Are DVD-RAMs obsolete?

[Justin]

When I was building PCs a few years ago, I was considering getting a
DVD-RAM drive. Windows XP had support for them - for the most part. If
I remember correctly there were some quirks which ultimately made me
decide against getting a DVD-RAM drive.
Fast forward to today, I have since switched to Mac.
My question is, with the advent of huge jumpdrives are DVD-RAMs obsolete?

 

[Mike S.]

When I was building PCs a few years ago, I was considering getting a
DVD-RAM drive. Windows XP had support for them - for the most part. If
I remember correctly there were some quirks which ultimately made me
decide against getting a DVD-RAM drive.
Fast forward to today, I have since switched to Mac.
My question is, with the advent of huge jumpdrives are DVD-RAMs obsolete?

DVD-RAM offered technical advantages over DVD-R/DVD+R but never really
caught on. I'd say they're obsolete.

 

[Rod Speed]

Justin wrote

When I was building PCs a few years ago, I was considering getting a
DVD-RAM drive. Windows XP had support for them - for the most part.

If I remember correctly there were some quirks which ultimately made
me decide against getting a DVD-RAM drive.

The main problem with it was the price of the media and the fact
that they arent really big enough for most common uses like backup.

Fast forward to today, I have since switched to Mac.

We'll hold our noses.

My question is, with the advent of huge jumpdrives are DVD-RAMs obsolete?

Yes, and external hard drives in spades.

 

[Man-wai Chang]

My question is, with the advent of huge jumpdrives are DVD-RAMs obsolete?

I dunno, but i have NEVER used a DVD-RAM.

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[GMAN]

When I was building PCs a few years ago, I was considering getting a
DVD-RAM drive. Windows XP had support for them - for the most part. If
I remember correctly there were some quirks which ultimately made me
decide against getting a DVD-RAM drive.
Fast forward to today, I have since switched to Mac.
My question is, with the advent of huge jumpdrives are DVD-RAMs obsolete?

Almost every DVD + - RW drive i have bought over the last 10 years have
supported DVD-RAM. Only one of them was read only but the rest could read and
write.

 

[GMAN]

DVD-RAM offered technical advantages over DVD-R/DVD+R but never really
caught on. I'd say they're obsolete.

Use them quite a bit with my settop DVR.

 

[GMAN]

And not popular. Not all drives can read them too.

Whyu would you not in this day and age buy a drive that can read and write all
formats???? When the price of drives are at $20 USD, why not get the best
drive you can that supports everything?

 

[Rod Speed]

GMAN wrote

Why would you not in this day and age buy a drive that can read
and write all formats???? When the price of drives are at $20 USD,
why not get the best drive you can that supports everything?

Because you prefer a drive that isnt picky about the media
that doesnt bother to support DVD-RAM that you never use.

 

[Arno]

When I was building PCs a few years ago, I was considering getting a
DVD-RAM drive. Windows XP had support for them - for the most part. If
I remember correctly there were some quirks which ultimately made me
decide against getting a DVD-RAM drive.
Fast forward to today, I have since switched to Mac.
My question is, with the advent of huge jumpdrives are DVD-RAMs obsolete?

I did test some DVD-RAM disks and drives a while ago and,
compared to MOD, they are underwhelming. Most disks
were not very reliable and close to the error margins.
I don't think DVD-RAM is suitable as the archival medium
it was designed to be. The second problem is that it
is not widely used. I woukd say DVD-RAM is basically
a technological dead-end.

Arno

 

[GMAN]

I did test some DVD-RAM disks and drives a while ago and,
compared to MOD, they are underwhelming. Most disks
were not very reliable and close to the error margins.
I don't think DVD-RAM is suitable as the archival medium
it was designed to be. The second problem is that it
is not widely used. I woukd say DVD-RAM is basically
a technological dead-end.

Arno

DVD-RAM was never meant as an archival medium. Its best uses are for the quick
recording and editing and transportation of video from settop to PC etc...

