I used to use DVD-RAM (still have an external drive hooked to my PowerMac G5). I also have a couple of Panasonic recorders - one with a hard drive and DVD-RAM, and one with just the DVD-RAM drive. I found the disks to be unreliable after 20 or 30 cycles of record/erase, which is why I upgraded from the DVD-RAM only drive to the one with the hard drive in it. I can always spool off from the hard drive to DVD-RAM (or DVD-R, as the drive supports both).

I had one of the early drives that had only 2.3 gig capacity, but I loved it despite the bulky cartridge. The reasons being exactly what you mentioned about it working just like a hard drive (except slower). Even after DVD-R and DVR+R came out, I knew that DVD-RAM was the only good format for computer use.

My biggest problem with the DVD-RAM drive was finding the right media - there were a bunch of different formats. At the time I bought my G4, neither the instructions nor the Kbase never specified which type of media was needed. It took several tries (expensive ones at that) to find the right format.

Ultimately, I found it too slow, too inconvenient and just too small to use as a back-up disc, since I was already ripping my music collection into iTunes. I ended up buying an external DVD RW drive, and still use it with the G5 - to make back ups for off-site storage.

Per MB DVD-RAM cost a lot more than DVD-R, or DVD+R. Hard drives cost less, and thanks to Elgato's EyeTV 200 and Toast , I now have converted my entire 150 tape VHS collection to DVD in 6 months. It fits 8 hours of video snugly on double sided DVD. In addition, the software ties directly into the Cable TV guide for my area, so I can select what I want to record to DVD and do it pretty smoothly. The EyeTV has both Composite for Cable/VHS connection and S-Video for connection to DVD players. True I don't get the full HD resolution, but on HD-TVs which have pixel interpolation you don't notice the difference.

My G4 minitower (originally 500MHz, upgraded to 1GHz) came with a DVD-RAM drive. I ended up replacing it with a SuperDrive. The problem with DVD-RAM is it was very slow, not well supported in OS X (this was before 10.2, I don't know if it changed), and the media was hard to find & expensive.

At the time of floppies for most people and zip drives for the "adopters" the DVD-RAM was something of a marvel. I loved the thing... although it was the move to OS X with an attempt at putting the drive into an external enclosure that ended things for me. The enclosure claimed it would support it... but calls to the manufacturer proved otherwise. OS X may have supported it, but due to enclosure issues we'll never know. And the DVD-RAM faded into history

I never got onboard the DVD-RAM bandwagon, since it was only available in pro systems, but I always loved the idea. Like a floppy, only...useful for more than just text files. It seems sort of silly that after all these years, we still don't have a REAL successor to the floppy.

I'd agree with several commentors who prefer DVD recorders with HDs. You avoid the monthly fee to TiVo, can save what you want and delete the rest, all with much greater reliability and storage capacity than DVD-RAM. (One of my DVD recorders came with a DVD-RAM disk, as well as the HD.) The DVD-RAM holds 4.7 GB; my DVD recorder's HD is 160 GB, a bit over 70 hours at normal quality--more at lower quality (essentially the difference between DVD and VCD).

For what Ted paid for the DVD player and recorder, he could have bought El Gato's EyeTV or another of the good video capture devices that use El Gato's software.

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Mikuro wrote:
It seems sort of silly that after all these years, we still don't have a REAL successor to the floppy.

Sue we do. They're called "flash drives." No, you don't want to use them for "archiving," but floppies were never very good for that, either, not to mention the @#$(*& Zip disks.

Floppies are MUCH less reliable, a lot slower, hold less, and often cost more than CD-R discs. With multisesson recording, you can add data to CD-Rs until they're full. At as little as $0.20 each, CD-Rs are the way to go.

Here's a tip: in System Preferences->CDs and DVDs, choose to open the Finder when you insert a blank CD. That will put a disk image on your desktop when you insert the CD. You can add files and folders, delete them, modify them, etc. Then, when you want to burn the CD, just drag the image's icon to the trash. (You can also create a disk image using Disk Utility. That's the way to go if you want multisesson burning.)

