dvd ram

[SOSAGES]

Hi all just a quick question a buddy of mine has a new dvd camcoder it burns the video to either a dvdram or dvd-r he is currently using the dvdram as he can delete the movies he dosnt want.

To view the movies he just takes the dvdram out of its caddy and inserts it into the stand alone dvd player and it works fine he put the dvdram (its 8cm) into his dvdrom on his pc and it didnt recognise it - now ive never actually used a dvdram so i have no idea whats what so can standard dvdroms read dvdram disks? does he need to take it out the caddy before inserting it into his dvdrom? or does he need a seperate dvdram player for his pc?

any help would be great

thanks in advance

[Jon M]

Some DVD-Rom drives are very fussy over media.. I'd be unsurprised if this particular one doesn't support dvd-ram media.

DVD ROM and DVD RAM are two different formats AFAIK ... I wouldn't expect a DVD RAM disc to play in anything else except another DVD RAM player.

[SOSAGES]

ahh so some do support it? - right as long as i know its a dual layer freecom dvd burner (external) i will have a look to see if it supports it..

total dvdram newb but it all seems simple enough.

[SOSAGES]

Originally Posted by Chris T

DVD ROM and DVD RAM are two different formats AFAIK ... I wouldn't expect a DVD RAM disc to play in anything else except another DVD RAM player.

thats what i thought - but he can take the dvd-ram out of its caddy and play it back in his standalone dvd player (probably a cheap one from tesco) so something must be the same

Yep, some of the most recent home DVD recorders I've seen advertised can record in DVD RAM format. It's more efficient in use of discs because it allows the contet you record to be chopped up and saved wherever there's space on the disc just like a HDD does. The downside is that if you use a different player to play back your recordings, it does have to be one that explicitly supports DVD RAM.

Presumably ability to read DVD RAM is now a must-have for even the cheapest new players because DVD camcorders, amongst other devices, use it. Your DVD ROM device, however, is presumably a little older? The DVD ROM drive in my iMac is now five years old!

[SOSAGES]

Hi - yeah i thought that but the DVDROM on his pc hes trying to use it in is a new dual layer dvd writter i would of thought it would of had a better chance of being able to read the disk than a standard rom.

funny old world - there was a DVDRAM driver on the CD that came with the DVD recorder and that was installed and working

i can only assume it is the drive ... i will have to investigate

[altis]

DVD-RAM is a different format to the rest and many readers are not compatible. Some details here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/altisuk/temp/dvdformat.pdf

[Aragorn]

Quite a LOT of DVD burners don't support DVD-RAM!

Check out http://www.videohelp.com/dvdwriters.php to search for DVD burners that do support DVD-RAM.

If he's in to new tech, he could get a DVD Recorder - like Lite-on LVW-5006 (http://www.savastore.com/products/pr...10278480&pid=4) which has a firewire connection. He can then copy from camcorder to DVD+RW and from DVD+RW to PC for editing.

HTH

[dilli-theclaw]

Originally Posted by Aragorn

Quite a LOT of DVD burners don't support DVD-RAM!

Check out http://www.videohelp.com/dvdwriters.php to search for DVD burners that do support DVD-RAM.

If he's in to new tech, he could get a DVD Recorder - like Lite-on LVW-5006 (http://www.savastore.com/products/pr...10278480&pid=4) which has a firewire connection. He can then copy from camcorder to DVD+RW and from DVD+RW to PC for editing.

HTH

Oddly enough dvd-ram is the one format that my liteon dvd writer and recorder don't support

But my £30 dvd player from argos in my bedroom plays it apparently.

It's just as well if I have video to record my dvd recorder has a firewire port.