Re: [OT] DVD Burners

["Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

On Sat, 2005-07-16 at 18:17 -0500, Kyle Pointer wrote:
> What does DVD-RAM stand for? Never figured that one out...

They used a computer acronym so people would know it was not an end-
consumer format.  DVD-RAM is not very player compatible.  It was the
original re-writable designed for optical archiving.  It largely
addressed the lack of a standard for long-term archiving.

This included solving various error rates with magneto optical (MO)
medium, including add things like hardware verify after write, as well
as CLV pre-formatting (giving DVD-RAM its distinct, visible difference)
and other features that were only available in proprietary MO at the
time.  MO error rates are typically 1 in 1GB -- i.e., ~5 errors per
4.7GB DVD -- and still exist with CD-RW, DVD-RW and DVD+RW.

The first drives came out in 1997, cost around $500 and had a 2.6GB/side
capacity.  The typical MO capacity in a 5.25" platter at the time was
1.3-2.6GB/side (which you will quickly note is 2-4x the 0.65GB capacity
of a 70minute CD media).  2nd generation 4.7GB/side DVD-RAM came out in
1999 at about half the price, alongside the Japanese-only Sony/Philips
non-DVD consortium standard 3GB/side DVD-R+W release.

Pioneer's consumer 4.7GB/side DVD-RW came out a few years later with
Sony/Philip's 4.7GB/side DVD+RW.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith                                     b.j.smith@ieee.org 
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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mentary concepts of limits, is mutually exclusive with US journalism.
So forget even attempting to explain how tax cuts work.  ;->



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