CDRLabs.com

12x DVD-RAM media won't be available in europe because of compatability problems (At least with TOshiba drives). Maxell the only manufacturer of this type of media has decided to not put them on the european market. Sales in japan will continue.


http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/77464


http://www.tsstorage.com/info_e/ram2e.html

I guess consumers in Europe are considered to be less technically savy than those in Japan eh? Makes me think of Plextor not releasing the 760SA in the US because they said people (including salespersons) could not distinguish between an IDE and SATA version of the same drive.

Maxell so far has decided not to bring it to North America either.... it's kind of sad since there are more and more drives coming out that support it!

Yeah, nearly half the drives announced in the past few months support 12x DVD-RAM. I might have to let a few drive manufacturers know about this. They won't be happy that the biggest feature on their new drives will be unusable.

I wonder if I can use my connections to get limited amounts of 12x DVD-RAM into Canada... maybe worth a shot?

This sounds a lot like the incompatibility early DVD-burners had with higher speed media. That was generally fixed with a firmware update.

The article at heise also says that Panasonic has no plans to sell 12x DVD-RAM in Europe either. So what's the point of offering drives that support it if the media won't be sold? And that because of Toshiba drives? - Frankly. I haven't seen many Toshiba burners here (don't know about DVD recorders though).

G

Hrm... Maxell Canada is checking to see if Maxell Japan will let me have 500 or so 12x DVD-RAM's to resell in North America

dolphinius_rex wrote:Hrm... Maxell Canada is checking to see if Maxell Japan will let me have 500 or so 12x DVD-RAM's to resell in North America

Ohh! I'll take a few!

These really need to come out over here...

me, me, as long as price isn't huge

I have *NO* idea what the pricing would be. But I suspect they have a few countries worth of product, and only one country officially able to buy it... so I might get a decent deal? ... or I might get Japanese pricing (very bad!), or I might not get any at all...

I'll post back if/when Maxell tells me something.

this sucks big time.
no 12x DVD-RAM for my LG
very upsetting.

dolph, would you know of an email of some Maxell rep that we could email complaining about this? maybe if they get enough complaints they'll change their decision ?

dolphin, if you do manage to get your hands on 12x DVD-RAM to resell, please advise, i'll be interested in a few (5 or so, maybe 10, depending on costs).

I'll take one or two. My GSA-H10N supports 12x DVD-RAM, and can easily be had here for like $40-45.

I'm trying to get my hands on 100 x 5pks... we'll see what happens.

I'd definitely be interested in a couple of packs to feed my H10L, as well!

dolphinius_rex wrote:I'm trying to get my hands on 100 x 5pks... we'll see what happens.

Any luck?

Maxell has not been talking to me a lot lately... I have been working on several media related projects with them, but it seems like they've stopped offering any kind of support or service to customers that aren't Futureshop/Bestbuy. Really it's quite sad.

That doesn't mean I've given up!!

Keep us up to speed on how it goes.

Spazmogen wrote:Keep us up to speed on how it goes.

Maxell promised me some answers this week.... but now they aren't returning my calls or e-mails....

If they actually come through, I'll be glad to buy two 5 packs from you...

Ok...

FINALLY got a hold of Maxell. My rep was out getting some training and his e-mail client upgraded, so he was pretty incommunicato for 3 days. I told him I half expected he'd turn up in a ditch somewhere... he told me he had been in Toronto... I could help but reply that Toronto COULD be compared to a ditch

On to the news:

Basically, it's not looking good... I'm going to have to make one last bid, this time to some higher ups. What I need from people here is to voice your interest in getting 5pks of the 12x DVD-RAM for use. Mentioning that you understand that it's new technology, and only works on specific DVD-RAM burners is a good idea also

dolphinius_rex wrote:What I need from people here is to voice your interest in getting 5pks of the 12x DVD-RAM for use. Mentioning that you understand that it's new technology, and only works on specific DVD-RAM burners is a good idea also

what do you mean by 'voice your interest' ?

dodecahedron wrote:

dolphinius_rex wrote:What I need from people here is to voice your interest in getting 5pks of the 12x DVD-RAM for use. Mentioning that you understand that it's new technology, and only works on specific DVD-RAM burners is a good idea also

what do you mean by 'voice your interest' ?

Make a post (in this thread) detailing your interest in the product. Whether or not you would buy some, why you think it's important to be available, maybe vent your frustrations about the decision to not bring it to most markets. That sort of thing.

Thank You dolphinius_rex for your efforts to get some 12X RAM imported into countries outside Japan.
Please add my name to your list of those who would buy this product if availlable. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area but would buy this if offered for sale online in the U.S.
It's a shame that I have two DVD writers capable of 12X DVD RAM and nothing to write to!

Any idea what the price would be? I'm definitely interested in at least 1 5-pack, maybe 2. I have an LG H10L that'll support it, and if I decide to keep it, I'll have an H22L as well.. they need to be fed with media they support!

I use DVD-RAM for data transfer and backups, so 12X would be a VERY nice speed bump.

(is it readable in ANY older drives, or is it pretty much only going to be on the drives that burned it? Like, would a Toshiba 1712 DVD-ROM have a chance? Or an LG 4163/5/7 series?)

I do think it's ridiculous there are drives on the market supporting a format that, for all intents and purposes, doesn't exist. I hope Maxell understands that there ARE people who understand what DVD-RAM is, why it is a great format, and that it DOES drive purchases. (I buy LG burners almost exclusively now due to official DVD-RAM support [no hacked firmware] and like I said, 12x would be a great thing to have)