Why don DVD-RAM drives write to CD-R and CD-RW media?
Because of the cost/consumer benefit/reliability issue, the Forum chose not to add CD-R/CD-RW capabilities. They did, however, provide read capability to protect the user’s storage investment in older technology. To add this write capability would have required the addition of a second laser system in the drive. This would increase the cost to consumer and add to the complexity of the drive. Ultimately, the complexity becomes the driving issue and the costs must be passed along to the consumer. The price of today’s CD-RW drives are so low that buyers are better off buying CD-RW drives for low-capacity storage requirements and DVD-RAM for higher capacity /performance storage requirement. However, there is technically nothing to prohibit any manufacturer from adding the capability in the future.
