Panasonic Reports Triple-Digit Growth For DVD-RAM Drive

Panasonic has announced that the demand for DVD-RAM drives has grown from 120,000 units last year to nearly 600,000 this year. Citing the availability of DVD-ROM drives that read DVD-RAM media as one of the factors contributing to the exponential growth, the company expects sales to reach 1.5 million next year. The Panasonic projections are similar to those of Disk/Trend, a Mountain View, Calif. Research firm that focuses on the storage industry.Ideal for storing any type of digital data, DVD-RAM technology offers exceptional benefits for digital video applications. Key among them is loss-less video storage. Each generation of digital video is virtually identical to the original - thereís no loss with successive copies.In addition, the drive is designed to ensure that nothing comes in contact with the disc, so picture and sound quality wonít degenerate with repeated use.Panasonic officials also credit leading system and software producers with contributing to the rapid acceptance of DVD-RAM technology. ""DVD-RAM drives are supported by a broad range of video and document management applications for individual users and businesses,"" explained Jeff Saake, Group General Manager of Panasonic Industrial Companyís Computer Technology Group. ""A single drive can be used for low-cost, real-time MPEG video production, edition, storage, backup and playback.""OEMs, VARS and integrators that have evaluated Panasonicís DVD-RAM drive are finding that it offers a number of advantages over other removable, rewriteable storage options:- A DVD-RAM disc provides a read/write capacity of 5.2GB (about 8 times the capacity of a CD-R/RW) on two sides (2.6GB single-sided media is also available)- DVD-RAM media has a very low storage cost--$.008 to $.009/MB- Fast data transfer - 1.385MB/s for DVD-RAM, 2.77MB/s for DVD-ROM and 20X CD-ROM read- High-speed access - 120ms or better for DVD-RAM; 85ms or better for DVD-ROM and CD-ROM- Unprecedented media interchangeability - the DVD-RAM drives can read from discs currently accepted by CD-ROM, CD Audio, CD-R, CD-RW and video CD drives, as well as DVD-ROM, DVD video, and DVD-R drives.- Information stored on DVD-RAM discs can be read by the latest DVD-ROM drives- More than 100,000 write/overwrite cycles- A technically proven growth path - next-generation 4.7GB rewriteable format will read and write existing 2.6 GB/5.2GB DVD-RAM discs.Prices And AvailabilityPanasonicís OEM DVD-RAM drives, model number LF-D101, is available as an internal drive with a SCSI-2 interface. OEMs can purchase the drive from Panasonic Industrial Company. Panasonic-branded internal and external DVD-RAM drives are available from Panasonic Document Imaging Company (PDIC). The internal drive, model number LF-D103U, have an MSRP of $699. The external drives, model number LF-D102U, has an MSRP of $799. DVD-RAM media, which is marketed under the Panasonic brand name, is available from several other leading manufacturers. The removable double-sided 5.2GB disc has an MSRP of $39.95. The 2.6GB single-sided media has an MSRP of $24.95 and is sold with a removable cartridge for playback on the latest Panasonic 5X and 6X DVD-ROM drives.

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