a compatible DVD-ROM (one that plays back without the need for any drivers) for playback elsewhere, if DVD-RAM could also be authored to be compatible you would need to erase that too

Having said that you can use a multi-session disc and keep adding until the disc was full.

Undoubtedly though DVD-RAM is best for data, unless compatibility is a key importance in which case you need RW.

Regards

Philip

I understand what u said about udf but what did you mean with

Undoubtedly though DVD-RAM is best for data

If you can use udf or just use multiple sessions then why would you care for DVD-RAM? Are there dvd-ram only devices (video camera's etc maybe?). I have looked and it seems that there are few combo dvd+RW/-RW/ram drives.

[lgmayka]

My own understanding is that almost all of the drag-and-drop solutions for DVD+RW and DVD-RW have two fatal drawbacks:

1) They are buggy and unreliable. I had bad experiences with DirectCD, so I tried InCD, but found that to be no better really. In forums like these, the real experts say that none of these programs are reliable enough to depend on. In other words, as one expert said: Just because you've written a file to an InCD disk, don't think for a minute that you can now delete it from your hard drive!

2) Most drag-and-drop solutions do not have read-after-write error checking, and so again, cannot really be depended upon. DVD+MRW will, I think, have this capability, but very few DVD writers currently support it.

The conclusion I've come to is that for *reliable* data backup, the only practical drag-and-drop solution is DVD-RAM.

Is there anything incorrect in this line of thought?

[PhilipL]

Withdrawn