I still use a G5 500MHz DP. I've got DVD-RAM in 5.2 and 9.4 GB sizes. They work well for smaller backups. I used them a couple of times for conveniently storing software updates I would need after installing new hard drives. The disks may not be speedy but play back iMovies just fine. With over 100,000 rewrites possible on the disks I will clearly get my money's worth if I keep my G5 going.

is a format supported by the new HP 840i drive - it does + and - DVD R and RW formats, and RAM. I tried the internal drive in my firewire case, and it didn't work reliably (HP has a note in their knowledgebase to the effect that internal drives are expected to be used internally, and they don't guarantee compatibility with external case solutions). Since I was using a Pioneer 110 in the external case, I just stuck the HP drive into my PC, replacing its old NEC 4x DVD +-RW drive. I have read of people using the HP drive with the Mac, I assume internally, but I didn't try that.

with a Pioneer, the only brand I'll touch, was the original Superdrive, and supplied by Apple for years, DVR-110D. Re-Flashed, updated the firmware, with the 110 (no D) version and got:

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-110:

Firmware Revision: 1.39
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: <strong>Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)</strong>
Cache: 2000 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, <strong>-RAM</strong>, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: No

. . . the version that is available in Europe and Asia and it registers as Apple shipped and supported. It only cost me about $40. I'm looking at the DVR-111 (115 at the rate they are pumping them out and I get around to it) or a Lightscribe (only LaCie has the label burning software for the Mac) for my second optical bay.

We own a DVD-RAM recorder from panasonic and have done so for a couple of years.

By far and away it is the best format for home DVD recording from the TV, the speed and flexibility (time-slip, instant erase, instant record ) is just amazing.

If anything, I would say DVD-RAM is getting more popular, it is now turning up on LG brand video recorders, toshiba laptops. Combined with a HDD its the best of both worlds (to my mind) for home video.

The only thing I can't get its the RAM recorded on panasonic to play back on my new MacBook (which is how I found this post via google)

I first became acquainted with DVD-RAM when I bought a Toshiba Satellite laptop back in 2002. Of course, it only read DVD-RAM discs. At the time, I didn't know what it was and I wasn't quite concerned with it. Although, it did peak my curiosity so I did a little research into this DVD-RAM thing and when I discovered that it works like a floppy and stores data like a hard drive, I was bummed that my optical drive could only read DVD-RAM discs. When I went shopping around for a new laptop I knew I wanted one with an optical drive that not only read DVD-RAM discs but that also writes. That’s when another Toshiba Satellite entered my view. I studied its specs and sure enough it had what I was looking for. I immediately purchased it. Then, after bringing it home, it occurred to me, I didn’t buy a disc. I went back to the store to get one. I couldn’t find any so I asked a clerk where I could them; he thought I was asking for SDRAM. I explained that they are like DVD±R/RW; it’s just that the word RAM takes the place of the ±R/RW that comes after DVD. He said he didn’t know what I was talking about and that he never heard of such discs. He continued to direct me to the SDRAM aisle. I looked around online for the discs but all I could find were discs for old drives that were incompatible with my drive. I gave up.

Some months later, I was in the market for a DVD recorder with a hard drive. There weren’t many at the time that had both. I told a salesman what I was looking for, and, so, then, he directed me to this RD-XS32 Toshiba recorder. I bought it, brought it home and to my surprise I discovered its multi-drive included DVD-RAM support plus there was a DVD-RAM disc in a Type II cartridge that I had found in the box. I was ecstatic I was finally going to satisfy my curiosity once and for all. It was everything I expected and more. I love the timeslip feature and being able to delete scenes and not have to reformat the disc in order to rerecord on it.

I am also noticing lately that DVD writers for computers come in 12Ч DVD-RAM. Now, if only the media were readily available.

Yep I'm based in the UK and have owned a Panasonic DVD recorder for a couple of years now. I've been using DVD -R but decided to try the DVD RAM disc for the first time today.
The first obtacle was to track down the discs as unlike, the ubiquitous DVD RW disc you can't buy these in a supermarket!
I went to a specialist computer shop, and was amazed that all 2 of the staff had never heard of DVD RAM, a third man in the shop had a vague idea, asking me don't they come in cartidges?
He added you are the first person to ask about this, mind you the shop has only been there for about a year, but even so!
Several shops later I managed to finally track a pack of the rare discs down, I made it my mission to track those elusive DVD Ram disc down but I can imagine the average DVD recorder user would have given up on trying the all singing and dancing DVD Ram discs that are described in the Panasonic manual. It's not suprising that DVD Rams aren't the disc of choice even with DVD Ram enabled DVD recorder owners, they can't find the damn things to try in the first place!