DVD - RAM?

Hello,

Some SuperDrives can read DVD-RAM disks. It is not specifically intended. It's just that some of the drives they purchase from Pioneer (and others) can read that format.

But, I would not expect Apple to make any special effort to support the DVD-RAM in the future. Rather, I would expect support will continue to decline not increase.

DVD-RAM is a unfortunate victim of competing standards. And, it basically lost the battle to DVD-R and DVD+R. As such, I expect like other past hopefuls, it will likely fade into history along with the Video Disc and Laser Disc, BETA tapes, and so on.


I hope this helps.

Let us know if you have other questions.


P.S., if you'd like, go ahead and click the "Helpful" or "Solved" buttons on any of the posts / replies above if you feel they were helpful or adequately answered your question.

Well, I would hope that DVD RAM doesn't fade into history. It's considered more reliable than the other DVD formats, according to many sources, and in some ways easier to use, (more like a Hard Drive).

I just bought a Samsung DVD-RAM drive today, (with Lightscribe), that I'm hoping will work with my Mac Pro.

Hello,

Understand that I'm not saying that it should fade away. Just that the trend is going that direction. The industry is moving-on to other more recent / newer formats.

I don't see any reason that your new drive won't work with the Mac Pro.

If it doesn't you may look at the "Patchburn" drivers to make it work properly. But, I don't know if they are "Universal" / Intel native yet:

http://www.patchburn.de/

I hope this helps.

Thanks. Yes, just installed, and it's working, albeit very slowly. It doesn't like lots of small files, like an entire documents folder, or library, or a website backup with hundreds of tiny files. It 'does' copy larger single files quickly enough though.

The Panasonic DVD-RAM disks I've been using, originally would not format at all, (options grayed out in OSX Disk Util), even though Apple's page regarding DVD-RAM said they should, so I wondered why. They came formated in UDF, but I could not write to them or format them.

Then after a second re-boot, Disk Utility seemed to like them, and I've formatted one in a MacOS Extended format, and another in a DOS (FAT32?) format. The DOS formatted disk is even slower....might I say painfully slow.

The roughly 14,000 items in my Library (303MB) are currently being copied to the MacOS Extended format DVD-RAM, with a time estimate of 2 hours. Seems ridiculous.

Ironically, the DOS formatted disk used on the bootcamp/WinXP side, is fast. Does Windows write to them differently?

I'd be interested to hear others DVD-RAM results.

Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Just an update. It seems the way to effectively copy large amounts of tiny files to a DVD-RAM is to Archive/Zip them first, and then just copy the Zipped file onto the DVD-RAM....very very quick.

Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Hello,

Glad to hear that they seem to be working. I don't know why you'd be having the particular odd behavior you describe. But, yes, Windows does write to disks differently and uses a different format.

I've written to one of the DVD-RAM disks formatted in DOS FAT32, using both OS's (XP and OSX) and XP seems much faster. I'm wondering if it doesn't error check, and OSX does thus slowing it down? No idea though. I guess I should do some accurate measurements though, before coming to any real conclusions.

Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

It's hard to say. It could also just be that FAT32 is a "native" Windows format. So, the routine may be more optimized in Windows. Apple may not have spent as much time optimizing it in OS X since it is not the standard format for Macs.

I'm curious what others might suggest I do to try and do economical screen captures of analog video. My initial thought was to use my Panasonic DVR to make short clips on DVD-RAM then dump those to iMovie for review and selection.

Trouble is, of course, my new Intel iMac with its "super" drive, won't read DVD-RAM.

Meaning that I either have to (1) purchase an external DVD-RAM drive and software like Toast to read a few minutes of video or (2) purchase an equally pricey converter like Canopus to run video through firewire (with possibly questionable quality results). For goodness sake, isn't there a cheaper alternative?

I suppose you are wondering why I don't just dump video clips to DVD-R and be done with it? Because unlike DVD-RAM, you have to finalize the darn things, and I might not need to do but 5 or 6 minutes tops to get what I need periodically.

Does anyone know of any firmware that can unlock the Superdrive capability to just read DVD-RAM? I don't need to write, only read. This is driving me nuts. I mean, it is a Matushita drive (Panasonic) the founders of DVD-RAM; there has to be a way.

Toast or other similar programs cannot unlock a Superdrive mounted DVD-RAM disks contents, correct?

Please pardon my frustration; like others, I just wanted to do a simple thing and obviously it isn't so simple! (The problem is wanting to do a simple things many times, not just once or twice!)

Thanks for any advice or counsel.


Intel iMac Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Intel iMac Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I also have a Pansonic DVR (ES25) and want to save some clips into iMovie.
The internal drive of my MBP would not read file on the dvd-ram.
So I purchased a pioneer 111 and put it in an firewire external case. Still no go. I came to the conclusion that it is the Mac OS (was using 10.4.7) not liking the ram disk format.

This is what I ended up doing.
DVD-Ram: I use Parallel and copy the file to a share folder. Once it is on the Mac side, I use a free program call MPEG Streamclip to convert it to whatever format I need.

DVD+RW: This disc format does not require finialize (at least on my Panasonic drive) and again MPEG Streamclip can just convert it right off the disc.

Hope this help.

I'm using DVD-RAM format. OSX loves it.

I've also heard on a few Mac sites, including MacBreakWeekly that the included Sony drive, is actually an NEC, and can be unlocked to work with DVD-RAM with some firmware mods. Yeah, it would void the warranty, so probably easier to spend $40 on a Samsung DVD-RAM drive, which includes LightScribe.



Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Thanks for the kind replies; I'm more than a bit bothered by the comment that a purchase of a Pioneer DVR-111 drive couldn't be read by MBP! I bit the bullet this weekend and ordered a special external burner from OWC (Other World Computing/MacSales) which is constructed around the Pioneer DVR-111D... about $130 shipped. I was persuaded by OWC's long history with Macs that this will work, although I haven't talked to customer service about it yet (yes, that's correct, I ordered without getting all my questions answered. Just shoot me.)

The problem with this solution is that while the DVR-111D is capable of reading DVD-RAM (which I hope my Intel iMac allows it to do and which is my main concern), this Pioneer model won't write DVD-RAM. Only the DVR-111 will do that. It is my understanding that no firmware update using the Mac will allow the 111D to write DVD-RAM, but there is one that will work using the PC.

Whether such an update enables the burner to work on the iMac is questionable, so I think I will wait on that. First, let's make sure the 111D reads DVD-RAM before I cross that bridge. (Oh, and that's another thing, the "bridge"... apparently the OWC bridge chipset contains the much ballyhooed Oxford version as opposed to the cheap Prolifics in most bridges, which is supposed to make this external drive much more reliable. Like I know what all this means, but at least I read this in numerous places.)

Intel iMac Mac OS X (10.4.8)