I needed a new computer and bought the Desktop Compaq SR2177CL from Sams Club for 700 bucks- has the supermulti DVD burner drive using Roxio as burner software & has 200 GB HD and 1024 MB Memory.( Btw -Sams said if problems bring it back any time no limit.) I stuck in a 2003 model Panny burned E-80 DVD-RAM-burned last week of a BYU channel Vivaldi concert. This computer took about 45 minutes to duplicate it and it played on the 2006 Pio 640 DVDR, and 2002 Panny XP30 DVD player and the newer 2005 Panny 97 DVD player. Bottom line is that these new super multi drive computers from HP/Compaq apparently can copy direct(high speed exactly) a DVD-RAM from DVDR's(at least from this old Panny HDD unit) and play on other type units.. Happily surprised.

HG, did you simply use the Disc Copy feature on the Roxio? I am interested because I have Roxio as well as Nero, and an External DVD Burner that will Read/Write RAM Discs. Please advise. Thank you! : )

Yes. Now remember my Roxio is the basic version that came with the puter. Roxio Creator with light scribe which I would NEVER use to put labels on discs- labels on discs can be treacherous. BTW- I used a Panasonic DVD-RAM for the original TV recording based on my experience.- I trust no other DVD-RAM blank.

HG, mine is the basic Roxio Media Creator too. Came with my NEC ND3500AG DVD Burner. And I only use Panny DVD-RAM. ; )

I will have to try this very soon.

Does the disc work in the E80 anymore?

I ask as some LG models (which is what HP DVD-RAM units really are) seem to tweak DVD-RAM discs in such a way that they appear copy protected or some other not good thing. The only solution is to format on the PC and even then you may not be able to get the disc working again.

(There was a lot of info about this around 2 years ago but it seems to have faded into the ether...)

Does the disc work in the E80 anymore?

I ask as some LG models (which is what HP DVD-RAM units really are) seem to tweak DVD-RAM discs in such a way that they appear copy protected or some other not good thing. The only solution is to format on the PC and even then you may not be able to get the disc working again.

(There was a lot of info about this around 2 years ago but it seems to have faded into the ether...)

This is a very germane question in that recent multidrive DVD Burner computers do corrupt your original DVDR DVD-RAM after copying it- it happened to me- I will let you know very soon as it COULD be a huge problem with DVD-RAM burning computers. My E-80 is at my Ranch- I will check it out this weekend. And in the mean time try my 2004 E-500.

The original burned Vivaldi/Mozart DVD-RAM(from a BYU channel concert) burned on the Panny E80 HDD 2003 and copied on the new Compaq/HP did play on the 2004 Panny E500 HDD. In other words there was no corruption. I expect same from the E80 since they are closely related. Hurrah- Thank God for the Union- Always Stars and Stripes! And Lincoln. (Sorry- I felt patriotic)

Further findings- You cannot take the computer burned DVD-R and copy it back to your DVDR at high speed - it will only do FR on Pannys or any other DVDR which to me was expected.

I think you forgot to add that if you do a disk to disk (image) copy of a DVD-RAM to a DVD-R or -RW, the resulting DVD-R/RW is in the same VR mode as the original RAM. It is thus only playable on newer players that can handle VR mode disks.

I think you forgot to add that if you do a disk to disk (image) copy of a DVD-RAM to a DVD-R or -RW, the resulting DVD-R/RW is in the same VR mode as the original RAM. It is thus only playable on newer players that can handle VR mode disks.
Good point.

I've never performed at disc copy of a set top recorded RAM to a dvd-r before. I have merely copied the contents of the RAM's folder to a folder on the pc, and used the pre-installed Sonic MyDVD to make a dvd-r. I've had an HP Media Center PC for a year now, and I was suprised and dissappointed to find out that a RAM recording made on the pc, wouldn't play on a dvd player.
Which is insanely silly. The primary attraction for buying a pc with superdrive, is the ability to go from set top unit to pc, and back again, which they moronically decide to prevent us from doing.

I've never performed at disc copy of a set top recorded RAM to a dvd-r before. I have merely copied the contents of the RAM's folder to a folder on the pc, and used the pre-installed Sonic MyDVD to make a dvd-r. I've had an HP Media Center PC for a year now, and I was suprised and dissappointed to find out that a RAM recording made on the pc, wouldn't play on a dvd player.
Which is insanely silly. The primary attraction for buying a pc with superdrive, is the ability to go from set top unit to pc, and back again, which they moronically decide to prevent us from doing.
I've not tried to make a playable DVD in my RAM-drive computer, but have to ask:

Before creating the RAM DVD in your computer, did you Enable CD/DVD Writing on This Drive in the Properties > Recording tab? If not, you might be recording a data disk as far as the DVD recorder's drive is concerned...just a guess.

Before creating the RAM DVD in your computer, did you Enable CD/DVD Writing on This Drive in the Properties > Recording tab? If not, you might be recording a data disk as far as the DVD recorder's drive is concerned.
Yes, it's been enabled from the start. So, it's just the way they made the thing work...or not work. ;)

You do need a DVD player that can play DVD-RAM (VR?) format discs... the format DVD-RAM stores video in is different than a standard DVD-ROM (R,RW) disc. So if you just make a copy it won't work (unless your player can read it)

For most of us, you'd have to import the video into a DVD authoring app and then burn it.

"Enable Cd/DVD writing" just controls if Windows XP's (very, very poor) DVD-writing capabilities get turned on-- it basically lets you drag stuff to the disc by writing stuff to a temp folder and then burning. I've had a few DVD writing apps (and especially the Panasonic DVD-RAM drivers) that specifically tell you to turn it off.

I've had an HP Media Center PC for a year now, and I was suprised and dissappointed to find out that a RAM recording made on the pc, wouldn't play on a dvd player.
Which is insanely silly. The primary attraction for buying a pc with superdrive, is the ability to go from set top unit to pc, and back again, which they moronically decide to prevent us from doing.This is not trivial. The RAM must be formatted in UDF 2.0 format for it to be video compatible with a player. Win XP SP-2 has native read capability for UDF 2 RAMs but not write. You need a UDF 2 write driver. The ony one I know is the Nero InCD driver which can be problematic with other software. Then you also need software that is capable of writing a UDF 2 disk in VR mode. Again NeroVision Express has that capability.

That being said, the Panasonic UDF 2 format is not quite the same as the Nero UDF 2 format so you need to format the RAM in the Panasonic. Otherwise the Panasonic will not recognize the RAM if Nero formats it. You can then burn video to the RAM in VR mode using NeroVision Express. All the software says it's fine, but I have still never been able to get my Panasonic E-85 to play it once Nero has written to it.

I have no idea if this will work on another brand of DVDR that is either RAM compatible or DVD-RW (VR) compatible.