On many settop recorders, its required if you want to start watching the video
you are still recording whilest it records.

 

[Rod Speed]

Ant wrote

GMAN wrote

What about DVD players (not computers drives?)? Other and I still use old drives that are many years old.

They cost peanuts to update and can then play avis etc too.

And most non dinosaurs want to play blueray etc anyway.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

When I was building PCs a few years ago, I was considering getting a
DVD-RAM drive. Windows XP had support for them - for the most part. If
I remember correctly there were some quirks which ultimately made me
decide against getting a DVD-RAM drive.
Fast forward to today, I have since switched to Mac.
My question is, with the advent of huge jumpdrives are DVD-RAMs obsolete?

Well, considering that the support for writing to them comes mainly from
the dvd burner that you buy, some of the biggest ones support writing to
many different formats including dvd-ram. So having a DVD-RAM capability
is not obsolete. They are called SuperMulti burners, and they'll write
to all forms of DVD media, including DVD-RAM, DVD+/-RW, DVD+/-R, and
DVD+/-R DL.

I don't use the rewriteable media too much, as the write-once media is
much cheaper and so cheap in fact that they're basically throw-away
media now.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Rod Speed]

Yousuf Khan wrote

Justin wrote

Well, considering that the support for writing to them comes mainly
from the dvd burner that you buy, some of the biggest ones support
writing to many different formats including dvd-ram. So having a
DVD-RAM capability is not obsolete. They are called SuperMulti
burners, and they'll write to all forms of DVD media, including
DVD-RAM, DVD+/-RW, DVD+/-R, and DVD+/-R DL.

The short story is that most modern burners will burn anything.

I don't use the rewriteable media too much, as the write-once media is much cheaper and so cheap in fact that they're
basically throw-away media now.

I dont even use the write once media much anymore now.

And when I do its only because some stupid OS cant do what I want to do from a USB and I have to use a CD or DVD.

 

[William Brown]

When I was building PCs a few years ago, I was considering getting a
DVD-RAM drive. Windows XP had support for them - for the most part. If
I remember correctly there were some quirks which ultimately made me
decide against getting a DVD-RAM drive.
Fast forward to today, I have since switched to Mac.
My question is, with the advent of huge jumpdrives are DVD-RAMs obsolete?

They are used in the Medical Industry for Archiving data, using the
cased version as its claimed to last for 100 years.


From memory only Panasonic made drives for these and they were SCSI..

 

[William Brown]

Well, considering that the support for writing to them comes mainly from
the dvd burner that you buy, some of the biggest ones support writing to
many different formats including dvd-ram. So having a DVD-RAM capability
is not obsolete. They are called SuperMulti burners, and they'll write
to all forms of DVD media, including DVD-RAM, DVD+/-RW, DVD+/-R, and
DVD+/-R DL.

I don't use the rewriteable media too much, as the write-once media is
much cheaper and so cheap in fact that they're basically throw-away
media now.

Yousuf Khan

But Only single sided DVD-Rams

Found that its a good way to Edit a TV recording, removing adds etc,
rather than editing direct to the hard drive, as its a copy.

 

[GMAN]

Yousuf Khan wrote


The short story is that most modern burners will burn anything.

Yes, thats what i was getting at. Since the price is basically the same its
smart just to get a drive that does all formats even if you intend to use only
a few of them. Unless there is a specific brand drive that has better error
handling for audio use or game copying that doesnt have DVD-RAM.

 

[Man-wai Chang]

They are used in the Medical Industry for Archiving data, using the

cased version as its claimed to last for 100 years.

For medical imaging?

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[GMAN]

For medical imaging?

Ultrasounds, MRI scans etc

 

[js.b1]

I did test some DVD-RAM disks and drives a while ago and,
compared to MOD, they are underwhelming. Most disks
were not very reliable and close to the error margins.
I don't think DVD-RAM is suitable as the archival medium
it was designed to be. The second problem is that it
is not widely used. I woukd say DVD-RAM is basically
a technological dead-end.

