This here DVD-RAM thing

[Tod McQuillin]

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004, Tim Bunce wrote:

> Can someone recommend a good quality DVD-RAM that'll work well with
> FreeBSD? Or point me to some where I can read some comparative reviews.

DVD-RAM is just one of many rewritable DVD media standards and it's one
that seems to be falling to the wayside somewhat.

These days, DVD-RW and DVD+RW seem to be gaining more popularity.

I've been meaning to write up a report on my experiences using the Plextor
PX-708A DVD writer with 4-stable but I haven't got around to it yet.

But let me just summarise by saying that this is a great drive and works
flawlessly with FreeBSD (but make sure you upgrade the firmware to the
latest version first).

A quick summary:

Specs here: http://www.plextor.com/english/products/708A.html

Runs fine with UDMA33 (put hw.ata.atapi_dma=1 in /boot/loader.conf)

Configure your kernel with ATAPICAM.  You can burn iso filesystems with
growisofs (sysutils/dvd+rw-tools in ports).

I've successfully newfs'd and mounted ufs filesystems on DVD+RW media.

It doesn't support DVD-RAM though, only DVD-R and DVD+R (and RW formats).
-- 
Tod McQuillin