For several years now, "Convert (at least) 100 VHS Tapes to DVD" has been on my 'To-Do' List. "Years ago", I bought ATI All-in-Wonder cards for my PCs and experimented with that method. Then, last fall, I bought my FIRST DVDR - a Presidian on clearance from Radio Shack for ~$30. I learned that editing on a (cheap) DVDR wo/HDD isn't fun.

Recently I bought an Open Box Panasonic DMR-EZ17 for ~$100, also on clearance, mainly to experiment with the ATSC tuner and OTA but, after reading the archives in this forum for several weeks, also to try again on the 'To-Do' item. From info in the archives, I purchased some 4.7GB DVD-RAM discs (more features are available on the EZ-17 when using DVD-RAM - not as good as a DVDR w/HDD such as the Philips 3575/76, but, MUCH less expensive in my situation ;) ) with the option of switching to the PC for editing if necessary / desired.

THEN I discover that neither of my current PC DVD burners (NEC 3550, Lite-On 820, IIRC) support DVD-RAM. Well, maybe they can READ from it (with the proper driver - I run Win2K Pro), but they certainly cannot WRITE to it. So, I start GOOGLEing and find quite a few burners under $30 but no current reviews. Most of what's out there states that DVD burner technology hasn't changed much in the past ~2 years - mostly they've added 'features' (i.e. Lightscribe, SATA).

Next, I head off to Newegg to see what's selling and read the user reviews there. Although I've read elsewhere that LG was the "Pioneer" (i.e. Ground Breaker) with DVD-RAM burning, Samsung seems to be the most popular on Newegg. Thus I've decided to attempt to select a "Not-the-latest", non-Lightscribe, "Highly Recommended" IDE DVD-RAM Burner and watch for a *SALE*.

Any personal recommends or caveats?

Thanks!

P.S. to Kelson,

You already "Burst my Bubble" in Mike99's thread: Editing DVD-R and DVD Ram (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1027921) where you stated:You say "cut out some commercials from the Panny RAM discs". If by that you mean use your PC to directly edit the video content on the RAM disk, you are probably out of luck. I've been doing this for years and there is only 1 program I have ever found (and I have looked) that would edit video directly on the RAM disk. That is a Panasonic application called DVD Movie Album. You cannot buy it, it was packaged with certain Panasonic DVD-RAM drives, which is how I got it over 3 years ago. All VR mode compatible authoring programs will operate by importing the video from the RAM disk into the PC for editing then burning the full project onto media.

The only way you'll be able to directly edit video on the RAM disk is to use the Panasonic recorder.Maybe, if I'm *VERY* lucky, I'll be able to obtain a copy somehow.

P.S. to rdgrimes,

CDFreaks.com: Hacked Panasonic DVD-RAM device driver (http://club.cdfreaks.com/1290079-post19.html)

Retired Moderator

Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Deadwood
Posts: 11,449

One and the same?

For several years now, "Convert (at least) 100 VHS Tapes to DVD" has been on my 'To-Do' List. "Years ago", I bought ATI All-in-Wonder cards for my PCs and experimented with that method. Then, last fall, I bought my FIRST DVDR - a Presidian on clearance from Radio Shack for ~$30. I learned that editing on a (cheap) DVDR wo/HDD isn't fun.

Recently I bought an Open Box Panasonic DMR-EZ17 for ~$100, also on clearance, mainly to experiment with the ATSC tuner and OTA but, after reading the archives in this forum for several weeks, also to try again on the 'To-Do' item. From info in the archives, I purchased some 4.7GB DVD-RAM discs (more features are available on the EZ-17 when using DVD-RAM - not as good as a DVDR w/HDD such as the Philips 3575/76, but, MUCH less expensive in my situation ;) ) with the option of switching to the PC for editing if necessary / desired.

THEN I discover that neither of my current PC DVD burners (NEC 3550, Lite-On 820, IIRC) support DVD-RAM. Well, maybe they can READ from it (with the proper driver - I run Win2K Pro), but they certainly cannot WRITE to it. So, I start GOOGLEing and find quite a few burners under $30 but no current reviews. Most of what's out there states that DVD burner technology hasn't changed much in the past ~2 years - mostly they've added 'features' (i.e. Lightscribe, SATA).

Next, I head off to Newegg to see what's selling and read the user reviews there. Although I've read elsewhere that LG was the "Pioneer" (i.e. Ground Breaker) with DVD-RAM burning, Samsung seems to be the most popular on Newegg. Thus I've decided to attempt to select a "Not-the-latest", non-Lightscribe, "Highly Recommended" IDE DVD-RAM Burner and watch for a *SALE*.

Any personal recommends or caveats?

Thanks!

P.S. to Kelson,

You already "Burst my Bubble" in Mike99's thread: Editing DVD-R and DVD Ram (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1027921) where you stated:Maybe, if I'm *VERY* lucky, I'll be able to obtain a copy somehow.

P.S. to rdgrimes,

CDFreaks.com: Hacked Panasonic DVD-RAM device driver (http://club.cdfreaks.com/1290079-post19.html)

Retired Moderator

Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Deadwood
Posts: 11,449

One and the same?

That's me. True enough that LG knows as much about RAM writers as anyone. My own experience has been that LiteOn RAM burners are pretty bad at RAM burning. I've had several LG models that worked flawlessly with RAM.

Right now, the safest IDE burners (meaning tried and true, mature firmware, etc) would be either the LG H55 or the Pioneer 115D.

And pick up some Panasonic 5x RAM discs, they're quicker to read on the PC than the 3x ones.

And, definitely use the Panasonic RAM driver for Win2K or XP. Avoid XP's RAM burning service and things like InCD if you can. For Win2K, the RAM driver may need some convincing to recognize a newer burner, but this is not hard.

I favor the LG RAM-compatible burners. I've been very happy with the performance of mine and use it as my primary burning drive. The only knock is they don't do error testing so you can't use them with Nero CD/DVD Speed to evaluate a burn. For that I use my LiteOn drive. For RAM work I even prefer the LG over my Panasonic RAM drive.

Win-XP SP-2 and above has a native driver for reading RAM formatted as UDF 2 (VR video) but not writing it. XP will also allow you to format a RAM as FAT-32 for randon access R/W. This is useful when using RAM as computer data backup media, which I also do.

In practice, as far as video is concerned, there is no reason to need to write to a VR mode formatted RAM disk on a PC. You use an authoring program to import it from the RAM and then use the PC to edit/author and burn a permanent copy to DVD-R. Anytime I have written to a RAM, with other than the Panasonic application, my E-85 was unhappy with the disk and wanted to reformat it.

A small change in the registry allows an LG to error test with Nero CD/DVD Speed. I use an LG 204N (external).

And I second Kelson. You don't need to burn RAMs, just read/rip from them. After editing, etc. your video files on the computer, burn to a -R or +R(bit set) and then compatability shouldn't be an issue.

FWIW, I love my Panny ES15, but I transfer all my VHS directly to my computer using a VCR ->DAZZLE -> USB and save a few steps.