AfterDawn: News

The future is bright for DVD-RAM

Outside of Japan, DVD-RAM is generally ignored by the DVD enthusiast community. However, projections from Semico Research are showing a bright future for the DVD-RAM format which now finally starting to gain some popularity on the U.S. market which has been a slow market for the format thus far. Semico Research projected that shipments of DVD recordable devices will reach 23 million devices in 2005, and increase to 90 million in 2009.

The reason for the growth has been credited to lower prices, better features and products becoming more user-friendly. "While DVD-RAM compatible devices, in both DVD set top recorders and DVD PC drives enjoy wide success and support in Japan, the United States is slowly catching up, both in terms of DVD recorder penetration and DVD - PC drive configurations," said Tony Jasionowski, Executive Director for the DVD-RAM Promotions Group.



In Japan, DVD camcorders have been very successful and consumers like the option of recording to dual-sided DVD-RAM discs, which can then be transferred directly to a consumer electronics-based DVD recorder for playback on a TV or to a computer for editing. 400,000 DVD camcorders shipped in 2003, followed by 1.1 million in 2004 and now over 3 million are expected to have been shipped by the end of 2005.

Source:
Media Workstation

Written by: James Delahunty @ 27 Jun 2005 23:58

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• 8 comments

• djscoop

  I have always been a fan of DVD-RAM. it is mainly used for storage and backup for companies in the US, as its the only DVD format to offer verification.

  28.6.2005 16:00 #1

• rootboy

  Is this article for real? DVD-Ram has been all but abandoned in the U.S.! If they mean to say it has a bright future despite U.S. sales, then I might be able to see their point, but otherwise DVD-Ram might as well be Betamax.

  28.6.2005 20:06 #2

• djscoop

  not really, many people still use DVD-RAM as it is more reliable than -R or +R. If it was "abandoned" then it wouldn't be sold in stores anymore...but now that you mention it I haven't seen any beta tapes lately...

  28.6.2005 20:19 #3

• nero6

  How is it more reliable?

  29.6.2005 01:42 #4

• solargame

  i have an LG DVD-RAM drive, it is also a DVD+r/-r drive. i use it mainly for burning dvd's. the company claims it is a DVD-RAM drive but how does the cartridge thats square fit into a disc drive.

  29.6.2005 05:23 #5

• punx777

  belive it or not, they actually make dvd-ram without cartriges.

  29.6.2005 08:05 #6

• GrayArea

  IMHO the DVD-RAM cartridge is it's best feature. I wish all the silvery discs and their respective hardware used a cartridge system. The "naked" discs are so fragile. A cart system would cut way down on the cost of replacing damaged discs, making spare back-ups, and one wouldn't have to be so damn careful about how they are handled and stored. The better data integrity of DVD-RAM is pretty nifty too. I have no idea if they will ever catch on "in the west", but I think it's a superior system to DVD+/-R/RW any day.

  29.6.2005 11:01 #7

• solargame

  my burner burns everything with the letters DVD in it. i got it for 50 bucks on newegg.com

  30.6.2005 05:15 #8