What is dvd-ram and is it worth buying?

[bladefd]

Hey, I was going to buy a dvd burner and I posted on slickdeals asking for a good cheap deal. Anyways, they all told me to buy the following: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152058

Now, I found another dvd-burner with support for DVD-RAM burning: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827151121 .
1) Is it worth buying the DVD-RAM one(Samsung) than the one with much better ratings(Nec)?
2) Would it be future-proof if I get the DVD-Ram one?
3) What is dvd-ram basically? Thanks people.

 

[Twsmit]

DVD ram the best I understand is the original DVD R/W format, it preceeded other writable DVD's by a few years. Essentially its not widely supported, its not 100% compatible with DVD movies (im not sure if its compatible at all)

It was designed to be writable on the fly like a harddrive, for a DVR etc.... DVD-ram has been out at least since 1998 or there abouts, its not really a future technology, more an older dead end technology.

I wouldnt worry either way, odds are you will never burn a DVD ram disk EVER. 😀


EDIT:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvd-ram


Here is some more info. I remember back in the day, DVD-ram used to have a cartridge, ala original blu ray spec.

 

[imported_rod]

DVD-RAM is basically just used for digital video cameras to record directly onto DVD. IF you don't have one (a digital video camera), then you don't really need DVD-RAM support.

RoD

 

[13Gigatons]

DVD-RAM is making a come back, there will be a 12x and 16x version coming out this year. DVD-RAM can be formatted using FAT32 which allows easy drag and dropping of files for data backups.

NEC model with DVD-RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152070

I'd buy the NEC over the Samsung, it's pretty tried and true and lots of hack firmwares floating around the web.

 

[Auric]

Search the forums and you'll prolly find me rah rah-ing for DVD-RAM and perhaps some useful info too. For drive reviews and user experiences, hit cdfreaks, cdrlabs, rpc1.org, videohelp, &c.

 

[foofoo]

the most interesting part is that the discs are pre sectored in hardware. read about it here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-RAM
a lot of people still use it as a long term backup medium since it is supposedly very robust.