DVD Ram

[MTIH1992]

What is it?

DVD Random Access Memory???

Please help.

                   Matt

Please explain what it does too. Cheers.

[Tritan]

DVD Ram disc's were around before todays ordinary DVD disc's came about. The are simply one or two 'primative' DVD disc's inside a case which when inserted into a DVD-RAM reader device can be written to, or read from. The old RAM write/readers were very slow, and mostly used for backing up data.

Now-a-days DVD's are so cheap and the DVD writers are more affordable and faster, that people no longer use the RAM drives. See this link for more info as well:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/DVD_RAM.html

[Mobius1]

Actually, DVD-RAM technology is still very popular in the Eastern markets, including Japan, but has never really caught on here in the West.

The "RAM" part of the name denotes the way in which data is stored and accessed on the disc. The difference between DVD RAM and other DVD technologies is that data on the disc is not written in a linear fashion (starting from the centre, working in a spiral outwards with each data file following another).

Instead, file sectors of a single file can be located at any part of the disc. So, for instance, part of a video file can be located at the beginning of the disc, and the part towards the end. This gives DVD RAM the advantage of being able to write and modify data on the disk arbitrarily, instead of having to work in a "session".

Current CD and DVD RW technology allows you to write data to a disk and then, using session technology, add more data to the disk later without erasing what's already on it, but new data cannot be written over the old data, so you can only use what space there is left, whereas DVD RAM can use and overwite any data within a given disc sector threshold.

Sony's MiniDisc (MD) and Hi-MD are also RAM formats.

[Tritan]

Mobius1: Thanks for that. I knew DVD RAM technology was still in use, but i thought it was phasing out. Still, I learnt something new... :-)

[MTIH1992]

Thanks Guys/Gals, Very Helpfull, Thanks for the link Tritan.

*** for all of you

Matt.