computer dvd drives

Like most normal DVD-ROM's this drive does a nice job of playing DVDs at 16x, nothing special there, good seek times, and IBM's high standard for quality projects. However, one other thing this drive does well is read DVD-RAMs at 3x, an uncommon characteristic for many drives. I searched high and low for a DVD-RAM drive with a high read rate, and in some cases any drive that would read DVD-RAM. This was one of the few that I found that was above 1x, most are 1x or 2x and cost an arm and a leg, mainly due to the fact that they are recorders as well.
Now, most people don't care about reading DVD-RAM, but I found that it was extremely important if I wanted to transfer information off my Panasonic DVR-HS2, then transfer it to my computer for futher editing and burning to my multiplatform 4X drive.
The problem is the Panasonic DVR-HS2 will only record DVDs onto -R at 1x, and RAM at 3x. This means that if you have 20 hours of VHS to back up onto your DVR-HS2 harddrive, it will take you another 20 hours to burn it and a ton of DVD-R. But if you use the DVD-RAM option you can burn all of the info off in a third of the time, and you only need to use 1, that you can write over 1,000 of times. Once you get the info on the DVD-RAM then you can let the IBM drive read it into your computer, super fast, and transfer the information about anyway you would like.
The DVD-RAM option is probably not big to a lot of people, but for those who do possess a Panasonic DVR, or any other stand-alone DVR,it is a very wise option to have for your PC.