Advice sought on buying different DVD cartridges

[Blair]

I am about to buy a Panasonic DMR E55ESB Recorder and looking at the price
list for DVD-RAM cartridges from Media Atlantic there appears to be a great
difference in price as follows
Verbatin 4.7GB/120min Jewel case not cartridge type £3.97
Datasafe 4.7GB/120min Caddy single side £5.85
9.4GB/240min Caddy double side £7.98
Imation 4.7GB Type two single side £7.989.4GB
Type 2 double side £10.98
Panasonic 4.7GB £12.98
9.4Gb £16.04
What are the merits of the different makes?
What is a caddy?
What do they mean by Jewel case not cartridge type
In my ignorance I thought I would buy one DVD- RAM cartridge probably the
9.4 GB one which looks like it can record 4 hours. With my proposed recorder
I gather it can play 16 hours on a cartridge but I imagine that the quality
may not be as good as selecting a shorter time/setting
Is cartridge the correct term for a blank DVD?
As you can gather I am at the ignorant stage and am keen to learn

 

[Hilary Karp]

See this link for good info on all aspects of DVD's including DVD-RAM:

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html

 

[Alex Nichol]

I am about to buy a Panasonic DMR E55ESB Recorder and looking at the price
list for DVD-RAM cartridges from Media Atlantic there appears to be a great
difference in price as follows
Verbatin 4.7GB/120min Jewel case not cartridge type £3.97
Datasafe 4.7GB/120min Caddy single side £5.85
9.4GB/240min Caddy double side £7.98
Imation 4.7GB Type two single side £7.989.4GB
Type 2 double side £10.98
Panasonic 4.7GB £12.98
9.4Gb £16.04
What are the merits of the different makes?
What is a caddy?

A DVD RAM disk (unlike most CD or DVD) needs to be in a containing case
- Caddy - to be loaded in the drive. So you *can* have just a couple of
these and always be putting disks into them, and taking them out to
ordinary boxes to release the caddy. Or you can buy with caddy
complete, so you store each disk in its own caddy. Balance is
convenience against cost. Then there are ones where only one side is
recordable, others where you can take the disk in its caddy out and
turn it over to write on the other side, giving double the capacity.
That comes out a bit cheaper for a given amount of recording, but there
is a balance of convenience between having a big movie (say) on one
unit, or having to mix up several things.

As to makers, I have found any of those behave satisfactorily in *my*
recorders (which are not the 'RAM' type). Yesterday I got a pack of 10
DVD+RW for only £14.99 plus post from www.dabs.com and would check out
their prices for DVD-RAM