Problems with RAM on 4160b and E85

Drathro 2005-01-12 14:44:34 UTC #1

I have previously used an LG DVD Rom Drive to read Ram Discs recorded on my panasonic E85 into DVD MovieAlbumSE. However since I upgraded to a 4160B I find that once the 4160 has read the disc I am unable to reformat it on the E85 or to record on the disc. Whilst the E85 recognises the disc as a Ram I get a message that it is not a recordable disc. I have not used the 4160B to write qnything to the Ram but it somenow renders it unusable as a re-recordable disc in the E85. It still plays in the E85 - Anyone got an ideas what is happening.

Kenshin 2005-01-12 21:18:51 UTC #2

DVD-RAM has many format specifications. LG GSA-4160B is a PC drive mainly developed for Windows 98, 2000, and XP users. Most tests are done for XP users. Panasonic DVD-RAM products are consumer electronics products and even their DVD-RAM PC drives are more oriented for CE market.

I don't have a Panasonic DVD-RAM recorder or camcorder. Use the DVD-RAM discs that you have used in the Panasonic machine to see whether they work in GSA-4160B. Check what format they are using. What's E85 by the way?

Drathro 2005-01-13 11:22:57 UTC #3

Thanks

The Panasonic DMR E85 is a standalone DVD recorder with 80GB hard drive, My problem is that Ram discs recorded in the E85 somehow become non recordable and non formatable on the E85 once they have been read on the LG 4160B. As I said in my earlier post I have not used the LG drive to write anything to the ram.

Kenshin 2005-01-13 11:25:45 UTC #4

Nice machine.

NDGAARONDI 2005-01-14 12:58:16 UTC #5

How do you know? j/w

People don't seem to talk much about the Panasonic DVD recorders here.

Steve999 2005-01-15 01:05:54 UTC #6

Hi all,

Just registered to add a few lines to this post on this particular issue that is causing grief to a number people who are using LG DVD-RAM burners and Panasonic DVD-RAM recorders.

On the AV Forums, a number of users, myself included, have found that the mere copying of a file from a DVD-RAM disc from a Panasonic recorder into one of the LG DVD-RAM burner drives can render the disc unusable thereafter in the Panasonic machine. Attempts to recover the situation seem futile and the situation is made worse by the fact that it appears to be quite random. Some users have no problems at all. It only seems to be an issue with LG drives though as I am not aware of users of any others reporting problems.

Rather than detail the problem exhaustively here, a read through this latest thread on AV Forums will give a general appraisal of the situation http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=175473&page=1&pp=15
There are one or two posts in the thread that divert a little from the central issue but please be patient!

I have solved my situation 'belt and braces' by adding a DVD-ROM drive to read my RAM discs from the Panasonic but that is not, I am sure, a solution that most users would prefer.

There are a lot of people over on the AV Forum who would welcome a solution to this situation from one of you guys over here.

Thanks,
Steve

Rambaud 2005-01-15 03:00:22 UTC #7

Interesting.

I have an E100, but have not (yet) experienced any problems with my dvd-ram discs after using them in my PC (LG 4120 + A115 firmware).

However, I have done much recording to dvd-ram on my E100, merely dubbing to be authored on my LG 4120.

I have only used 3x Maxell dvd-ram discs - I have some 5x Maxell discs but have not used them in the E100 yet. Is the problem media dependent?

Are the discs no longer formatable at all - either in the recorder or PC?

Kenshin 2005-01-15 04:10:28 UTC #8

Because this is mainly a PC DVD burner forum. Your Matsushita DVD recorders are CE products.

delta123 2005-01-15 04:54:50 UTC #9

The easiest solution is to use DVD-RAM 2x speed discs and no 3x speed DVD-RAM (5x DVD-RAM is not available in Germany so I don't know about its compatibility).

I have Panasonic DMR-E85 and a Panasonic DMR-E55 standalone.
I have a LG 4163 and had a 4120 and a 4040.
I'm using WinXP and, for testing, Win98.

For 3x DVD-RAM discs and Win98 there is no problem with one of the Pansonics or one of the LGs.

With 3x DVD-RAM discs and LG 4040 there is also no problem with one of the Panasonics or using WindowsXP.

With 2x DVD-RAM discs there is no problem in any combination.

The problem occurs only when using 3x DVD-RAM discs, WindowsXP, the LG4163 or 4120 and the Panasonic DMR-E85. The Panasonic DMR-E55 is always OK.

Using 3x speed DVD-RAM out of the box with DMR-E85 is also no problem. Problems start it you put a 3x DVD-RAM into a LG4163 or 4120 and use WinXP. Such a disc is not usable in DMR-E 85 anymore.

So my conclusion is that WinXP, even when only reading, tells the LG high-speed DVD-RAM drives (4163,4120 and as it seems your 4160) something to do with the disc that leaves the disc unusable on Panasonic DMR-E85.

If you have the possibility to give back your DMR-E85 exchange it for e.g. a DMR-E95, which is reported not to have the problem with the 3x DVD-RAM discs or use only 2x DVD-RAM discs for exchanging movies between standalone recorder and PC-Drive.

Regards,
Frank

NDGAARONDI 2005-01-15 07:09:46 UTC #10

I wonder if similar things are reported for the E65.

