DVD is a format to store optical data. It is used as a storage medium for movies with very high video and sound quality. The DVD RAM or the DVD Read-And-Write Memory is a disk specification. The DVD Forum came up with it in 1996 and since 1998, DVD RAM has been used in computers, camcorders and personal video recorders. The name is a shortening of the words Read-And-Write Memory and not Random Access Memory. Thus the acronym can be misleading. This disk has many small rectangles on its surface. It has concentric tracks and is accessed like a usual floppy disk or hard drive.

DVD RAM is supported by Mac OS 8.6, Linux and Microsoft Windows XP. The earlier versions of Windows require device drivers or the program InCD. Though the optical drives shipped with the current Apple Macintosh computers do not support DVD RAM functions, a third party DVD RAM-compatible drive can be connected and used directly with Mac OS. It is a highly reliable format, as the disks have a built-in error control.

There are two specifications that are now available. DVD RAM 1.0 is a single-sided, one- layer disk with a capacity of 2.58 GB or a double-sided one-layer disk with a capacity of 5.16 GB. The DVD RAM 2.0 is a single-sided, one layer disk with a capacity of 4.7 GB.

These disks are being marketed by the RAM Promotion Group (RAMPRG), and they have on their list some of the best known companies: Hitachi, Toshiba, Maxell, LG Electronics, Matsushita/Panasonic, Samsung and Teac.

Originally DVD RAMs were sold in cartridges. The newer DVD recorders, however work with no-cartridge disks so today, a cartridge disk is about 50% more expensive than one without a cartridge.

There are many benefits of a DVD RAM. It has a long life, and the data can be retained for around 30 years. It can be rewritten a phenomenal 100,000 times and no special DVD burning software is needed. Small files can be quickly accessed and it can be used like a removable hard disk.