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Two new DVD-RAM/R drives record DVDs you can play in regular DVD players, and offer high-capacity storage in both internal and external drive versions. Both LaCie and Panasonic have unveiled DVD-RAM/R drives at the National Association of Broadcasters convention, meeting this week in Las Vegas.

Available June 1 priced around $699, the LaCie drive is an external DVD drive that supports both DVD-RAM (rewriteable) and DVD-R (writeable) media. The drive connects via USB or Firewire and has a 4.7GB storage capacity or 9.4GB with a two-sided DVD-RAM disc. Included software adds DVD-RW capabilities to the drive, according to LaCie executives.

An internal drive, Panasonic's DVD-RAM/R drive uses the same technology, but as a system component. Like the LaCie drive, Panasonic's is scheduled to ship in June and be priced under $700, says Andy Marken, a spokesperson for the two companies. Panasonic provides the technology behind both its internal combination drive and the LaCie external drive.

Although the new drives answer some of the recordable DVD format issues by combining the rewriteability of DVD-RAM with the compatibility of DVD-R, competitive DVD+RW and DVD-RW formats will offer rewriteable DVDs that play in home players.

Record and Watch DVDs

The new LaCie and Panasonic drives are the latest in a string of new recordable DVD drives, each dropping further in price. Like Pioneer's DVR-A03 DVD-R/CD-RW burner, the new drives support DVD-R, a writeable DVD format that lets you record DVDs you can play in almost any living room DVD player.

"Supporting both DVD-RAM and DVD-R offers the best of both worlds," Marken claims. "At the end of the day, someone wants to cut a DVD and play it anywhere. DVD-R is the only media that can do that."

As for DVD-RAM support, DVD-RAM is more precise for editing, and its two sides give you twice the capacity for high-volume data storage or backup, Marken says. "If you're doing video editing, DVD-RAM media is more precise for editing. Writing to it is like saving to a hard drive--you simply drag and drop."

"Once you've finished editing your movie, then you burn it to DVD-R and play it on your home DVD player," he adds.

Besides DVD, the drives read and write CDs, CD-R, and CD-RW discs and read video CDs and DVD-ROM discs.

Both the LaCie (using a Firewire connection) and Panasonic drives promise a transfer rate up to 11.08 megabits per second using DVD-R media and 22.16 mbps using DVD-RAM media. The LaCie drive's USB and Firewire support makes it easy to move the drive from one system to another.

Understanding the Technologies

The first recordable DVD drives, DVD-RAM drives, offered large amounts of storage and compatibility with CDs, CD-R, and CD-RW, but are incompatible with most home players. DVD-R is compatible with DVD players but doesn't have the rewritability and storage of DVD-RAM.

DVD-RAM is best for backup and archiving, while DVD-R is more interesting for media, says Guillaume Mazieres, vice president of sales and marketing at LaCie. He positions the DVD-RAM/DVD-R combo drive as both a multimedia and an archiving tool.

LaCie included a USB interface because most PCs support USB. The company also wanted to be prepared in case USB 2 takes off, Mazieres says.

USB is fine for playback, but Firewire offers ten times the speed for recording to DVD-R, Mazieres adds. And while neither the Panasonic nor the LaCie drives offer DVD-RW capabilities in the hardware, LaCie adds support for that rewriteable DVD format with software, he notes.

As for the media itself, DVD-R discs run about $15, but will be down to around $5 by next year, Marken says. DVD-RAM discs typically cost about $50 for a double-sided 9.4GB disc, he adds.

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