DVD-RAM Recovery

[LunarMist]

I received a DVD-RAM cartridge of personals that looks similar to this one, except it is Type 2.

How can I remove the disc and recover the data? I'd like to convert the videos to a standard DVD. Thanks.

 

[Fushigi]

Just take it out of the cartridge and read it in a DVD-RAM compatible drive. See the last paragraph of the spec.

 

[LunarMist]

Thanks. How can I determine if the optical drive reads the DVD-RAM. Is there something in the firmware?
Are they standard files that I can copy to a DVD?

 

[sdbardwick]

Many sub-$30 DVD-RW drives claim DVD-RAM compatibility; do a search on Newegg for DVD-RAM.

Then if your OS supports DVD-RAM natively, it should appear as any other removable device - you can read it, format it, etc. Notably WinXP required packet writing software to support DVD-RAM, and it didn't like anything but FAT32 formatted media [Note: This information is based on my experience several years ago, so things might have improved]. Apparently Vista and OSX have native support.

Vista even lists my cheap Samsung drive as DVD-RAM, rather than CD/DVD; don't have any DVD-RAM media to check on functionality.

 

[udaman]

Many sub-$30 DVD-RW drives claim DVD-RAM compatibility; do a search on Newegg for DVD-RAM.

Then if your OS supports DVD-RAM natively, it should appear as any other removable device - you can read it, format it, etc. Notably WinXP required packet writing software to support DVD-RAM, and it didn't like anything but FAT32 formatted media [Note: This information is based on my experience several years ago, so things might have improved]. Apparently Vista and OSX have native support.

Vista even lists my cheap Samsung drive as DVD-RAM, rather than CD/DVD; don't have any DVD-RAM media to check on functionality.

Based on Wiki info? OSX only natively supports certain drives, and those drives need to have the correct firmware to operate correctly under OSX. With each new update of OSX, more drives are supported, but if you have an unofficial drive, you need to make sure the vendor says it runs under whatever version of OSX you are running. I presume similar limitations exist with other OS's, best be sure to check *all* of the requirements. Sometimes Toast will recognize a drive, and you can use that software with it, before OSX natively supports such and such drive. YMMV.

DVD-RAM sure is expensive! DL Verbatim, LM linked to are $13ea! (includes shipping, but still). Seems the lowest cost DVD-RAM are the potentially the highest quality...from Panasonic (Taiyo Yuden) For now, still made in Japan. Verbatim, made in India, Singapore, Taiwan...and possibly other countries...so can you be sure it's archival quality, or not?


http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm

Sure would be nice if Blu-R recordable 50GB media were to drop in price, that's ~$50ea at present, absurd.

 

[LunarMist]

I can see the files on the disc, but they are VRO and I can't burn them to a video DVD. I suppose there is conversion software for sale somewhere, but it is not worth the hassle.

 

[Pradeep]

This may work. You would need cygwin to run it on Windows.

http://www.pixelbeat.org/programs/dvd-vr/

 

[Mercutio]

Nero Vision and Ulead MovieFactory will both do DVD-VR to non-retarded format conversion, if you have either of those.