Panasonic video recorders used DVD-RAM.
I guess one appeal was the ability to continually re-use a single disc
for "throwaway recording". However the advent of hard drive recording
boxes made that somewhat redundant. It did however reveal a truth
about DVD-RAM reliability. I left a DVD-RAM type-4 cartridge in a
video recorder, recording & deleting about once a week for a relative
over 2 years. At the end of 2 years the machine rejected the disk.
That pretty much told me all I needed to know about the media.

Blu-Ray replaces DVD-RAM.

The blunt reality is, every "audio based" backup media sucks. DAT
sucked (drives poorly calibrated). CDR sucked big time with initial
dye problems, laser calibration issues and need to use a freezer after
6 months. DVD-RAM was a halfway attempt at improving on DVD, I recall
it verified-after-write.

Sadly we "lost" Magneto Optical which is a wholly more robust system -
as long as the media is made correctly and the drives are up to
scratch. The 3.5" MOD stopped at 2.3GB - actually quite enough for
most critical backup applications. A hard drive can then be used for
general backup, eg, video, music, etc.

We lack a cheap archival grade backup system - basically the idea is
multiple hard drives, SD, USB-Flash. You then move on to the next
media instead of trying to achieve a lifelong media type. There is a
robust Blu-Ray, Panasonic ADA however I think that may go the way of
UDO. The simplest can be offsite cloud backups. That said, I still
favour MOD for those critical backups as well as SD.

DVD-RAM was good for a quick backup of bulk for not much money. Hard
drives I hate as a backup device because they are simply not rugged.
SSD systems do offer robustness and their price falls all the time.

 

[William Brown]

Panasonic video recorders used DVD-RAM.

They Still do.

I guess one appeal was the ability to continually re-use a single disc
for "throwaway recording". However the advent of hard drive recording
boxes made that somewhat redundant. It did however reveal a truth
about DVD-RAM reliability. I left a DVD-RAM type-4 cartridge in a
video recorder, recording & deleting about once a week for a relative
over 2 years. At the end of 2 years the machine rejected the disk.
That pretty much told me all I needed to know about the media.

Blu-Ray replaces DVD-RAM.

No It does not..

The blunt reality is, every "audio based" backup media sucks. DAT
sucked (drives poorly calibrated). CDR sucked big time with initial
dye problems, laser calibration issues and need to use a freezer after
6 months. DVD-RAM was a halfway attempt at improving on DVD, I recall
it verified-after-write.

Sadly we "lost" Magneto Optical which is a wholly more robust system -
as long as the media is made correctly and the drives are up to
scratch. The 3.5" MOD stopped at 2.3GB - actually quite enough for
most critical backup applications. A hard drive can then be used for
general backup, eg, video, music, etc.

And Archival Disks 80-100 years made by many companies , Kodak, Emtec
and Mitsui

http://www.conservationresources.com/Main/section_6/section6_11.htm

Using data from tests like these, industry standard guidelines predict
that MAM Gold CD-R will last greater than 100 years! (In fact, if you
extend the chart [lower right], the data predicts a lifetime of up to
300 years before failing at the Orange Book limit of 220 CPS)

We lack a cheap archival grade backup system - basically the idea is
multiple hard drives, SD, USB-Flash. You then move on to the next
media instead of trying to achieve a lifelong media type. There is a
robust Blu-Ray, Panasonic ADA however I think that may go the way of
UDO. The simplest can be offsite cloud backups. That said, I still
favour MOD for those critical backups as well as SD.

DVD-RAM was good for a quick backup of bulk for not much money. Hard
drives I hate as a backup device because they are simply not rugged.
SSD systems do offer robustness and their price falls all the time.

The cased DVD-RAM is used by the Medical industry for Data back up as
its rated for 100Years.