Dvd-ram

[jrockow]

I recently bought a Panasonic LF-D311 barebones DVD burner; no software other than drivers.
I've done a few DVD-Rs, using NERO and PRASSI, but would like to know if and how I could use a DVD-RAM disk for testing various video settings.
Once or twice I've ruined a DVD-R blank, and thought the DVD-RAM would eliminate that.
However, I can't seem to figure out how to use the DVD-RAM disk.
Can someone suggest specific software and settings? Thanx.

[Xmech]

use this link to d/l the approprite driver and utility which will let you format the disk in FAT or UDF and erase any data on the disk

http://www.panasonic.co.jp/dvdram/lim/eoem/index.html (http://)

[Xmech]

opps, try this link :)

http://www.panasonic.co.jp/dvdram/lim/eoem/index.html

[jrockow]

Xmech:
I have the drivers, what I need to know is what application will allow me to actually read or write data.

[Xmech]

ok i'm on the same page now.....applications that can use this drive, if you format the disk in fat it would be same as having another drive in windows...just removeable, so i would think any app could use it

[SciFer]

If you want to be able to test/experiment before burning to DVD-R then you should get a Pioneer because it does DVD-RW, which a lot of standalone players can play/test, as oppose to the Panasonic unit which, if you want to test on a stand alone, requires you to have a Pansonic DVD-RAM player. There are very few and kind of expensive (approx $450 and higher). I went through the same thing, so I know have both. It was getting too expensive when making mistakes (as I was learning)on DVD-Rs.

[jrockow]

SciFer:
Thanx for the input.
Question; since you have both burners, do you think there's a difference, as far as burning DVD-Rs?
I'm having some problems playing back in standalone players.
Actually I've only found 2 that work so far.
I was using NERO, but switched to PRASSI.
Perhaps it's the blanks?
I'm using those from MeritLine.

[EiGuscheMa]

-->what I need to know is what application will allow me to actually read or write data

Applications that write your DVD content to DVD-RAM are:
GearProDVD v6.0 or VOB instant write! for example. There are tryouts available. Just look at their websites,
These programs just ask you for the location of the VIDEO_TS folder and do all the formatting (UDF1.02) and the rest for you.
That DVD-RAM will then appear like a write protected Video-DVD and software players like PowerDVD will play them as they would a DVD-R or DVD-RW.

Yout may even play a DVD-RAM disc written that way on a standalone DVD-player if you replace the player´s drive by a DVD-RAM compatible IDE-DVD. Most Yamakawa, Sampo, CyberHome, Apex etc will allow that, because they all use an IDE-PC drive.
I tried CyberHome AD 528 and Sampo 620 with Hitachi GD7500 and Toshiba SDM-1612 successfully!
The Tosh is a bit less noisy, but both work on 2.6GB and 4.7GB media.

So just take your authoring software and you will have as many tries as you need using DVD-RAM until you finally burn your project to DVD-
R.

hope this helps

[jrockow]

Thanx for your help.
I'll give it a try.