Steve999 2005-01-15 08:34:20 UTC #11

Hi there,

My readings of the AV Forums reveal that this problem seems to occur randomly on a number of Panasonic DVD-RAM recorders and with a variety of different LG DVD-RAM burners.

I personally have a Panasonic E65 and a LG 4160B and have experienced this with Panasonic 3x DVD-RAM discs. The discs format fine at all modes in the PC burner and retain full functionality in the PC but once they have been in the burner, even to simply copy a video file in, the Panasonic DVD-RAM recorder fails utterly to recognise them thereafter. It is not possible to then format such a 'faulty' disc in the Panasonic DVD-RAM recorder as they are reported as being write protected.

This is not a problem that I have heard of occurring when a Panasonic or any other DVD-RAM PC burner is used.

Strangely enough, although many people use Panasonic media without fault, one AV Forums user reported that all of his Panasonic discs had this problem but when he switched to Memorex, they functioned correctly.

I'm interested in Frank's experience with 2x DVD-RAM media which seems to have been error free in varied use. I'll check the AV Forums to see if anyone has experienced any problems with 2x.

Steve

Kenshin 2005-01-16 06:14:08 UTC #12

Let Hitachi and Matsushita agree on some things. :sad:

Anyone has both Hitachi and Matsushita DVD-RAM camcorders? What about their compatibility regarding DVD-RAM media? I thought of buying a Hitachi DVD-RAM camcorder sometimes but it was easy to find out South Korean prices are 2x as much as the US prices.

Drathro 2005-01-16 13:15:09 UTC #13

Thanks all,

I had wondered whether the Panasonic ram discs was incompatible with the LG 4160B. The discs I am using are Panasonic 3x. I have just tried a Ridisc Ram purchased from UKDVDR Â£14.99 for 10 and it worked fine (I dont know what speed they are) . I have not installed any drivers on my PC which is using Windows XP. I guess I will use my DVD Rom drive to read the ram discs until a fix is found.

allformats 2005-01-16 15:26:50 UTC #14

I'm not sure if this is relevant to XP (I'm using W2K) or to your real problem - but my Panasonic disks come formatted with UDF2.0. With no drivers, the disks are not recognised - only FAT32 and UDF1.5 I think. For my Toshiba DVD-ROM, I installed the Panasonic DVD-RAM driver and for the LG on a different machine, I use the LG driver (also really Panasonic) and have no problem with the Panasonic x3 disks (AF120)

Steve999 2005-01-17 00:49:05 UTC #15

Hi,

Thanks allformats. The problem is unfortunately happening to many users who are using the Panasonic (or LG) DVD-RAM drivers on their LG DVD-RAM burners.

A few questions:-

A user on the AV Forums has done some research and has suggested that this problem only seems to manifest itself on Panasonic E50, E65 and E85 DVD recorders. Does anybody know different?
I have read through all posts on both forums and can only find instances of this happening with Panasonic DVD-RAM discs. Does anybody know different?
Those LG burner/Panasonic DVDR who have suffered the problem with Panasonic DVD-RAM discs seem to have achieved success by then going on to use other (sometimes cheaper) media. Is this a general experience?

Steve

Kenshin 2005-01-17 01:41:39 UTC #16

@Steve999

Similar observations here though I've never had a Panasonic DVD-RAM media or a Panasonic DVD-RAM recorder. (Just read forum posts on DVD recording hardware site including CDFreaks.)

NDGAARONDI 2005-01-18 20:44:15 UTC #17

So using LG GSA-4163 and the E65 will result in the same undesired results?

Kenshin 2005-01-18 22:53:13 UTC #18

Doesn't InCD report what format the DVD-RAM uses? Like this:

keyster 2005-02-07 11:12:29 UTC #19

For what it's worth, I have the same problem with an LG 4120 drive, a panny E-85, and panny 3x ram disks moved between the two. After toasting three disks during the week by simply copying off VRO files to edit on the PC, and having one of my 'stop-up-channel to eject the disk' operations actually resetting the 85 and dumping the program guide, I was determined to find what specific operation caused the problem. So I spent about 5 hours with three new panny 3x disks moving files to the PC -- only I couldn't make the problem happen again [though I'm sure it will again when I don't have the time to look carefully]. So any definitive answers as to what LG is [apparently] doing to the panny disks [fiddling the cprm bit without knowing it?] I would be happy to know [and if anyone has any pull with LG, please try to convince them that they have a problem].

Kenshin 2005-02-07 18:18:07 UTC #20

Quite many people here seem to have Panasonic/Matsushita DVD-RAM recorders. Anybody has Hitachi DVD-RAM recorders/camcorders? LG and Samsung also sell some DVD recorders that also accept DVD-RAM but they are overpriced in South Korea. Panasonic and Hitachi DVD-RAM machines... just more so.

@keyster

It's Hitachi that makes the DVD-RAM part of HLDS DVD writers. LG is largely responsible for marketing/production. Hitachi is responsible for development/design. LG firmware flasher is also made by Hitachi in Japan. So... are Hitachi DVD-RAM recorders/camcorders compatible with Matsushita counterparts?

What about CPRM? What in CPRM bit is changed?