DVD RAM Recomendations

[brightonrvf]

As the title says waddya think? There are packs of 5 Panasonic Ram discs in Argos for £13 Any good?

[Rasczak]

Panasonic DVD-RAMs are very reliable - but then it is quite hard to get unreliable DVD-RAMs given that they are not subject to the wide range of production values associated with cheap Chinese producers. Note that you can get them cheaper online though from the Panasonic E-Shop where they work out around about £1.99 each if you buy a 10 pack.

If your want to look at other brands then Maxell and Verbatim DVD-RAMs can be picked up for a little over £2 each from places such as:
http://www.dvd-and-media.com/dvd-ram-media.htm

Probably the best value DVD-RAMs out there at present though are the RiDisk and Datasafe brands. Good suppliers of these are:
http://www.blankdiscshop.co.uk/acata...LICK_HERE.html
or
http://www.digitalpromo.co.uk/erol.html
At around £1.70 a disc they are fairly good value!

[JohnG]

I've used the RiDisc ones with no problems at all so far

[JimNoble]

Costco have 10 packs of the panny ones for about £12+VAT...

Jim

[kitschcamp]

Only downside (or upside) of the Costco ones are that they are caddyless ones.

Been using Ridiscs with no problems.
Both Panasonic E85 & PC reads them fine.

[Daddy]

I use these for my Panny E55 with no probs:

http://www.ukdvdr.co.uk/shop/product...cat=264&page=1

This site is about the cheapest I've found for any media.

[Rasczak]

This site is about the cheapest I've found for any media

£1.49 each - that is very cheap - I suppose that formally marks the end of the days when DVD-RAM was dismissed as being "too expensive"

[brightonrvf]

Should i get the caddy ones? If why?

[Rasczak]

Should i get the caddy ones? If why?

DVD-RAMs in caddies are 'out of fashion'. Despite offering excellent protection for the discs and your recordings many companies prefer the caddyless ones because they look like DVDs - the caddy creates an unwanted image of being 'old'. Image, unfortunately, is everything.

My advice is to use caddyless discs if you want to use the DVD-RAMs in other players/devices as it saves the hastle factor removing them from their caddies. In addition caddyless discs have a protective coating whereas caddied ones don't making them quite vulnerable when out the caddy. Likewise it's not worth using caddies if you just archiving - recording once then putting in a case and stowing the disc.

If you are planning to use the discs for day to day timeshifting though and have young children, messy pets and/or a high dust environment then caddied discs are a great way to ensure you never loose a recording. Although you won't get them as cheap as £1.49 each! The Panasonic E-Shop has them for around £3.40 each.

[midiman]

A small note of caution. If you have a Panasonic DVD Recorder and an LG DVD Ram drive in a PC, avoid disc's with CPRM (Panasonic 3x, JVC 3x to name a couple) as these can become corrupted by the LG drives. Wont affect 99% of folks but sure as hell was a pain for me.

[brightonrvf]

Thanks guys, i shall go and procure some caddyless panny dvd rams methinks!

[zenki200]

My girlfriend has a habit of smearing food/makeup/grease.... on CD and DVDs. I went to watch a recording of "Tribe" I made the other night and the quality of the picture is awful as it had a huge smear over the disc
I think I may invest in some 9.4gb caddy discs for her to record Eastenders/Corrie/Hollyoaks, etc..... I have been using Panny 4.7gb discs with no probs. It's worth watching out for these on offer as I bought 4 packs when Dixons were doing buy one get one free before christmas!

[bigsby]

Originally Posted by zenki200

My girlfriend has a habit of smearing food/makeup/grease.... on CD and DVDs. I think I may invest in some 9.4gb caddy discs for her to record Eastenders/Corrie/Hollyoaks, etc.....

I think you should invest in a new girlfriend

[jpurkey]

If you use the DVD-RAMs without cartrdiges, then make sure they are free of any dust before recording. Even the cleanest homes have dust and I found it doesn't take much to cause a write error, resulting in skipping, freezing, etc. at that spot during playback. I've not had a single error since switching to the cartrdige type DVD-RAMs.